BY JIM MISUNAS
ST. JOHN – St. John senior Quade Smith (18:05.3) earned 13th and 14th (17:37.0) 1A medalist cross country honors the past two years at Wamego Country Club.
Smith has qualified for 1A state with seventh-and eighth-place regional finishes. Smith has earned a pair of runner-up Central Prairie League honors.
“At the end of last season, Quade ran one of his fastest times at state,” said St. John coach Joel Delp. “I expect Quade to pick up where he left off last year when he was running well. There are tough CPL runners, and Quade will be in that mix. Quade certainly has the ability to be in the top regional group. He had an outstanding track season.”
Past 1A state qualifier Josh Chapman, Rafael Gonzalez, Garrett Dunn and Kaden Foote return.
“Last year, at the Meade regional, there were a lot of great runners,” Delp said. “I expect a similar regional this year. Our goal is to qualify our team to the state meet. We have an outstanding senior leader Quade Smith. We have to find runners to go with him. We have a young team that will gain experience and run well by regionals.
A promising freshman class steps up from a two mile distance to 5 kilometers.
“We have a good group of underclassmen,” Delp said. “A lot will depend on how fast they improve and adjust to a longer race. They will need to be in the mix for us to have success as a team this year.”
Delp said many of the runners are multi-sport athletes.
“We enjoyed good participation in the off-season,” he said. “Most of our runners are involved in multiple sports. They were active in the weight room and off-season conditioning during the summer. A lot of them play basketball in June. They get more running mileage in July.”
St. John’s boys placed first (2016), second (2017, 2018), fourth (2015) and fifth (2019, 2020).
ST. JOHN TIGERS
SENIORS—Josh Chapman (S 85TH, R 47TH, 60TH, 69TH, CPL 26TH, JV 1ST), Quade Smith (S 13TH, 14TH, 49TH, R 7TH, 8TH, 18TH; CPL 2ND, 2ND)
NINTH-GRADERS—Emmett Delp, Jayce Feril, Aaden Gonzalez, Abigail Herrera, Liam Knight
JUNIOR—Rafael Gonzalez (R 45TH; CPL 22ND)
SOPHOMORES—Garrett Dunn (R 48TH, CPL 28TH), Kaden Foote (R 52ND, CPL, 28TH), Sye Crockett
NINTH-GRADERS—Emmett Delp, Jayce Feril, Aaden Gonzalez, Abigail Herrera, Liam Knight
CROSS COUNTRY
9-5—at Great Bend Invitational
9-14—at Wamego
9-19—at St.John
9-28--at Rim Rock
10-3—at Pratt
10-10—at Sterling
10-17—CPL at Ness City
10-26—at 1A regional
11-2—1A state, Wamego
