photo by: John Young

Eudora's Reagan Hiebert (1683) and Riley Hiebert (1684) lead their team off the startling line while competing in the girls' varsity crimson race at the KU Invitational held Saturday morning at Rim Rock Farm.

Eudora High freshman Riley Hiebert was expecting it to be tough at the Rim Rock Farm Classic on Saturday, especially since it was her first time running the course.

But in her debut at the University of Kansas course, she surpassed her personal-best time by a minute with a mark of 20:07.6. In addition, her time was good enough to take home third place in the girls “Crimson” 5K. It was the highest finish of the day for any Cardinals runner.

“I did way better than I thought I was going to do,” Hiebert said. “My coach said that we would do about average, but I didn’t let that get to my head. I just fought through it.”

Eudora’s girls cross country team finished 22nd with no other runner outside of Hiebert medaling in that division, which was a testament to how tough the competition was against teams from several states.

Due to the tougher competition and the hilly course, Hiebert said she was eyeing to place in the top-25. Though she ended up exceeding her own expectations, Hiebert noted that the hills were still very tough.

The hills were daunting on all the runners Saturday morning including freshman Reagan Hiebert, who finished 44th with a time of 21:29.7. Afterward, she alluded to the inexperience on the course playing a part in her performance.

“I could have definitely done better, I just have to prepare more for those hills,” Reagan Hiebert said. “Next time I know to work on getting my knees up and working hard every week on that.”

No other girls on the Eudora team were able to crack the top 100 with senior Halle Norris placing 145th and senior Katelyn Ormsby taking 181st. On the boys’ side, sophomore Bobby Lounsbury posted the highest finish in 161st with a time of 18:58.4 and junior Noah Katzenmeier placed 183rd in 19:11.8.

As a team, the Eudora boys placed 38th.

“We had some good performances,” Eudora coach Paul Boone said. “It was challenging but our kids are pretty tough. Every race is a chance to improve on your toughness. This is a little warm for later in the season but kids have been running in it all week.”

Baldwin High had two runners finish in the top-100 in their respective races in the “Gold” division. On the girls’ side, sophomore Natalie Beiter clocked a time of 21:01.6 to finish 68th in the while sophomore Jacob Bailey finished 86th with a mark of 17:14.5, which was nine seconds faster than his time at Rim Rock last year.

photo by: John Young

Baldwin sophomore Natalie Beiter (1090) runs in a pack as she leaves the starting line of the girls' varsity gold race at the KU Invitational held Saturday morning at Rim Rock Farm.

Bailey pointed to his previous experience on the course having a positive affect this time around.

“It was a nice performance today,” Bailey. “It’s a lot more easy to pick out parts where I can just kick and move. I just have to keep improving, lower down my time and hopefully have a good State performance.”

As a team, the Baldwin girls placed 30th while the boys placed 41st.

“I thought we had a good meet for being in the Gold division,” Baldwin coach Mike Spielman said. “We are awfully young and we are learning. They are taking some hard knocks and it will pay off in the future for us.”

Rim Rock Farm Classic

Saturday at Rim Rock Farm

Girls “Gold” 5k

Team scores: St. James Academy 182, Blue Springs South 205, Pine Creek 209, St. Thomas Aquinas 234, Free State 238, Maize South 255, Blue Valley North 263, College Park 264, St. Joseph Central 309, Manhattan 311, Blue Springs 324, Park Hill South 336, Wichita East 340, Liberty North 350, Staley 357, Fayetteville 362, Liberty 376, Francis Howell 399, Shawnee Mission East 434, Platte County 491, St. Teresa’s 522, Lee’s Summit North 522, Lansing 535, Wichita North 590, Maize 625, Washburn Rural 626, Blue Valley 649, Blue Valley Southwest 689, Marquette 703, Baldwin 752, Norman North 775.

Baldwin results: 68. Natalie Beiter, 21:01.6; 152. Daelynn Anderson, 22:12.1; 162. Selena Silk, 22:27.0; 178. Taylor Cawley, 22:57.6; 192. Maiki Martinez, 23:25.2; 202. Cameryn Peterson, 24:15.6; 203. Savita Flory, 24:20.7.

