LAWRENCE — There was no place that Hesston head coach Nealee Johnston wanted to be than at this year’s state championship cross country meet at Rim Rock Farm.

Johnston had the Nov. 2 date marked on her calendar for a long time. Turns out though, there was a problem: she was double booked.

“Unfortunately, my brother decided to get married yesterday,” Johnston said. “So I was at state and at the conclusion of the girls' race after I told everyone their good jobs and goodbyes, I left before awards actually took place to get to the wedding on time.”

Johnston missed the celebration of a lifetime.

The Hesston girls scored 104 points to narrowly edge out Wichita Trinity Academy by a single point to win the team race for 3A girls. SE of Saline finished third with 109 points.

This victory marked the first state championship for Hesston’s girls cross country program. The boys squad has previously won a state title as a team in 1982 and 2013.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” Johnston said. “Absolutely amazing … I mean, that's really it. We were thrilled. 

“This is the first time we've had a team, a girls full team, for a while, and for this to be the first year that we've had that and then to show up the way they did was amazing.”
 

When posed with the question of whether she was more excited about her team winning a state title or her brother getting married, Johnston did not hesitate at all before answering.

“Definitely the state title,” Johnston said with a laugh. “I love my brother, but oh, if he could have got married on another day, that would’ve been great.”

When her brother and his bride-to-be told Johnston about the wedding day, she tried to nudge them into maybe changing the date.

“I was like, ‘Well, are you sure that’s the day you want to have it?’” Johnston said. “Then it turned into, ‘Okay, so what time? Is it going to be a seven o’clock wedding,' because I could make that.

“But no, it was an afternoon wedding. So I kind of got back there just in time.”

Johnston had already told her brother that she was going to state no matter what.

“I know my girls are going to be there,” Johnston said of her prediction well ahead of the season. “From early on, I knew the girls would make it and I wanted to be there. So we kind of compromised with I’ll go, but maybe not stay for awards.”

Her team’s performance turned that compromise into a hard commitment to keep, because the awards ceremony ultimately turned into a state championship celebration for her squad.
 

“I’ll be honest with you, the girls completely exceeded expectations,” Johnston said. “We had been beat by Southeast (of Saline) throughout the year. A couple of times, we’d been beat. At regionals, (beat) by both Southeast and (Wichita) Trinity.

“We knew going into it we had a stacked regionals. There were five of the ranked teams in our regional. We were ranked fourth.”

Hesston ended up finishing third at regionals, a finish that Johnston said the team was thrilled with at the time. Even at state, the Swathers were fine if they could just hold off every other team except for those two powerhouse programs.

“We thought we were vying for third place at state and we were happy to do so,” Johnston said. “When we came to find out that we won by one point, that was kind of surreal.”

Although they didn’t know at the time, the difference ended up coming down to a sort of photo-finish review for Wichita Trinity senior Breckynn Lee, who had fallen down multiple times at the finish line before diving across to try and move up one more spot on the leaderboard. 

Lee’s last dive to the ground, which was the only planned one, left her fractions of a second shy of Jayhawk Linn freshman Gabby Parsons, which prevented the Knights from reaching a tie with Hesston. Wichita Trinity would have won the tiebreaker as its sixth runner had a better finish than Hesston’s.

Hesston’s squad did not even need to know that part to be blown away by the results.
 

“I think everyone was in disbelief,” Johnston said. “It was just amazing and there was some shock. The girls, I knew at the beginning of the year that this team had so much potential to do well. Like I said, they just totally exceeded that. They ran exactly what they had to do and they just nailed it.”

Johnston said she was proud of how her girls handled the tough conditions on a Rim Rock course that had slowly deteriorated, even during the lighter rain earlier in the day. The 3A girls race was the first where the rain started to fall heavily for most of the duration of the race.

“No, those weren’t great conditions,” she said. “We just talked to them a little bit ahead of time. We’re like, ‘We’re not going to worry about the rain. We’re not going to complain about the rain. If it happens, it happens. Everyone’s running in the same conditions, so we got to be tougher and work through it.’"

