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Inspired Wells of Wichita Co. wins regional meet just days after grandfather's death
Published 10/26/2009 in Prep-Main
By BRETT MARSHALL
bmarshall@gctelegram.com
MEADE -- In all of sport, human emotion plays a large role in the success or failure of individuals or teams.
Such was the case Saturday afternoon during the Class 2A regional cross country meet for freshman Paige Wells of Wichita County and her Lady Indians' teammates.
Wells, running with inspiration to perform for her recently-deceased grandfather, Bob Wiles, captured the individual title and led the Lady Indians to the team title and earned spots in the upcoming state cross country meet at Wamego Country Club on Saturday.
Wiles, 61, died Wednesday in a farming accident and his funeral was held in Leoti on Friday.
"It just feels awesome to win, I'm so surprised," a tear-filled Wells said minutes after winning with a time of 16:49.94 and a nearly 10-second victory over Meade's Michaela Golliher (16:59.056). "I ran for my grandpa, he would have been here watching me, but he was here, I know he was. I could feel him every step of the way."
The victory was even sweeter as Wells' performance paced her young team to the team title as another freshman, Nicole Huber, placed fifth with a time of 17:36.72 over the 4-kilometer, hilly Meade Golf Club layout.
"The race felt good, I never felt that I was running out of energy," Wells said after getting a big hug from her grandmother, Ann Wiles, her parents Jason and Gwen and a bevy of other family, friends and teammates. "I think I got the lead somewhere with about a half-mile left to run and just ran as hard as I could. I'm just so excited, this is what I really wanted for him (grandpa)."
For Wichita County coach Shad Mehl, the individual and team victory was a goal finally attained with such a youthful squad.
"We've been talking about the team aspect all season and I think the girls finally did what was needed and I'm just very pleased," Mehl said of his team that is comprised of the two freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors. "I didn't know how Paige would respond, but she ran determined and was just unstoppable today. She was just confident from the gun that she'd run well. It was a combination of preparation, motivation and inspiration."
The Lady Indians finished with 42 points while Stanton County, one of its Hi-Plains League rivals, was second with 56 points. Meade took the third team qualifying spot with 58 points.
Elkhart's Lauren Carter was third in a time of 16:59.45 as her and Golliher finished in a near dead heat. Patty Perez of Stanton County was fourth in 17:29.05.
On the boys side of the competition in 2A, Stanton County's Eric Ruth led the Trojans back to Wamego with an individual title and his team capturing first place as well with 46 points to finish ahead of Hutchinson-Trinity's 53 points. Goessel placed third with 58 points.
Ruth's winning time of 17:43.04 was 2.53 seconds faster than runner-up Mark Sutton of Oxford. Ruth, though, was cruising over the final half-mile to easily garner the victory. He had broken free from Sutton, Jared Reimer of Goessel (third in 17:55.44) and Gunner Cordes of Meade (fourth in 18:03.94) at about the 2.5 mile mark.
"This feels good but it really only gets us to our next goal and that's state," Ruth said. "Winning here is nice but I don't know if it gives me a lot of extra confidence because I know how good the guys back east are and I haven't seen them run all year. But I'm looking forward to it, to see how we do. It (Wamego Country Club) is such a tough course, very hilly, we'll just have to see how it goes."
Two of his teammates -- Cameron Carruth and Bret Gum -- finished ninth and 10th to help the Trojans along to the team title.
Trojan coach Mike Horton was pleased with the effort of his entire squad.
"We really ran good on the girls side," Horton said. "We've had a little illness and we didn't run as well as we could have, but we hope we still have our best race ahead of us. It was an awesome performance by the boys and our second, third and fourth runners all stepped up. To get three in the top 10 is a big lift for us."
In the Class 1A girls race, South Gray's Kayla Thomas powered her way to the individual title and heads back to Wamego with a goal to improve on her fifth-place finish of a year ago. She dominated Saturday's race, winning in a time of 17:14.88, just over 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Chelsey Swim of Pratt-Skyline.
"The weather was awesome and I've run this course a lot and it really gets you ready for Wamego," Thomas said. "It's a good warm-up. I thought maybe I took off too fast and perhaps wore myself out early, but I didn't really get tired."
It was just about at the mile marker where Thomas moved out in front of the pack and then never looked back.
"I picked it up again with a half-mile to go and just wanted to finish strong," Thomas said. "I think everyone that finished ahead of me last year (at state) is back again so I know it will be a tough race."
For the 1A boys, it was all Ingalls as junior Kaleb Batman and freshman Slade Lowen led the Bulldogs by placing fourth and fifth with times of 18:35.87 and 18:40.37 in helping them to a team score of 20 points. Senior Marty Wendel (16th in 20:28.79) and sophomore Jerry Penner (20:29.20) comprised the four runners who scored for coach Steve Thompson. South Gray's boys were a distant second with 46 points and also qualified for Wamego.
At Wamego on Saturday, Class 2A girls will run first at 9 a.m. and the 1A girls follow at 9:30 a.m. The 2A boys race is set for 10 a.m. and the 1A boys at 10:30.
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