With the graduation of Bethany Druse last spring, Seaman sophomore Ryin Miller lost her cross country training partner.
 
Druse had been the standard-bearer for the Vikings’ girls program, setting the school record as a junior. When Miller arrived as a freshman last fall, she and Druse quickly became almost inseparable as a serious 1-2 punch leading the Viking pack with Miller eventually breaking Druse’s school record during a stellar debut season that she capped with a fifth-place finish at the Class 5A state meet.
 
But with Druse taking her talent to the University of Kansas this year, Miller was left to her own devices to stay amongst 5A’s top runners. And she didn’t particularly care for that scenario.
 
“It really sucked running alone every day over the summer and every day in practice without her.” Miller said. “I was at a kind of a low point for sure for a while. We definitely miss her as a leader. But I just kind of told myself I wanted to be good not only for myself but for my teammates and that’s what motivated me.”
 
The work Miller put in during the offseason and preseason has her running alone again – this time out in front of the pack at most of her races. And as much as she’s hated that lonesome feeling during her workouts, she rather enjoys it when it’s meet day.
 
“Honestly I feel like do maybe better like that,” she said. “Running with other people, it’s like pressure and makes me nervous. Alone I just feel better.”
 
No one came close to touching Miller at last Thursday’s United Kansas Conference meet at the Shawnee North Community Center in Topeka. The Viking sophomore quickly separated herself from the pack and ran away with her first UKC title, winning by 1 minutes, 43 seconds with a time of 17: 54.7.
 
The victory was Miller’s fourth straight and fifth overall this season with one of those coming in her division at the Rim Rock Classic on the course where the 5A state meet will be held. That’s certainly exceeded her expectations coming into the season where she wondered just how sharp she’d be without Druse around to push her.
 
“I was nervous because I didn’t think I’d be able to back up my freshman year,” Miller said. “But after our time trial, I was better this year and I know I worked hard over the summer. Last year, I only won one race because of Grace Hanson (of KC Piper). But she’s done and graduated and I wanted to capitalize on that and hopefully win more.”
 
Miller’s school-record time a year ago was an 18:36.38 coming at the Class 5A regional meet. After opening the 2023 season with a time well over 19 minutes, Miller has been right at or well below that record time in five of her last six races.
 
She really turned heads across the state when at her second meet of the season, the Joe Schrag Invitational (where she logged her only win a year ago), Miller clocked a time of 17:41.04 that not only demolished her previous school record but was the fastest in the state overall at the time.
 
“That time definitely seemed not real when it happened,” Miller said. “It was nice, but it also pushed my expectations of myself even more. It gave me confidence, but I also knew that Kanza is a very fast course. It definitely felt cool for that week.”
 
Miller saw Salina Central’s Katelyn Rupe, the defending Class 5A state champion, knock her from the top spot on the state honor roll with a 17:05.90 at the Sept. 30 Bob Schoekel Invitational in Junction City. But she’s still No. 2 overall after lowering her best and school record to a 17:24.3 at the Topeka City Championships on Oct. 7.
 
Not only will Miller have to contend with Rupe at the state meet, but also her teammate, freshman sensation Kaylie Shultz, who has a season-best of 17:43.77. The only other 5A runner in the state’s top 20 times is Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Taylor Barringer, who placed seventh at state last year.
 
“My goal (at state) is to go out hard and then it’s mental and I hope I can stay with them,” Miller said of the Salina Central duo. “They’re really good.”
 
