When Adam Perkins picked up the pace, Dylan McClain tried going with him but didn’t have enough gas in the tank.

“I was trying to stay with the leader,” McClain said. “About a mile and a half in he just changed gears and took off. I was the only one who tried to go with him, but he’s probably the top miler in the country.”

Runners from Lawrence High School, round the first corner of the 2 mile run at Rim Rock on Saturday. The cross country event drew nearly 1,800 high schoolers from the Mid-West.

The Lawrence High senior, trying to stay with Liberty High’s Perkins, the No. 4 ranked harrier in the U.S., fainted on the Billy Mills ascent, about 1,000 meters from the finish line at Saturday’s Rim Rock Farm High School Cross Country Classic. He fell from second place, finishing 16th overall in the 5K race at 16:45.

McClain, second in the Kansas 6A state meet last year at Rim Rock, had to deal with another disappointing finish on the course.

“It doesn’t taste good, but I have to learn something from it,” McClain said. “I’m just really disappointed with the results.”

McClain said he took some asthma medicine before the race because he was having trouble breathing. Once he hit the ascent, the trouble started again.

He wasn’t the only struggling Lawrence runner.

Free State freshman Alysha Valencia started fast third after about 1,200 meters but faded when the hills started and finished 10th in the 4K race, running 15:44.

“I just kind of wished I would’ve learned to do hills before this. That would’ve helped,” she said.

An estimated 1800 boys and girls from 86 high schools take part in the Jayhawk Invitational held at Rim Rock on Saturday. The event drew high schoolers from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

Still, it was Valencia’s third-ever cross country race, and she became just the second Firebird ever to medal at Rim Rock.

She led the FSHS girls to a 13th-place finish, while LHS was one spot back. On the boys’ side, LHS was eighth and FSHS took 13th.

Jenks, Okla., won the girls’ title, and Liberty won the boys’.

The Lions’ Andy Struble notched 22nd, while Free State’s top two boys were Adrian Ludwig (26) and Hiral Bhakta (47).

Both FSHS coach Steve Heffernan and LHS coach Dick Reamon stressed it was tough to gauge their team’s performances’ because of the size of the meet and the sheer number of out-of-state schools in attendance. After all, come state, few of these teams will be relevant.

“The only thing we can really do is compare with other Kansas schools,” Heffernan said.