Boys “Gold” 5K

Team scores: College Park 96, St. Thomas Aquinas 124, Blue Springs 203, Creighton Prep 226, Rockhurst 285, Liberty 286, Webb City 322, Manhattan 324, Mill Valley 327, Park Hill South 398, Dodge City 421, Shawnee Mission East 429, Fayetteville 430, Lee’s Summit North 445, Iowa City West 462, Maize South 503, Garden City 511, Legend 517, Marquette 518, Blue Valley Southwest 526, Omaha Westside 558, Kearney 577, St. James Academy 582, Staley 602, Blue Springs South 640, De Smet Jesuit 666, Maize 685, Washburn Rural 714, Wichita East 722, Free State 725, St. Joseph Central 743, Bishop Carroll 744, Parkway South 755, Blue Valley North 789, Blue Valley 814, Liberty North 826, Pine Creek 887, Norman North 905, Wichita North 960, Bishop McGuinness 1040, Baldwin 1105, Francis Howell 1120, Haysville-Campus 1126.

Baldwin results: 86. Jacob Bailey, 17:14.5; 176. Max Tuckfield, 18:02.8; 266. Henry Letner, 19:07.8; 287. Sam Schumann, 20:26.6; 290. Will Harvey, 20:49.5; 292. Hayden Burkhart, 21:16.2; 293. Riley Russell, 21:22.6.

Girls “Crimson” 5k

Team scores: Metro Christian 181, Nixa 183, Andover Central 230, Shawnee Mission West 243, Mill Valley 248, Rogers 286, Ankeny 288, Bishop Carroll 294, Blue Valley West 310, Valley Center 319, Garden City 362, Siloam Springs 362, Kearney 364, Leavenworth 374, Shawnee Heights 401, Wichita Northwest 475, Wichita Trinity 492, Eureka 496, Legend 498, Ladue Horton Watkins 512, Hays 530, Eudora 536, Joplin 541, Webb City 594, Parkway South 659, Junction City 669, Blue Valley Northwest 692, Gardner-Edgerton 695, Topeka Seaman 696, Lawrence 732, Derby 740, Andover 741, Haysville-Campus 785, Goddard Eisenhower 785, Atchison 865, Salina South 881, Parkview 982.

Eudora results: 3. Riley Hiebert, 20:07.6; 44. Reagan Hiebert, 21:29.7; 145. Halle Norris, 22:48.9; 181. Katelyn Ormsby, 23:14.1; 215. Lydia Brown, 23:48.1; 236. Melanie Reese, 24:18.5; 265. Taylor Schmidt, 26:18.6.

Boys “Gold” 5K

Team scores: Rogers 108, Olathe South 195, Carthage 197, Topeka Seaman 222, Great Bend 244, Andover 267, Ankeny 302, Platte County 332, Leavenworth 333, Nixa 345, Joplin 347, Eureka 354, Blue Valley West 374, Ladue Horton Watkins 390, Parkview 394, Andover Central 411, Wichita Trinity 425, Newton 431, Liberty 500, Gardner-Edgerton 608, Lexington 620, Hays 623, Kapaun Mt. Carmel 625, Lawrence 652, Blue Valley Northwest 660, Goddard Eisenhower 666, Junction City 713, Shawnee Mission West 724, Wichita Northwest 725, Derby 750, Emporia 770, Putnam City West 798, Oak Park 823, Salina South 829, Wichita South 887, Siloam Springs 906, Eudora 974, Topeka West 1044, Atchison 1145, Topeka 1173.

Eudora results: 161. Bobby Lounsbury, 18:58.4; 183. Noah Katzenmeier, 19:11.8; 191. Jordan Vonderbrink, 19:15.8; 236. Jerratt Bradley, 19:41.3; 268. Zan Martin, 20:32.5; 273. Jaegar Rokey, 20:39.3.