Courtesy West Platte Cross Country Facebook Group
Yesterday at 1:16 PM ยท It was a day of firsts for the West Platte Invitational, held at Platte Ridge Park. It began with the wind. First time in the 14 year history of the race that the wind was really bad. But that wind did not stop the runners and the Blue Jays made the best of it bringing home a girls varsity 2nd place plaque and plaques for both boys and girls conference championships.The girls began the day with a super strong race. Julia Pattison ran amazingly in the wind finishing the Platte Ridge course in by far a school record time of 19:57. This was the 7th overall fastest time run by a girl during the 14 years of the WP Invitational. She becomes the first West Platte girl to be the Invitational race winner. Great accomplishment for a great young lady. Katy Tharp continued her spectacular senior year with a 3rd place overall finish in a new PR of 21:31. Bella Clark finished 19th overall with a solid time of 22:46 to clinch a medal for her jacket and she was followed closely (25th) by Gracie Raney who ran the course in a new PR of 23:40. This was an outstanding run for Gracie! Katie Groom ran in at 34th overall to be the Jays 5th runner, followed by Gretchen Raney at 39th and Laura Hill ran 53rd. When the points were all totaled up, the West Platte girls had finished second overall to Christ Prep Academy with 66 points to CPA’s 34.The WP Invitational also includes the KCI Conference Championships and the WP girls walked away with their first title since 2017. The Jays handled 2nd place North Platte by 8 points, 33-41. Julia Pattison finished first overall, becoming the first WP Jay to be the girls conference champ, and Katy Tharp was 2nd. Bella Clark ran 8th and Gracie Raney finished 11th by two tenths of a second. Katie Groom was 14th and Gretchen Raney was 15th with Laura Hill coming in at 20th.The girls will need this same kind of performance to finish as district champs. The race is on Halloween at Platte Ridge.The boys also performed very well on this windy race day. They finished 3rd overall in the invitational part of the race. WP was led by Charlie Kinslow who finished 8th overall and Ryan Pattison who ran 18:38 to finish in 14th. Ryan was just three seconds off his PR. Sam Davies was the 3rd Jay runner to finish, running a solid 19:24 and Tristan Newkirk and Isaac Helmich did some pack running with Sam and finished 35th and 36th overall (out of 117) in 19:40 and 19:41 respectively. Hutch Bartee ran a hard race finishing in 21:32 and Jacob Elmore rounded out the team finishing in a new PR of 23:34. This was the 2nd time since the 2017 State team that we had 5 runners finish in under 20:00. This is very encouraging as the team heads toward districts in two weeks. With this excellent performance the boys were able to clinch their 5th Conference championship. They outpointed Lawson 42-60. Charlie Kinslow was the individual champion, becoming the 7th WP runner in nine years to win the title. Ryan Pattison finished 5th, followed by Sam Davies in 11th place, just one spot out of a medal. Tristan and Isaac were 14th and 15th. Hutch Bartee was 27th and Jacob Elmore ran 36th.In the JV race Antonio Laguna finished with his 2nd best time of the year, running a 26:25. The Blue Jays final regular season race is at Richmond this next Wednesday and then they will host the Class 1-3 district meet on October 31. Hope to see many of you there to root on the Blue Jays.