Overland Park — Free State High's boys cross country team placed first of five teams, while the Firebird girls notched second on Saturday at the Overland Park Aquinas Invitational.
Ariel Ludwig (school record 17:05), Aaron Paul (17:28), Jason Jenny (17:39) and Adam Brunfeldt (17:38) placed fourth through seventh respectively in the 5K race for Free State.
The Firebirds totaled 40 points to runner-up Overland Park Aquinas' 49.
"We are ahead of where we were last year by quite a bit," Free State coach Steve Heffernan said. "To have four guys under 18 minutes is great."
What's more, Ian McDonald, who placed 18th, cut 1:20 off his personal-best time. He finished in 18:15.
On the girls side, FSHS' Jackie DuBois (12:39) and Sarah Underwood (12:45) placed fifth and sixth respectively in the two-mile race, while Betsy Lee (12:55) notched 10th. The Firebirds placed second with 57 points to SM East's 39.
"I think it was an outstanding improvement," Heffernan said. "Last year I can't recall how much SM East finished ahead of us. It was a lot. We arrowed it to 18 in the first meet. We had only 40 seconds difference between our first and fifth runner."
The day's highlight? "Our girls C team placed third of 16 teams. We have five girls score who had never run cross country before," Heffernan said.
He also liked the fact the boys successfully defended their team title.
"Aquinas was better this year. We might have surprised them. It's a great start for our guys and the entire team," Heffernan said. "We are starting to run with teams like SM East and Aquinas. They are powerhouses. It's nice to be in the thick of things."
The teams travel to the Olathe South next Saturday.
Results in scoreboard.
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