Rienbolt, Westhoff will be only SEK State runners

OTTAWA -- Fort Scott High School will have two girls in this Saturday's Class 4A State Cross Country Meet at Wamego as senior Katren Rienbolt, the defending State champion, and sophomore Cassidy Westhoff finished in the top 10 at the Ottawa Class 4A Regional Meet here Saturday. They'll be the Southeast Kansas League's representatives at Class 4A State.

Rienbolt turned in a time of 15 minutes, 46.12 seconds over four kilometers, finishing second in the race behind Girard freshman Callie Logue, who finished in 15:30.65.

Westhoff finished in 16:19.63 seconds to advance to State as the second of five runners who automatically qualify from schools which did not finish in the top three in team standings. Every member of the top three teams advance automatically.

The Tigers fell one spot shy of being one of those qualifying teams. Paola was the team champion with 41 points followed by Baldwin with 55 and Girard with 106. Fort Scott finished fourth with 130 points.

Grace Willis finished 25th for the Tigers, turning in a time of 18:16.13. Clare Gorman was 67th in 21:02.41. Mallory Westhoff finished 68th in 21:03.65 and Chelsie Monroe was 70th in 21:12.37.

This is the third time this season that Rienbolt and Logue have competed in the same race with the Girard runner winning each time. Those races were the season opener at Labette County on September 5 -- both runners have shaved two minutes off their times since then -- and the University of Kansas invitational at Rim Rock Farm on September 28. They finished 1-2 at LCHS and 1-4 at KU, with a runner from a private school in Missouri and one from Hillsboro coming in between.

Wyatt Stark was the only Tiger in the five-kilometer boys' race, finishing 36th in 19:48.42. Sophomore Dakota Helm of Baldwin was the winner in 17:16.65. No boys from any Southeast Kansas League school were able to advance to State in Class 4A.

Fort Scott's girls will compete at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The State finals for Classes 1A and 2A will be held in Wamego as well. Kaylee Bogina, daughter of Fort Scott head coach Tracey Bogina, will be competing in Class 2A. She qualified second from the Pleasanton Regional in a time of 14:53.13, about 6 1/2 seconds behind winner Aundrea Koger of Osage City.