Katelyn Rupe just keeps getting better.

The Salina Central sophomore already reset schools records when she won Class 5A state titles in the 1600- and 3200-meter back during the track season last spring.

Not only did Rupe add another state title during the Class 5A state cross country girls race, she shattered the course record on Oct. 29 at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence.

Rupe finished her race in a blistering 17:13.84, breaking the former record by 19 seconds. She also finished a full minute ahead of the state runner-up, Piper senior Grace Hanson at 18:17.96.

When asked how it felt to win another state championship, this time by taking down a state-wide record, Rupe’s response was simple.

“Awesome, it feels awesome,” Rupe said.

Rupe took the cross country scene by storm this fall after not even competing in the sport during her freshman year. Because of a Salina school district rule limiting freshmen to one sport per season, Rupe ended up only playing tennis instead of running on the cross country team last fall. She’s built up a 50-23 record in tennis over two seasons, qualifying for state both years and earning seventh in singles during her freshman campaign.

“I love both sports and I love being able to do both,” Rupe said. “I just love cross country and I’m so glad I went out for it this year.”
 

Rupe said she was also very glad that the team competed in the Rim Rock Farm Classic early in the season to help get acclimated to the course.

“The last one I was timid on the downhills and this time I really pushed through those,” Rupe said. “I went out fast on the first mile knowing there were less hills. So then when I did hit the hills, it was like I just had to push through it.”

It also helped her know that the state course record was within reach. Rupe finished that race back in September with a time of 17:45.50.

Despite dominating the course, Rupe still talks about the Rim Rock with reverence.

“Rim Rock is significantly harder than all the other ones,” she said.

Without her team qualifying for state, Rupe had to run this race alone. She was thankful though that the Salina Central boys team was competing at state with her.

“I feel like they take me in as part of their team as well,” Rupe said. “So the team aspect is definitely still there, even if it’s not on the starting line.”

Rupe said she will turn her attention to track season with hopes of repeating on her previous medals and getting her times down even further. And maybe start challenging for the state records in those events as well.

 

ST. JAMES ACADEMY GIRLS COMPLETE DOMINANT SEASON BY RUNNING AWAY WITH TEAM TITLE RACE

St. James Academy won the Class 5A state cross country girls race at Rim Rock Farm. The Thunder scored 51 points to put a distance between them and state runner-up Aquinas at 81. This is the team’s third state title in the last six years.

St. James sophomore Quinn Hays knew that going into the state meet that her team was favored to win.

Their biggest competition, the same as every year, was Aquinas. But the Thunder did not feel the same pressure facing the Saints as they have in years past.

“We’ve beat them before,” Hays said. “There wasn’t a single meet that we’ve raced in that we didn’t beat them this year.”

Still, Hays said being projected to win is not the same as pulling off “the last hurrah over our main rival.”

“It felt really good,” she said. “We were projected to win, but it was still just really fun.”

But Hays also could not celebrate early as an individual challenger nearly had a late surge to push her down the leaderboard. Hays finished with a time of 19:19.84, holding off a strong kick from Seaman freshman Ryin Miller by just a hundredth of a second.
 

Hays felt a sense of relief after seeing that she indeed crossed the line first, even if by a fraction of second. But it wasn’t just because she took fourth.

“At that point, I knew we were probably going to win,” Hays said.

Although the Thunder trailed by one point to Aquinas at that time as Saints junior Sophia Spinello finished ahead of her in third place with a time of 19:12.17, Hays started to see her teammates crossing the finish line before the rest of the runners wearing the colors of the top contenders.

Junior Katie Price and sophomore Annie Wilken finished back-to-back at 11th and 12th with times of 19:39.18 and 19:41.01 respectively. The duo were just a few seconds short of a top-10 finish behind the DeSoto pair of sophomore Brooke Bundt and freshman Addison Gillespie. Sophomore Katelyn Menghini was next up for the Thunder with a 19th-place finish. Sophomore Allie Morfeld followed in 21st and freshman Leah Haeusser finished in 23rd.

The Thunder held a 47-second split between their one-through-five runners with an average time of 19:44, 15 seconds better than the mark for Aquinas’ top five. 

After Spinello’s top-three finish, the next Aquinas runner to cross the finish line was sophomore Anna DiCarlo in 18th with a time of 19:53.32. She was followed by sophomore Greta Kelley in 25th, junior Lilly Mauk in 26th and senior Quinn Babcock in 27th.
 

St. James head coach Gregg Bornhoff said it meant a lot to be able to get a strong victory over a prestigious Aquinas cross country program.

“Everybody in the state knows they’re just going to be there every year,” Bornhoff said. “There’s a reason they’re widely considered the best team in the state.”

Bornhoff credited Aquinas coach Justin Wrigley with teaching him a lot as a cross country coach. Bornhoff said Wrigley is very humble and helpful with other cross country coaches, willing to share his knowledge and experience.

“Any new coach sets guys like (Wrigley) as the standard for what they want to be,” Bornhoff said.

Part of that is creating a culture that will have sustained success. Wrigley has coached the Aquinas girls and boys cross country programs to 10 state titles each, including 19 of those as head coach.

Few programs will ever be able to duplicate that level of success, but St. James looks like it will at least have a chance to string together multiple years of postseason success.

Bornhoff admitted that he liked the prospect of returning so many runners from this state championship team. His main message for the returners next year though will be to take all the positives, all the confidence from winning a championship, but still remember that everything starts over.

“Their journey as distance runners, every season is a new chapter and every one is its own story,” Bornhoff said. “You take the positives from it, but we all begin again.”

Bornhoff should not have any worries of runners like Hays getting too comfortable with their success. Hays already has plans to push herself and see how much she could improve by this time next year.

“I’m kind of scared for myself honestly,” Hays said. “I PR’d on this course, so I’m just kind of excited to see what I can do.”