Marcus Calleja

Liberal cross country ran their last meet of the season in Lawrence this weekend at Rim Rock where the 6A State Championships were located. The LHS girls were able to qualify the entire team while the boys were able to qualify 3 individuals.

The girls were led by senior Daniela Cerda who has qualified for the state meet every year since she was a freshman. She would finish in 25th place with a time of 19:42.70 which was her personal best and is the fastest time ever ran at the state meet by a Liberal girl. She will finish her LHS career as the 2nd fastest girl in LHS history. The second girl runner to come through would be Junior Janaya Devorce who would finish in the top 50 coming in at 40th place with a time of 20:23 which was 5 seconds off her personal best that she set last week. The girls team would run a total team average of 21:28 which had them placing 10th overall as a team finishing right behind Blue Valley Northwest and beating Dodge City and Garden City.

The boy individuals would all be seniors racing their last race of their high school career. Leading the way would be MJ Foster where he would improve on his time from a year ago where he ran 16:10. This year he would break the top 20 again running a life time best of 16:08.50 coming in at 18th place as claming All-State honors. Senior Cesar Pavia would finish right behind him just missing the podium with a time of 16:21.10 finishing 21st. Foster and Pavia will finish their LHS careers as the 2 fastest runners in LHS history. The last senior Beto Torres would round out the seniors finishing with a time of 17:38.10 in his first season of running cross country.