Sophomore Reese Quinn led the way for the team with her time of 19:47.12 earning her a fifth-place finish. 

Quinn concurs with her coaches assessment of the team’s reaction to state championship win, especially the reaction when they found out during awards ceremony.

“It's kind of crazy, we’re all still in shock,” Quinn said. “It’s an honor to lead the team and I wasn’t really expecting to lead it, but it’s just cool that we got to do that together.”

Quinn wasn’t expecting it, but her coach said it was no surprise.

“It was great, but at the same time, I totally expect that of Reese,” Johnston said. “I know she has it in her and she is such a hard worker.”
 

Quinn credited her teammates for helping get to the point where she could deliver a top-5 individual finish at state.

“It’s a lot of help at practice to run with my teammates and we all run together and push each other,” Quinn said. “I would say we’re all super competitive, so we just like to go pick off one runner at a time and just keep getting faster and faster.”

Quinn pointed to freshman Avery Larson’s performance as being a big factor in the team’s state championship victory. Larson crossed the finish line shortly after Quinn, taking seventh with a time of 19:57.00.

Johnston was slightly surprised with Larson being the next of their runners to cross the finish line. Although Johnston describes Larson as a key part of their season, she was also a little bit of a surprise addition for the team heading into the year.

“She didn’t run in middle school,” Johnston said. “She played volleyball. I think she reluctantly tried cross country this year, and clearly it worked out well for her. She just came on strong and throughout the season she just kept improving and improving. So I was thrilled to see where she ended.”

When Larson started the year, she had set her sights on getting her times into the 20s. By the end of the year, she adjusted her sights to running down the top runners in 3A.

“At the beginning of the season, I didn’t know that I would be getting into the 19s," Larson said. "But getting there was a great journey and it just grew my confidence."
 

Larson credited her older teammates like Lehman and Quinn for helping her quickly learn in this new sport for her.

“They just always told me to believe in myself and push myself to do the best that I could,” Larson said. “They were always there to cheer me on through my highs and lows.”

Larson said things really started to click for her as they got closer to reaching the postseason meets.

“We’d made it so far in the season and we could go accomplish something big for our school,” Larson said. “I just knew that it was close to the end of our season and I had to give it my all, not only for myself to keep improving, but for our team to meet our goals that we had set at the beginning of the season.”

At state, Larson remained committed to sticking with Quinn near the front. Larson said that the longer she stayed right behind Quinn, she gained more hope for a team trophy.

“I knew that for us to succeed as a team, I needed to stay as close to (Quinn) as possible,” Larson said. “It just helped me feel like if we did it together, the end result would pay off.”

Junior Ashley Lehman gave the team a third runner on the medal stand with her 13th place finish, earning a time of 20:04.76. Lehman has been fast runner and strong leader for the Swathers througout this season and the rest of her high school career so far.

“Ashley is the greatest,” Johnston said. “She’s a great runner and she is the greatest leader on our team. She is so encouraging to all the other girls.”
 

Unlike with Larson’s start of competing in cross country happening in high school, Johnston got to see Lehman’s progression as a runner from her seventh-grade season up to now.

“She has just gotten better and gotten better,” Johnston said. “She broke her own school record this year that she set last year. The conditions, I think they got to her a little bit, but I was thrilled with the way she persevered still.”

Lehman was hoping for a better result, although she did improve her team from the Rim Rock Farm Classic back in late September by close to 20 seconds.

Freshman Josie Heinrichs took 57th with a time of 22:19.35 while sophomore Mary O’Halloran finished in 77th with a time of 23:30.47 to round out the Swather’s scorers. Sophomore Lausyn Novack wrapped up the team’s state performance by taking 99th with a time of 25:31.26.

“Those top three girls, they really helped bring it home,” Johnston said. “But even my other three, they worked hard all season and if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

For Quinn, she sees the team’s connection between all the runners, across all seven state competitors, as the biggest reason for the team’s success this season.

“Our girls, we’re really close and I think that’s part of the reason why we were able to win,” Quinn said. “We all just became best friends this season and I don’t think every team gets to make a friendship like we all have together.

