Baldwin ? Free State High senior Gabe Moss didn’t just have to battle the strong winds Saturday at the Community America Invite, he also had to battle his body while suffering from a bout of the flu.

Moss delivered, finishing seventh in a time of 17 minutes, 29 seconds, and helping the Firebirds finish second behind Shawnee Mission West in the boys’ 5K cross country meet.

“Times were slow but everyone competed well on the team,” Moss said. “It was all about racing today and not about times.”

The wind shifted throughout the race, causing runners to deal more with the weather conditions than the course.

“It must be pretty tough because this is one of the fastest courses that we run on, and these are the slowest times we have run, so the wind must be really brutal,” Free State coach Steve Heffernan said.

Moss has matured this season, and Heffernan said it was visible Saturday.

“Every day you can’t be feeling great when you line up, so you have to kind of compete with what you have,” Heffernan said about Moss dealing with his illness. “I think he really did that today. A year ago he would not have done that. He probably would have given up real early.”

Free State finished 11 points back of Shawnee Mission West, but also got solid performances from seniors Jake Jordan and Brian Leatherwood, who finished 12th and 16th, respectively.

Baldwin’s Chris Elniff won the boys race in a time of 17:04.

Heffernan thought his boys gave more effort this week compared to last week’s performance at Emporia.

“Last week we didn’t compete really well so that is what we focused on all week,” Heffernan said. “It was not so much where we placed but making sure that we got a great effort out of ourselves. The times really don’t reflect much, but during the race I saw them run very, very well.”

Baldwin junior Heather Garcia won the girls’ 4k run, and the rest of the competition probably wished she still had the broken arm that forced her out of the race last season.

Garcia dominated the field with a time of 14:56, winning by 18 seconds and helping the Bulldogs to a first-place team finish.

“I didn’t really know what to expect because I have never run the full way through the course,” Garcia said. “We were just trying to pack up and move to the top. It is good to know that we are improving more.”

Free State lost its top girls runner, Kyra Kilwein, during the race when she fainted. Without Kilwein, the Firebirds finished sixth in the seven-team meet.

“Kyra is a very tough competitor; that’s part of the reason she went down,” Heffernan said. “She ran herself very hard. The rest of the girls really competed well. Once we get Kyra back to full steam I really like our chances.”

Heffernan was not concerned with the girls’ team finish, hoping to build on this to help the team later in the season.

“This time of year the only thing we are talking about is competing so the more adversity we face now, helps give us more confidence later on,” Heffernan said.

Results

Girls 4k Run

1. Baldwin 53

2. Shawnee Mission South 57

3. SM East 76

4. Shawnee Mission Northwest 87

5. Blue Valley 112

6. Free State 118

7. Aquinas 185

Individual results

1. Heather Garcia, Baldwin, 14:56

2. Lisa Imgrund, Shawnee Mission Northwest 15:39

3. Kristen Gillespie, Shawnee Mission South 15:44

4. Lindsay Brown, Shawnee Mission South, 15:48

5. Haley Beggs, Shawnee Mission South, 16:06

6. Kelsey Verhaeghe, Baldwin, 16:10

7. Devin Wiegers, Blue Valley 16:39

8. Alyssa LUker, Blue Valley, 16:40

9. Allie Marquis, Shawnee Mission East, 16:40

10. Mallory Kirby, Shawnee Mission East, 16:48

Boys 5k Run

1. Shawnee Mission West, 73

2. Free State, 84

3. Baldwin, 89

4. Kansas City Christian, 95

5. Shawnee Mission East, 108

6. Shawnee Mission Northwst, 147

7. Shawnee Mission South, 149

8. Blue Valley, 184

9. Aquinas, 186

Individual Results

1. Chris Elniff, Baldwin, 17:04

2. James McDermott, KC Christian, 17:14

3. Jimmy Ward, Shawnee Mission West, 17:17

4. Danny Souka, KC Christian, 17:20

5. Peter Reisz, Shawnee Mission East, 17:27

6. Jon Sanell, Shawnee Mission South, 17:28

7. Gabe Moss, Free State, 17:29

8. Keaton Jones, Shawnee Mission Northwest, 17:38

9. Caj Kueffer, Baldwin, 17:49

10. Aaron Karlin, Baldwin, 17:53