By Staff

            HALSTEAD – On Thursday, the Smoky Valley cross country runners traveled to Halstead for the Halstead Invitational and came home with third-place finish plus four medalists for the girls and a fourth-place finish plus three medalists for the boys.

            In the Viking boys division, the team had 143 points to place fourth behind Southeast of Saline (19), Marion (78), and Hutchinson Trinity (82). There were fourteen teams total competing in the event.

            Senior Viking, Tytus Reed, had the top run for Smoky Valley as he finished fourth with a run of 17:11.32 while juniors Samuel Peterson and Brayden Eyer also medaled by finishing fourteenth and fifteenth, respectively. The five Viking boys who scored team points finished in the top 56 of 102 runners total.

            For the Lady Viking harriers, they finished third in the team standings with 87 points, while Circle also had 87 points, Smoky Valley girls had higher ranked finishes than Circle did.

            Southeast of Saline also won the girls division with 56 points while Cheney was runner-up with 79. Eleven teams competed.

            Four of the five Lady Vikings scoring points medaled with junior Keira Mullen having the best day with an eighth-place finish, running 20:54.06. Freshman Hope Willems placed 12th, sophomore Sophia Fruits was 17th, and senior Taylor Helton ran 20th. The girls division had 76 runners competing.

            Next up for the Viking cross country program will be on Tuesday, October 4 at Ellsworth.

SMOKY VALLEY VIKING CROSS COUNTRY at Halstead Invitational

VIKING BOYS RESULTS:

Team Standings: 1. Southeast of Saline – 19; 2. Marion – 78; 3. Hutchinson Trinity – 82; 4. VIKINGS – 143; 5. Goddard – 149; 6. Halstead – 199; 7. Wellington – 204; 8. Ellinwood – 219; 9. Haven – 233; 10. Clearwater – 266; 11. Wichita Classical – 271; 12. Belle Plaine – 302; 13. Peabody/Burns – 319; 14. Pretty Prairie – 321.

VIKING BOYS:

6. Tytus Reed, senior – 17:11.32

14. Samuel Peterson, junior – 18:11.95

15. Brayden Eyer, junior – 18:12.80

52. Kaden Bishop, freshman – 20:15.74

56. Sebastian Pavlovich, junior – 20:21.22

(67). Elijah Spooner, sophomore – 20:48.04

LADY VIKING RESULTS:

Team Standings: 1. Southeast of Saline – 56; 2. Cheney – 79; 3. LADY VIKINGS – 87; 4. Circle – 87; 5. Pretty Prairie – 177; 6. Clearwater – 179; 7. Hutchinson Trinity – 182; 8. Halstead – 184; 9. Wichita Classical – 188; 10. Douglass – 195; 11. Ellinwood – 277.

LADY VIKING INDIVIDUAL RESULTS:

8. Keira Mullen, junior – 20:54.06

12. Hope Willems, freshman – 21:39.22

17. Sophia Fruits, sophomore – 22:27.93

20. Taylor Helton, senior – 22:39.26

30. Adrien Lochard, senior – 23:24.24

(32). Gracia Peterson, freshman – 23:25.77

(48). Mila Sims, freshman – 25:06.67

(The Staff covering McPherson County Activities can be reached by email at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)