 
OTHER CROSS COUNTRY STANDOUTS
 

• Shawnee Heights’ Jackson Esquibel was just as dominant as Miller in winning his first United Kansas Conference title as well. The T-Bird standout picked up his sixth win of the season, racing to a time of 15:40.0 to win by 1:42 over Seaman’s Brody Anderson.
• De Soto swept the team titles at the UKC meet with the Wildcat boys winning by 31 points over Seaman as Luke Swarts and Vance Krudwig finishing 3-4. The girls took a narrow five-point win over Seaman, led by a 2-4 finish from Addison Gillespie and Brooke Bundt.
• Fresh off running the state’s third-best girls time at the Topeka City Championships, Washburn Rural’s Payton Fink backed it up with an even faster time in taking the Centennial League title. Fink ran a 17:33.3 and beat Junction City’s Lorna Rae Pierce by 31 seconds for the title. Emily Graf and Riley Ismert were third and fourth, respectively, and Brooklyn Nolte was eighth as the Junior Blues won the team title by 13 points over Manhattan.
• Manhattan’s Lucas Holdren ran away with the boys’ Centennial League title, winning by 39 seconds over Emporia’s Daghyn True in 15:12.6. Junction City placed six in the top 12 to take the team title by four points over Manhattan.
• Holton’s Eva Cortes won her third race of the season, taking the Big Seven League title a week after posting her fastest time of the season of 19:06.07 in a runner-up finish at the Osage City Invitational. Cortes won her league title by nearly a minute in 20:17.7 and led the Wildcats to the team title by 20 points over Hiawatha.
• Nemaha Central’s John Langill got pushed by Hiawatha’s Jordan Hodge, but secured his second straight Big Seven League boys title and fourth win of the season. Langill won in 16:42.5, edging Hodge by 11.2 seconds. Hodge led the Red Hawks to the team title by five points over the Thunder.
• Northern Heights freshman Ellei McCrory stayed undefeated on the season with a runaway win at the Flint Hills League meet. McCrory, who ran a career-best and school-record time of 17:48.02 to win the Osage City Invitational a week earlier, beat defending FHL champion Emory Speece of Osage City by more than a minute for the title in 18:58.29. West Franklin won the girls’ team title.
• After losing to West Franklin’s Hunter Bailey by one second at the Osage City Invitational on Oct. 5, Central Heights’ Cody Hammond turned the tables and beat Bailey by eight seconds for the Flint Hills League championship. Hammond finished in 16:32.47 and led the Vikings to the team title while Bailey was second in 16:40.95. Council Grove’s Lakodah Downes, who had won three straight league titles, finished fourth in his bid to complete the career FHL sweep.
• Hammond’s runner-up time at Osage City of 15:50.05 broke the school record he set a week earlier by 36 seconds. It was a record-setting day for the Vikings as Emma Cubit took down the girls’ school record with a time of 19:42, besting the old mark set by Lily Meyer in 2018.
• Lebo swept the Lyon County League titles as Caleb Durst continued his late-season surge after dealing with a stress fracture in his tibia suffered in early August. Durst won in 17:07.13 after breaking Lebo’s school record a week earlier with a career-best time of 16:14.76 at the Osage City Invitational – his first sub-17 time of his career and more than a minute faster than his previous school record. Lebo’s Kennah Speer was the girls LCL champion in 22:16.46.
• Wabaunsee’s Payton Wurtz captured her third straight Mid-East League title, winning by a minute and a half in 19:55.1. The win was her third of the season in four races after she missed the first month with an injury. Riley County took the girls’ team title.
• Riley County’s Owen Misener topped Silver Lake’s Eli Ferguson by 17 seconds for the final boys Mid-East League title, winning in 17:57.8. The Falcons made it a clean sweep of the team titles at league, nipping Silver Lake by two points for the boys’ crown.
• Lauren Smith and Kylie Pfizenmaier finished 1-2 to lead Clay Center’s girls to the North Central Kansas League championship. Smith bested her teammate by more than a minute with her winning time of 19:30.11.
• Chapman’s Drew Elliott beat Wamego’s Peyton Parker by nine seconds for the NCKL boys title, winning in 16:41.07. Parker was one of seven Red Raiders in the top 14 as Wamego won the league title by 14 points over Marysville.
• Osawatomie’s Luke Hebert claimed the Pioneer League boys title, winning by 21 seconds in 17:35.01. Anderson County won the team title, placing five in the top 16.
• Bree Allen led a 1-2-3 finish for Prairie View in the girls’ Pioneer League race as the Buffaloes dominated, winning by 41 points. Allen won her second consecutive league title, winning by more than two minutes in 19:27.32.
• Posting a career-best time of 17:20.58, Axtell’s Grady Buessing won his second straight Twin Valley League title, leading a 1-2 finish with teammate Gavin Shaughnessy, who was 37 seconds back. Axtell won the team title as well.
• With just 15 seconds separating the top-four finishers, Washington County’s McKenzie Baker pulled out the tight win to complete her climb to the top of the Twin Valley League. Baker finished third in 2021 and second last year before winning by nine seconds over Troy’s Gracie Grable in 22:01.19 this year.
• Kansas City Christian put nine runners in the top 12, including a 1-2-3 finish, to run away with the inaugural Kaw Valley Conference boys championship. Andrew Schumacher led the way for the Panthers, winning by 36 seconds in 15:59.71. Spencer Mumford and Andersen Minnich finished 2-3.
• Olathe Heritage Christian’s Hannah Thong was the Kaw Valley’s girls winner, winning by a minute and a half with a time of 19:41.85. The Chargers placed six in the top 12 overall.
• Goessel’s Eli Gaeddert broke the Bluebirds’ freshman 5K record that had stood since 1999 with a time of 17:45 at Goessel’s home meet.
• In leading Wamego to the championship at the 13-team El Dorado Invitational on Oct. 7, Peyton Parker tied the Red Raiders’ school record of 16:03.61, a mark previously run by former Red Raider state champion Riley Woodward in 2009.
• Every Silver Lake varsity runner set a season-PR at the Osage City Invitational with each boys runner setting a career PR as well.