An excellent performance at Regionals last Saturday, Oct. 22 qualified the boys cross country team, in addition to senior Karynn Carroll, for the State Championship Meet. This qualification ends a four year long drought for the boys team.

The boys and girls varsity teams competed in the Shawnee Mission Northwest Regional along with Shawnee Mission East, Shawnee Mission West, Shawnee Mission North, Shawnee Mission Northwest, Olathe Northwest, Lawrence High School, and Wyandotte High School.

The requirements to run at the State meet are tough. To qualify as a team, the team must place in the top 3 out of eight teams. Individually, those who place in the top 10 automatically qualify, but individuals can also qualify by finishing in the top 5 runners who did not already qualify with their team.

The boys team qualified by placing 3rd overall, edging out Shawnee Mission North by only 1 point. The other teams that qualified were Shawnee Mission East, coming in first, and Shawnee Mission Northwest in second. Senior Mitch Brock lead the way finishing in sixth place followed by senior Ben Stophel in 12th, junior Cullom Stapp in 14th, freshman Mason Vick in 17th, and senior Jonas Price in 23rd. Juniors Marc Almloff and Harrison Polen also competed, but only the top five runners from each team count for points.

Carroll qualified for her third time by placing 13th. She was one of four girls outside of the top 10 who qualified as an individual. On the girls side, Shawnee Mission North, Shawnee Mission Northwest, and Olathe Northwest teams qualified, respectively.

You can catch the Raider Runner state qualifiers in action this Saturday, Oct. 29 at Rim Rock Farms, located just outside of Lawrence. Carroll will be running at 10:35 a.m., followed by the boys team at 12:20 p.m.