EudoraNews.com

You won't find coach Paul Boone complaining about the way the cross country season ended last Saturday.

Sure, Boone had hoped to get a few runners heck, at least one runner through the regionals in Ottawa and onto Saturday's Kansas Class 4A meet in Wamego, but it wasn't meant to be.

"We finished where I thought we would finish," Boone said. "The goal is always to qualify athletes for the state meet and it's disappointing when you don't, but I'm real pleased with the development of our young runners.

Eudora High junior Sarah Katzfey (249) and senior Carolyn Jones (250) stick together as they race toward the finish line at the Kansas 4A regional cross country meet.

"They got a taste this year for what running varsity is like."

And, Boone said, with continued improvement, the lumps the young runners endured this year will prove to be a positive.

"The experiences they had this year running as freshment on the varsity in tough conditions will definitely help this kids if they approach it in the right way, which they have."

Boone said the real development will take place in the offseason between now and March when the track season begins.

"They need to add mileage between now and March," he said. "The offseason is so much more important for a distance runner than it is for a sprinter."

Building a mindset where running is a part of a student's daily routine is the goal.

Athletes need to come into the fall workouts ready for the cross country season ready to run without having to first get themselves in shape, Boone said.If these Cardinals can take on that mindset, the talent is in place, the coach said, for the program to flourish as it did in the early 1990s when it won a state championship.

Running in Ottawa proved to be a challenge for the Cardinals, who struggled on perhaps the mosty hilly course in Kansas.

"I'd say it might have been the most difficult course in Kansas because of the hills and where the hills hit you. They were long and steep."

As a result, the Eudora girls team finished fifth, while the boys team was eighth.

Estelle Montgomery was Eudora's highest finisher. She ran a 14:46 to take 20th place. Jill Abel was 22nd, while Sarah Katzfey was 35th. Carolyn Jones, Rhiannon Tiner and Melissa Steel were 38th, 39th and 49th, respectively.

In the boys competition, no Cardinals were near the front of the pack where Baldwin's Matt Noonan outdistanced Mill Valley junior Griffin Lee to win the race.

Freshman James Barr was 32nd with a time of 19:55. Senior Sean Mullis was 35th, while Jeff Jones was 48th and Daniel Chrislip 51st. Austin Roberts and Iam Mater were 57th and 67th, respectively.