By Jake Hasenauer - NPHS Cross Country
It was a great day for racing in Kearney, Nebraska this afternoon. Lots of great runners from across the state all hungry for a chance to compete. I was very proud of how our teams battled today against some very tough competition. Our word of the week has been fearless and our runners showed a lot of heart today.
Our boys finished 5th as a team losing to four schools all ranked in the top 10 of the state. Today was a great learning experience for the boys. We learned a lot about ourselves, what we can do better, and competed hard against some very tough schools. We talked a lot about success versus winning. You can have a successful day and still come up short. Our top 7 boys all ran the fastest they ever had at this meet, so that was a huge success.
The boys were led by a strong performance from Evan Caudy. Evan took off and ran in third place the first mile and worked his way up. Him and Juan Garcia battled it out the final two miles. In the end, Evan came home with the championship winning in an impressive time of 16:01. This is the first time a North Platte runner has won the UNK invite since Brady McGuire in 2009. I was very proud of Evan. He battled hard and showed a lot of heart today. He ran 18 seconds faster than he did a state on this course a year ago. Also medaling for the boys was Jonah San Miguel in 19th place.
Our girls really stepped up and competed today. Three of the schools were ranked in the top 9 and the Bulldogs knocked off one of them for a 3rd place finish today and were only 13 points off of second! That was the best I’ve seen the girls race this year. I told the girls we needed to tell ourselves, “I can, I will, I must”. One of my favorite parts of the race today was when Evelyn Blaesi was coming up one of the hills and she was saying, “I can, I can, I can”. The girls came home with 3 medals today, Zarah Blaesi 4th, Nelia Rivas 8th, Evelyn Blaesi 14th, and Lexi Hoatson finished just outside the top 20 in 21st place.
It was a good day for the Bulldogs! Our Varsity boys will race in Sidney next Thursday and our varsity girls will race this Thursday in Gothenburg.