Rienbolt qualifies for State

OTTAWA -- Fort Scott High School sophomore Katren Rienbolt finished in sixth place at the Ottawa Class 4A Regional Cross Country Meet here Saturday to qualify as an at-large entry into this Saturday's Class 4A State Meet at Wamego.

Rienbolt, this year's Southeast Kansas League champion who had not competed in the sport prior to this season, turned in a time of 16 minutes, 34.96 seconds on the four-kilometer course at the Eisenhower Road Course. She was one of the five top runners from schools that did not qualify as a team.

Team qualifiers were Paola, Chanute and Pittsburg. As the top three finishers -- Paola with 41 points, Chanute 56 and Pittsburg 115 -- all of their runners qualify.

Jocelyn McMillen-Hale of Chanute, who finished third in the Southeast Kansas League Meet held at Iola October 13, was the Regional individual champion with a time of 16:10.29. Lauren Frederick of Paola was second in 16:12.78 followed by Paola's Katie Jo Kirk in 16:22.46. All three are sophomores.

Fourth place went to Junior Amanda Moody of Anderson County, who was the first at-large qualifier, in 16:27.15. Freshman Madison Dispensa of Chanute, who was the SEK runner-up, was fifth in 16:33.43.

The other at-large berths went to Micheala Ozier of Labette County, who was seventh in 16:35.56, Paige White of Baxter Springs, eighth in 16:38.00, and Kaylee Krull of Parsons, ninth in 17:03.40. All but White, who is a junior, are sophomores.

Senior Robert Sellers was the only other Tiger entered, finishing 27th in the 5K boys' race. His time was 19:33.51.

Labette County's Drew Baum was the individual champ in 16:54.87 with teammate David Geren right behind in 16:59.86 and Chanute's Trevor Summers third in 17:51.64. This was the same order in which they finished in the SEK Meet.

Chanute was the team champion with 64 points. LCHS was second with 65 and Paola was third with 69.

The at-large individual qualifiers are Carl Stinson of Independence, fifth in 18:05.65; Roman Yocham of Iola, seventh in 18:10.24; Jace Roy of Prairie View, eighth in 18:14.05; Trent Latta of Iola, 12th in 18:22.87; and Tyler Powleson of Iola, 14th in 18:31.33.