CCS XC hosts home invite Thursday

The Chase County cross country teams prepared for their home invite with a strong showing at the Cambridge Invite Friday.
The Longhorns benefited from a morning meet once more, running in temperatures around 85 degrees for their first 5,000-meter race of the year.
Head Coach Carl Zuege said he thought the times were really good considering the conditions and the fact that this was Chase County’s first 5K of the season.
“Cambridge is not traditionally a particularly fast course, so for our times to be where they were, it was a really good sign that our fitness levels are pretty good,” he continued.
Haven Hauxwell won the boys’ title with a personal best of 17:24. 06.
“We are watching Haven blow up as a runner right before our eyes. His time of 17:24 on that course puts him right at the top of our district, and he did it on a course that is not particularly fast. I love where Haven is right now, and he is only going to continue to get stronger as this season rolls on,” Zuege said.
With a fifth-place finish by Navy Smith and sixth-place finish from Brayan Reyes, the Longhorns took the team title as well.
Andrew Wiest also finished in the top 10 with an eighth place finish.
Trevin Moreno was in third place at the 1.5 mile mark, but twisted an ankle and finished 11th overall.
“He was able to tough out the race and still finish in the medals, but he was certainly hurting when he finished,” Zuege said.
Pieces of the puzzle are falling into place for the Longhorns as maturity, experience and training all come together.
Zuege said the biggest thing that stands out to him is that the upperclassmen have worked incredibly hard to get where they are, and they are motivated as a group to continue to improve.
“These guys just enjoy being around each other, and now they are pulling some of our younger guys into the fold, and that is how a program is really built,” Zuege said, pointing out that guys like Smith and Wiest were at every 6:15 a.m. workout this summer, then went home and often times ran some more that evening, as well as doing their strength workouts in the weight room with Coach Dreiling.
“These guys deserve the success that I think is coming their way this season,” Zuege added.
Tessa Smith and Esmeralda Lopez finished as medalists for the second meet in a row.
Smith knocked nearly a minute off her personal best on her way to seventh place.
Lopez finished 10th in her first 5,000-meter race at CCS. Lopez ran for St. Francis, Kansas last season.
“Both of those girls moved up around seven to eight places during the second half of the race, which tells me that they are running with great pace and understanding the 5K distance pretty well,” Zuege said.
Paige Nickless and Faith Hauxwell also ran for CCS and gave the Longhorns the runners need to finish fourth in the team race.
“With only four girls on the team, there is a lot of pressure on these girls each week since they have no safety net to fall back on, so I really appreciate their efforts every race,” Zuege said.
Up next
CCS will host its annual invite Thursday at 9 a.m. and should provide plenty of quality competition.
CCS ran A, B and C teams at Cambridge, its second Class D meet of the season. Teams ran five varsity runners and scored the top three. Moving forward at bigger meets, each team will have six varsity runners and score the top four. Other runners Longhorns will run as JV.
The boys’ field should be pretty loaded, Zuege said.
Jaret Miles of North Platte St. Pat’s, last year’s Class D runner up, and Mason McGreer  of Perkins County, last year’s Class D third place finisher, will lead their teams at the Imperial Country Club.
“This is the first opportunity for our guys to see them and find out how we stack up,” Zuege said.

Zuege said NPSP won this invite handily last year, and  although it lost a couple of seniors, the Irish will be very solid again this year.
Other SPVA teams besides the Irish stand out to Zuege.
“Hershey has a really nice team coming back, Perkins County has a crew of really good young runners, and I think that our boys should be right in that mix, as well,” he said.
The invite will give everyone a good idea what should be expected from the SPVA meet Oct. 5 in Grant.
Zuege is hopefully Moreno will be ready to go.
“We are hopeful that (Moreno) will be good to go for this week’s home meet. Trevin has had a run of bad luck with injuries dating back to track last season, but what we know for sure is that when we get him fit and injury free (and we will), he will once again be one of the top runners in our district,” Zuege said.
On the girls’ side, the invite’s second and third place finishers return, Peyton Paxton of Mullen and Braelyn Gifford of NPSP, and Zuege expects them to set the pace for the meet. In the team race, Zuege said St. Pat’s and Paxton look to be the two teams to beat.

Cambridge Invite
Boys team scores—1. Chase County A, 12; 2. Axtell A, 17; 3. Hi-Line, 40; 4. Wilcox-Hildreth, 54; 5. Chase County B, 56; 6. Cambridge A, 66; 7. Alma A, 67; 8. Arapahoe A, 77; 9. Medicine Valley, 88; 10. Chase County C, 118; 11. Maywood-Hayes Center, 123; 12. Southern Valley (Oxford), 126; 13. Southwest, 127; 14. Alma B, 128; 15. Arapahoe B, 155

Individual boys results—1. Haven Hauxwell, 17:24.06, Chase County A; 2. Kael Garrett, 18:14.20, Medicine Valley; 3. Keyton Cole, 18:33.98, Axtell A; 4. Tyler Hanson, 18:35.82, Axtell A; 5. Navy Smith, 18:50.63, Chase County A; 6. Brayan Reyes, 18:59.16, Chase County A; 7. Micah Johnson, 19:03.23, Wilcox-Hildreth; 8. Andrew Wiest, 19:13.29, Chase County A; 9. Aidan Shutts, 19:27.01, Hi-Line; 10. Isaiah Springer, 19:33.27, Axtell A; 11. Trevin Moreno, 19:57.54, Chase County A; 12. Grant Henery, 20:04.10, Wilcox-Hildreth; 13. Connor Edwards, 20:07.28, Hi-Line; 14. Griffin Stemper, 20:15.57, Alma A; 15. Lleyton McDaniel, 20:26.65, Chase County B; Spencer Kelley, 20:35.33, Chase County B; Connor Einspahr, 21:21.86, Chase County B; Kevin Dannatt, 22:03.04, Chase County B; Brandon Chavira, 22:07.04, Chase County B; esus Juarez, 22:33.10, Chase County C; Kris Burke, 23:49.23, Chase County C; James Bomba, 24:37.11, Chase County C; 49.

Girls team scores—1. Hi-Line A, 22; 2. Axtell A, 26; 3. Cambridge, 27; 4. Chase County, 36; 5. Wilcox-Hildreth, 37; 6. Hitchcock County, 44; 7. Southern Valley, 65

Individual girls results—1. Cara Bunger, 23:23.22, Wilcox-Hildreth; 2. Olivia Wall, 23:28.82, Hi-Line A; 3. Chayse Keith, 23:33.55, Hitchcock County; 4. Emma Hall, 23:42.36, Axtell A; 5. Avery Stritt, 24:05.23, Axtell A; 6. Brenna Deterding, 24:12.08, Cambridge; 7. Tessa Smith, 24:23.07, Chase County; 8. Harper Fennel, 24:54.46, Alma;