By Student Reporter Brayden Barrientez
The Haysville Times
The Campus Cross Country team competed in the Ark Valley Chisolm Trail League on Saturday, October 14th. In the boys race, a race where all 5 of the runners would have to perform well, the boys did just that.
Chris Taylor lead the boys, running a 5K time of 17:01 and coming in 4th place. Next came Brayden Barrientez at 17:18 at 6th place. Both Chris and Brayden claimed 1st team AVCTL Division II honors. Tre’ Doherty and C.J. Manuel took 9th and 10th, claiming 2nd team AVCTL honors. Possibly the most surprising performance came from Nick Ward, a freshmen, who took 16th place. These key performances resulted in the boys cross country team to take 1st place in AVCTL Division II, beating the defending champion Newton Railroaders by 14 points. Campus boys haven’t won league in over 25 years, making the whole thing even more fantastic.
On the girl’s side, the Campus girls took 4th place. The girl’s varsity race was a bit harder than the boy’s race, but the girls were nevertheless successful. Bailey Martinson and Emily Capoun claimed 2nd team AVCTL Division II honors. The girls have their hopes set high this weekend for an even better race at Regionals this Saturday, and hope to qualify for 6A State.
In Junior Varsity, the Campus boys dominated. Casey Amos placed 1st; Cooper Clark placed 2nd; Channing Tate placed 3rd; Garrett Patrick placed 6th; Joshua Whalen placed 7th; and Marshall James Berube placed 8th. In the girls JV race, Chelsea Chavez placed 4th.
So over the weekend, I wondered to myself: What was the best part of it all? Was it the look on Coach Curless’ face after the race? Was it receiving the plaque that will go in the Campus trophy case? Was it the collective groans from the Newton runners when it was announced that we had won it? Or maybe it will come several years from now, when we can look at the banner in the CHS gym as we can all say to ourselves, “I was a part of that team.”
The Campus Colts compete at Regionals this Saturday to decide which teams and runners qualify for the State Competition at Rim Rock Farm. Both teams expect to qualify. Expectations for each runner have been set high by the coaches. The stakes are especially high for the boys, who have 2 seniors on the team. Varsity boy runners include: Casey Amos, Britt Barrientez, Brayden Barrientez, Cooper Clark, Tre’ Doherty, C.J. Manuel, Chris Taylor, and Nick Ward. Varsity girl runners include: Katie Bruner, Emily Capoun, Chelsea Chavez, Larissa Dunn, Lisa Kemmer, Bailey Martinson, and Lizzy Spence. Plan to hear more about Campus Cross Country success in Regionals and State in the next couple weeks.