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Soucie 9th In Garnett PDF Print E-mail
Sports
Written by David Wolman   
Wednesday, 09 September 2009 07:00
Brendan Soucie wasn’t able to hold on to the lead he had worked hard to build, but his time of 18 minutes, 16.16 seconds, which earned him ninth place in the fifth annual Jerry Howarter Invitational on Thursday at Garnett Country Club, offered a glimpse of how good he can be this season — if the success he experienced a year ago wasn’t already great. That time was only 12 seconds off his mark at the Class 4A regional meet a year ago, in which he qualified for state for the first time. And his coach believes his time will only improve as the season progresses.

“Brendan is in very good shape this year,” Osawatomie coach Amber Campbell said, “and I knew that he was going to be able to run faster this year compared to last year. I know his times will continue to fall as he becomes a stronger runner during his second mile.”

Early on, it appeared Soucie was going to run away with the victory. He passed an opposing runner in the first half-mile and subsequently built a significant lead. A pack of runners, however, caught up to him in the second mile and overtook him for good.

Baldwin’s Tony Weiss and Brian Wright made for a two-man race. They sprinted up the final hill side-by-side, with Weiss edging out his Bulldog teammate. Weiss won in a staggering time of 18:18.79, while Wright was only one second off that mark.

Soucie did have enough energy left to sprint past DeSoto’s Ben Burweger on the final hill.
“17:18 is pretty fast for this early,” Campbell said. “However, every race is a new race with new conditions, courses and training. Cross country is very unique because no course is exactly the same, so a runner’s time will vary from week to week and that is an awesome thing, because you always have a ‘new’ or ‘fresh’ start with that meet.”

Dustin Kueser also got in the medals, handed out to the top 30 finishers, placing 21st in 19:03.54. It was nearly a 40-second improvement from his time at the same meet a year ago.

“Dustin is a very versatile runner also,” Campbell said. “He has the inner drive as well to push himself and the success he has had in the past and what we have done as team keeps him motivated.”

Cody Applegarth placed 57th in 21:19.02 in his first career high school cross country meet. Luke Billingsley was 61st in 21:28.48 and Michael Del Valle was 67th in 22:18.05.

Osawatomie finished 10th in the boys’ team standings with 198 points. De Soto and Baldwin made for a two-team battle at the top. De Soto finished with 40 points to win the boys’ title, while Baldwin was second with 46.

“The boys did a great job,” Campbell said. “We had a couple new kids that were nervous and veterans that had that first race jitters or nerves, but I thought they did an excellent job. I always let the kids go out and do their first race on their own. They need to see what they can do and then they will be in a position to understand me better when I start talking race strategies.”

On the girls’ side, Tabitha Keast, Julia Dorsett, Natalia Diediker and Crystal Firley each improved their times by over a minute from a year ago. Keast was 53rd in 22:50, Dorsett was 55th in 23:16.63, Diediker was 57th in 24:02.79 and Firley was 59th in 24:34.97. Morgan Pope, who was competing in her first career high school cross country race, was 54th in 23:07.92.

Osawatomie was eighth in the girls’ standings with 242 points. Like the boys’ race, Baldwin and De Soto battled it out for the team title. Baldwin, with 33 points, won the girls’ title, while De Soto was second with 48.

“I thought the girls did a great job,” Campbell said. “They all looked very strong while running.”

Rebecca Fisher placed 34th in the girls’ 4-kilometer junior varsity run in 22:26.43.

Nervousness struck Grant Maimer before the start of the boys’ freshmen 4-kilometer run, but by the time he crossed the finish line he was one cool customer. One happy one, too. He placed fourth in 16:44.04, in the process earning a medal, which were handed out to the top 10 finishers.

“Grant was very nervous before the race and I just told him to go out and run,” Campbell said. “During the race I just told him to relax and run. He did a great job of not letting that front group get away from him and he was able to have a very strong finish.”

Shay Neal was 18th in 19:12.95.

Osawatomie returns to action at 4 p.m. Thursday at Santa Fe Trail in Carbondale.
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