Rienbolt takes control of home race

Fort Scott's Katren Rienbolt keeps Labette County's Michaela Ozier in her sights during the girls' varsity race Thursday afternoon. Rienbolt passed Ozier in the final half of the 4,000-meter race and went on to win by about 28 1/2 seconds. (Kenny Felt/Special to the Tribune)

Katren Rienbolt dominated roughly the final 1,500 meters of the varsity 4-kilometer girls' varsity race of the Fort Scott Invitational Thursday afternoon and went on to beat Southeast Kansas League rival Michaela Ozier by over 28 seconds.

Rienbolt finished third in the season-opening meet last week at Labette County as Ozier won her home meet. Thursday, the junior Tiger determined that she was just going to run her own race.

And what a race it was.

Uniontown's Kelli Wilkinson finished 16th in the girls' varsity race, missing out on a medal by one position. (Kenny Felt/Special to the Tribune)

Starting practically side-by-side, Ozier took the early lead but Rienbolt managed to stay within a few strides. Then, on the second loop around the pond on the Mercy Professional Building grounds, Rienbolt passed Ozier and was several yards in front when they emerged from behind the trees along Horton Street.

Rienbolt went on to record a time of 16 minutes, 14.15 seconds. Ozier finished second in 16:42.71. They were the only two runners to complete the course in less than 18 minutes.

"Katren just ran really focused today," Fort Scott head coach Tracey Bogina said. "She said that she was just going to focus on herself and run her own race. And she didn't let anything get in the way and instead of forcing her run, that the run came to her. She ran a real quality race against a real quality competitor. I know she's very excited about the way she performed today."

Bogina's daughter, Kaylee of Northeast-Arma, finished in third place in 18:13.17, a little over 22 1/2 seconds better than her CNC League rival, Taylor Jameson of Frontenac.

Uniontown's Kelli Wilkinson finished 16th in 20:37.58, missing out on a medal by one spot. She and Rienbolt were their only school's runners.

Frontenac beat out LCHS for the team title, 23 points to 33. They were the only two schools with full teams.

Uniontown's Jonathan Wheeler finished the 5K boys' varsity race in 21:44.42, which placed 24th. There were no Fort Scott runners entered. Labette County's Drew Baum was the winner in 17:29.29, beating out teammate David Geren by nearly a minute and a half.

LCHS was the team champ with 25 points followed by Iola with 36, Prairie View 97, Frontenac 103 and Neodesha 104.

Grace Willis was Fort Scott's top finisher in the 4K girls' JV race, taking eighth in 21:16.70. Clare Gorman was 16th in 23:05.20 but was awarded the 15th place medal as the finish of another school's senior in the race was not counted. Kyle Brown was 22nd in 24:36.60.

Uniontown's Rachel DeMoss placed 12th in 21:52.40. Rachel Bellar of Howard-West Elk was the winner in 19:31.40, just 3/10ths of a second ahead of Oswego's Nikota Jurgensen.

Garrett Tatro finished 25th for the Tigers in the boys' 4K race in 18:43.60. Zach Ballou turned in a time of 20:50.20, which put him 50th in the 84-runner field. Uniontown did not enter anyone in the race.

Cord Hall of Labette County was the winner in 16:08.20 followed by Seth Chandler of Northeast in 16:16.50.

Both Fort Scott and Uniontown will take part in the Parsons meet next Thursday. The race will be held at Big Hill Lake near Cherryvale.