Katelyn Rupe probably got a little lonely during her first high school cross country season last fall. 

In almost every race, she ran by herself at the front of the pack as she won every race, and most by a sizable margin, en route to winning the Class 5A state title. Her isolation was even more pronounced at state. She not only finished well ahead of the second-place runner as she set the all-time state course record, but she also ran as the lone Salina Central state qualifier.

Rupe’s junior campaign was just as impressive as the first. She secured her second straight state title with a time of 17:36.20 on Oct. 28 at the Rim Rock Farm course in Lawrence. 

Rupe said it felt “super good” to win state in back-to-back years and that both outings felt very similar. But there were a few slight differences.

“It felt a lot colder today,” Rupe said. “But it also felt better knowing that my teammate was close behind.”

This time, Rupe had freshman teammate Kaylie Shultz following her closely every step of the way. Well, except for the amount of time from when she started to pull away in the race and the approximately 23 seconds it took Shultz to join Rupe past the finish line.

“Not long after I crossed the finish line, I knew my teammate was in second," Rupe said. "That made it even more exciting because we were able to accomplish our goal of going one, two at state."
 

She waited patiently for Shultz to finish with the time of 17:58.90, earning her a state runner-up finish. For Rupe, having a No. 2 all season meant the world to her.

“It’s just so fun to get to line up next to her,” Rupe said. “It’s kind of like I’m running for something more too, because I know that she’s there to push me. I know I have someone close behind me and I’ll hear people cheering her name closely after mine in races.

“That just helps me push and get through it, too.”

Both Mustangs would have more than enough time to celebrate together before Topeka Seaman sophomore Ryin Miller joined them past the finish line to take third place at state. Miller finished with a time of 18:36.80.

While the tandem finish was new for Rupe this year, the gold-medal performance was anything but.

Rupe has won each of her first 14 high school cross country races over the last two years. Her only experience of not winning on a cross country course in that time was her 13th-place finish in the Team Heartland Regional Championship race a few weeks after last year’s state meet.

Rupe's long list of first could have been even longer. She did not run during her first year of high school due to a school district policy that prevents freshmen from competing in more than one sport per season.

Back when she was a freshman, Rupe did not like that rule at all. But after experiencing the grind of competing in tennis and cross country as a sophomore last fall, she’s started to see some merit to the rule.
 

“I think the rule is probably warranted,” Rupe said. “It’s just a lot, especially with how that would have been my first semester of high school and having to juggle two sports. I think it had the potential to be very overwhelming if I had done it as a freshman.”

Knowing what went into that juggling act of two sports in the fall, and knowing the additional homework she’d see as a junior, led Rupe to choose on her own to revert back to being a single-sport athlete for this fall season. 

But this time, Rupe chose cross country.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I think I've made ever,” Rupe said. “I just love both so much. But what it came down to was last year, it was hard because it was just a lot to do. Both my mind and my body would get pretty tired.”

When she told her coach Brad Dix, his first thought was: “Wait a minute, that (decision) wasn’t because of anything I said, was it?”

“I didn’t want to run her off of tennis,” Dix said. “She explained her decision and it was a very responsible decision, which is exactly what you would expect a girl like Kateyln to make.”

Rupe quickly found out she was right about the increased schoolwork causing her to potentially be spread too thin.

“I have so much homework,” Rupe said. “I feel so busy right now, it’d be hard to imagine also playing a second sport on top of that. Ultimately, I think it was the right decision. But it took a long time to decide.”

With the pressures of being double-booked removed from the equation, Rupe’s biggest challenge to repeating her success from sophomore cross country season, and continuing her growing win streak, became her own teammate. Shultz finished every race this season in second right behind Rupe.
 

Rupe was never surprised by the fact that Shultz joined the team and immediately started nipping at her heels in races.

“We train in the offseason together,” Rupe said. “There’s a running group we’re a part of called Salina Burn. We train in the winter and the summer.”

Rupe and Shultz trained together a lot when they were in the club’s younger group before Rupe moved into the high school ranks. They reconnected again when Shultz reached eighth grade and joined Salina Burn’s older runners.

“We have such a good time, getting to joke around, but also working hard and making each other better,” Rupe said.

They have a strong enough friendship that although Shultz keeps pushing closer and closer to turning their races into a real battle for first, Rupe is perfectly fine with the possibility that Shultz may end up the victor one of these days. 

“I think it makes it even more exciting,” Rupe said.

Rupe is also excited by the possibility of the Mustangs adding a few more state-caliber runners so the program can have the entire girls team qualify for state next year. Her coach shares the feeling.

“We would love to have the opportunity to compete in the team race,” Dix said. “The girls we had worked really, really hard and we had some young girls that made some huge strides.”

Dix said it’s hard with the success of the tennis and volleyball teams pulling in a lot of the potential talent pool, but he likes what he’s seen from some of next year’s incoming class of freshmen.

“I think we have some good young kids coming in,” Dix said. “It’s just one of those things where we’re going to coach whoever shows up, and try to find the kids that fit the program on the running side as much as on the culture side.”

Either way, Rupe will likely be back with the chance to finish her high school career with three state titles, even if that monumental feat is not something that’s weighing her down very much.

“I haven’t really thought about it that much, but that’s definitely the goal,” Rupe said.

And the idea that this epic feat had the potential to be a four-peat that she’d be chasing instead?

