LHS Girls Second and Boys Third at Hugoton
Brock Kappelmann - September 18, 2017 6:48 am
The Liberal Redskin cross country teams competed in one of the largest cross country meets in
Western Kansas when they traveled to Hugoton on Saturday. Twenty-six teams from Kansas, Colorado,
Oklahoma, and Texas ran in the Hugoton Invitational. Throughout the morning, the meet runs a fun run,7th
grade boys’ and girls’ races, 8th grade boys’ and girls’ races, boys’ varsity and JV races, and girls’ varsity
and JV races. All high school races were a 5K, 3.1 miles in length.
The Liberal JV girls got the team win getting all five girls in the top ten of the race. The girls were
led by Gisselle Melendez who placed 2nd, Kim Alacron in 3rd, Tania Minjarez in 4th, Erika Valverde in 7th,
and Esmeralda Gutierrez in 9th place.
The boys’ JV team placed second place behind Hugoton. Three boys placed in the top ten of the
race with Cory Nguyen finishing in 2nd place, Aaron Venegas 3rd place, and Aaron Barbosa in 7th place.
The varsity girls who were coming into the meet as the defending champions, but graduated 4 of
the 7 runners from last year’s team. The girls were led once again by Katie Horyna who won her third
consecutive race. Horyna had competition for the first two miles, but then she ran away from the field in
the final mile winning the race by 39 seconds with a time of 20:16. Kelsey Ramsey and Audrey Gilmore
were the next two Redskins to finish the course both running lifetime personal best times to finish 7th and 8th
in 21:19 and 21:21. Ali Lucero and Alondra Alvarado completed the course in 22:14 and 22:15 to finish 18th
and 19th. Reece Hay was the 6th runner for the Redskins coming in as the 21st runner of the race with a time
of 22:39. Reyn Slatten, making her varsity debut this season, ran a time of 23:38 to place 30th. Scott City won
the meet with a score of 38 points, Liberal placed 2nd with 47, and the
defending state champions, the Hugoton Eagles, placed third with 95 points.
The boys’ team was led by the duo of Xavier Perez and Javier Carrillo who both crossed the line
in 17:29 to place 8thand 9th. Antonio Borunda placed 15thfor the day running a time of 18:00. Alex
Lopez was the fastest freshman in the race, running the course in 18:16 to crack the top twenty in 19th
place. Fausto Parrall’s time of 18:25 was good enough for 21stplace. Joel Obando and Josh Diazdeleon were 24th
and 27th in the race with times of 18:46 and 18:57. The defending state champion Hugoton
Eagles showed why they are favorites to repeat again this year, winning the meet with 53 points. Lamar,
Colorado had a team score right behind Hugoton. The Redskins had the third best team score with 68
points.
The varsity cross country teams will take the trip next Saturday to the famed Rim Rock Farms
cross country course hosted by the University of Kansas. Saturday’s meet is one of the largest high
school meets ran in the Midwest with over 100 schools from six different states coming together to
compete.