FSHS girls eye state cross country title

Free State High’s girls cross country team won nearly every regular-season race last season and finished second at the state meet.

This year, the Firebirds feature a new lineup, with five runners who will make their Class 6A state-meet debut at 11:30 a.m. today at Rim Rock Farm, but their potential remains the same.

The Firebirds took second at their regional last week, placing juniors Emily Venters and Kiran Cordes inside of the top six. Venters won individual state championships in her first two seasons and is looking to become just the eighth girl to win three state titles.

“This is a different group than we’ve had in the past few years,” FSHS coach Steve Heffernan said. “Our thing would to be to get out there and run well. If we run well, we’ll have a chance to win. This is probably one of the years where I can’t look in to the top five teams and go, ‘Wow, if they run well, no one can beat them.’ I mean, we are really close.”

The Firebirds have three freshmen, Julia Larkin, Sarah Walpole and Emma Hertig, along with junior Abigail Zenger and sophomore Kate Odgers new to the varsity lineup. It’s the first time Zenger has run cross country in her high school career.

“I’ve been doing track,” Zenger said. “I love to run, so I just wanted to get better at it, and I thought it would help improve my track times, also.”

Lawrence High’s only state qualifier, freshman Morgan Jones, had to wait about 30 minutes after her regional race to find out she took the last spot for an individual on a team that didn’t qualify for state.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Jones said. “I’m really excited about it. I didn’t know if I was going to make it, so making it was pretty exciting.”

Free State’s boys cross country team took second place at its regional, with seniors Ethan Donley and Tanner Hockenbury, along with sophomore Avant Edwards placing in the top 10.

The Firebirds will run in the boys’ race at 1:45 p.m.

They hope a strong day can help them into the top eight in the team standings, especially with such a young lineup including Edwards, sophomore Jared Hicks, freshman Grant Holmes, and juniors William Benkelman and Joshua Waisner.

“I have a good amount (of confidence),” said Edwards, who wants to run around 16:30 to set a personal record. “It’s my first time (at state), so I just want to see how it is and do my best for the team.”

Heffernan added: “A year ago, we graduated everybody but basically Ethan and Tanner. Then we had some guys coming back. I really thought if we could even get back to state, that would be great.”