“It’s definitely a little sad that’s not an option or something that I could have,” Rupe said. “But I have no regrets. I love the tennis team so much and all the girls on it. My coaches are amazing. So yeah, no regrets there.” 
 

EUPHORIA: ST. JAMES CELEBRATES BACK-TO-BACK STATE TITLES

Shortly after his team had claimed its second straight 5A girls cross country state title, St. James Academy head coach Greg Bomhoff had one word to describe the feeling of winning two in a row.

“Euphoric,” Bomhoff said.

Bomhoff saw his team clinch back-to-back titles with a low-score of 68 points, 10 ahead of state runner-up Great Bend. Senior Katie Price led the way with a sixth-place finish, crossing the line with a time of 19:03.70. Junior Katleyn Menghini narrowly missed a top 10 finish, earning a time of 19:21.30 to take 11th.

“I could tell in the beginning of the race that it was going to be a good race for me,” Price said. “I just kept that positive attitude throughout the race, kept thinking positive thoughts up these hills.”

Price said her goal became to just hold close to the other runners in the top pack. The rest of the Thunder’s varsity runners seemed to use a similar plan of attack. 

After seeing his team put four runners in the top 20, along with another trio finishing 25th through 27th, Bomhoff felt a kind of joy that quickly made him reflect on his experience when the team won last year.

“I think back to last year and there was so many things I think about the journey that I was so worried about,” Bomhoff said. “Making sure I was a good logistical coach. You almost feel like you look back on it and maybe you took it a little bit for granted.

“This one, I absolutely won’t.”
 

Bomhoff said he made it his mission to make sure this year’s group realizes “the enormity of what they’ve accomplished and that they’ve done it together.”

But before the post-race celebration, Bomhoff still delivered the strategic side of his job.

“We talked about race planning for the first mile,” Bomhoff said. “We know in championship racing, the field is going to take you out, maybe to an extent, a little quicker than you would like.”

Bomhoff said the team did workouts heading into state that specifically built up the team’s confidence, pushing hard during the first mile and still being able to finish strong over the last two miles.

“Those two specifically, (Katie Price) and (Katelyn Menghini) don’t mind running hard at the beginning,” Bomhoff said.

Bomhoff told his group to get out there and run with the field through the first mile, to put them in a good position. Then the runners need to hold ground or gain ground, but not lose it through the second mile. 

That’s when the fun really begins.
 

“Championship racing means the race doesn’t start until the last mile,” Bomhoff said. “That’s where real racing is done. Make sure you are ready to make your last mile your best one.”

Of course, with the threat of severe weather in the area, a move to rolling start times for the races added a mental hurdle to getting off on the right foot.

“I think it was a little frantic toward the beginning, but we tried our best to stay calm and we did a good warm-up,” Price said. “Still, my legs were ready.”

Many of her teammates could say the same. In addition to Price and Menghini’s top results, juniors Quinn Hays and Annie Wilken joined them on the medals stand. Hays finished with a time of 19:41.90 to finish 16th and Wilken took 20th with a time of 19:52.20.

Hays, who had a slow ramp up to start the season following an injury in a car accident over the summer, will likely enter her senior season trying to return to the faster times she posted during her sophomore campaign when she took fourth at state.

Although Price will graduate, the rest of the team’s state squad will be back next year to try for a three-peat.

“It’s exciting to think about,” Bomhoff said. “I feel just so grateful and so honored to have the opportunity to coach these ladies. It really just begins with the love that they have for each other. Everything else that we do flows from that.”

Bomhoff said that connection is key to the team’s strong team culture, which allows the runners to compete on the big stage with few nerves and lots of confidence.

“These girls go into these situations with a lot fewer nerves than I think I would had I been in their position,” Bomhoff said. “They feel confident and relaxed because they feel like they’re running for one another. That’s just a really special group of girls over there.”
 

CLASS 5A GIRLS

TEAM SCORES

St. James Academy 68, Great Bend 78, St. Thomas Aquinas 103, DeSoto 125, Blue Valley Southwest 152, Seaman 171, Andover 175, Maize South 189, Kapaun Mt. Carmel 190, Salina South 242, Hays 255, Spring Hill 263

INDIVIDUAL MEDALISTS

1. Katelyn Rupe, Salina Central  17:36.20; 2. Kaylie Shultz, Salina Central  17:58.90; 3. Ryin Miller, Seaman  18:36.80; 4. Isabella Ross, Blue Valley Southwest 18:58.40; 5. Addy Nicholson, Great Bend  19:01.70; 6. Katie Price, St. James Academy 19:03.70; 7. Madelyn Wallace, Andover  19:04.40; 8. Marissa Boone, Great Bend  19:11.10; 9. Arely Maldonado, Hays  19:18.20; 10. Sophia Spinello, St. Thomas Aquinas  19:18.70; 11. Katelyn Menghini, St. James Academy 19:21.30; 12. Alexandra Laurie, Blue Valley Southwest 19:37.00; 13. Sienna Smith, Great Bend  19:37.60; 14. Avery Reynolds,  Blue Valley Southwest 19:38.80; 15. Addison Gillespie, DeSoto  19:40.40; 16. Quinn Hays, St. James Academy 19:41.90; 17. Brooke Bundt, DeSoto  19:44.00; 18. Amelia HERMANN, Kapaun Mt. Carmel  19:45.10; 19. Lilly Mauk, St. Thomas Aquinas  19:49.30; 20. Annie Wilken, St. James Academy, 19:52.20.