2019 Class 3A, 2A and 1A State Cross Country
Three Jackson County-area cross-country runners from Jackson Heights and Wetmore high schools traveled to the Wamego Country Club on Saturday, Nov. 3, in hopes of bringing home three individual medals from the state cross-country championship meet for Class 1A, 2A and 4A runners — and they did.
Jackson Heights sophomore Daniel Little finished in the top 10 for the second straight year, taking fourth place in the Class 2A boys race with a time of 17:06.89, while Little’s classmate, Annie Allen, finished in 18th place in the Class 2A girls race with a time of 21:19.4.
And in the Class 1A boys race, Wetmore sophomore Rasmus Nielsen came in 13th with a time of 18:03. All runners finishing in the top 20 at the state meet earn medals, it was reported.
Considering Little’s finish, Jackson Heights head cross-country coach Brad Alley noted that Little, who finished first in every other race he competed in this season, was “disappointed” with his fourth-place run.
“He set a pretty high expectation for himself,” Coach Alley said of Little, who finished ninth in last year’s state meet. “But it doesn’t take away what he’s done the rest of this season and what he’s done to this point.”
Alley also expressed pride in Allen’s run, noting that she had sat out a large chunk of the 2019 cross-country season, dealing with a hip injury.
“It was a struggle all year just to get her to this point,” Alley said of Allen, also in her second year of competing at the state level. “But I couldn’t be happier with the way she finished the year. Our goal was to get her a medal, and that’s what we did.”
In other state cross-country action, Atchison County Community High School senior Victoria Caplinger closed out her high school cross-country career with a 22:32.6 run and a 51st-place finish in the Class 3A girls race at Rim Rock Farm near Lawrence.
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