“We’re just always encouraging each other and staying positive and we always make goals. I think that’s just one of the reasons why we were able to do so good is because we all encourage each other and we’re all so close.”
 

With none of those runners being seniors, Johnston likes the team's chances of coming back next year and defending their crown.

“We’re losing no one and I’ve got a group of girls that will work hard, not just during the season,” Johnston said. "They put in the work throughout the summer as well. They’re just a phenomenal group of girls.”

Quinn said she’s confident in the team’s chances for a repeat, although she expects it to be quite a battle again.

“Trinity and Southeast, they’re really good,” Quinn said. “We were neck-and-neck in the results, but I think we’re pretty confident (looking ahead to next season) and I think we’re just going to want to go into state next year wanting it more and knowing we can do it.

“I think we’ll just become closer next year and just really encourage each other to push and run together. Yeah, it’s going to be close, but I think we all have the confidence and we know we can do it again.”

The team will also have another incentive to chase down the repeat. A second state title would give the squad a chance to celebrate after the state meet with their coach able to stay for those festivities, instead of needing to rush to Wichita for a wedding.

“We really wanted her to be there,” Quinn said. “She said she wishes she would’ve stayed, but we knew that she had to get to the wedding, quick. We hope next year that she can be there for that moment and just enjoy it together.”

 

HOLCOMB BOYS FINISH CLIMB TO TOP OF 3A, KNOCK OFF REIGNING 3-TIME CHAMP WICHITA TRINITY

The Holcomb boys powered through for the program’s fourth state title, scoring 58 points and putting a 21-point gap between the Longhorns and the next best squad. Southeast of Saline finished as the state runner-up with 79 points, while Wichita Trinity Academy took third with 93 points.

The Knights had won the last three state championships, led by a trio of Class 2024 star runners which included two-time individual state champion, and one-time state runner-up, Clay Shively.

Holcomb head coach Matt DeWerff had one word to describe how he was feeling after his Longhorns boys team won the 3A state team title: “Incredible.”

“A relief of a lot of hard work for the last several years,” DeWerff said. “The summers, the offseason training, it’s just a relief and it’s a lot of joy that comes together, too, at the same time. A lot of pride. It’s a great feeling.”

Holcomb junior Brody Deniston earned state runner-up as an individual with his time of 15:52.14, around 15 seconds behind the state champion in Wichita Trinity senior Caleb Tofteland.

Deniston said he was a little disappointed by finishing as the runner-up.

“Going into it, I knew I really wanted to win it,” Deniston said. “That was my goal since last year getting third and the two guys beating me were seniors. I thought I had an amazing chance to win. But Caleb Tofteland from Trinity, he put in a lot of work this summer, and he ran really well.”

Deniston said he wishes he would have went with Tofteland a little longer to give himself a better chance to win the race in the last 400 meters.

“But I put myself out of position too early,” Deniston said. “I knew I had a chance of winning if I would have run a good race. But I fell short, got second. But I learned from it.”
 

Of course, the disappointment over his individual finish disappeared almost instantly.

“Seeing our third guy (Jeb Stoppel) step up and beat one of our big competition’s second guy was huge,” Deniston said. “I knew when he did that, our chances of winning skyrocketed.”

After Deniston, senior Landen Leonard finished eighth with a time of 16:21.27. Junior Jeb Stoppel landed in 13th with a time of 16:49.71 while senior Weston Baker took 18th with a time of 17:00.25. Stoppel’s finish put him just two seconds behind Southeast of Saline’s top runner in junior Brayden Walker, but gave the Longhorns a third runner six spots ahead of the Trojans’ No. 2 runner in senior Jacob Tonne.

“Landon and Brody are definitely our two most talented, but it definitely takes more than just two to win a state title,” DeWerff said. “Jeb Stoppel and Weston Baker, both important, key pieces. I think Jeb had his best race, not his best time (at state), but his best race on Saturday. Being able to hop into that race and beat Southeast of Saline’s No. 2, that was big in the team standings and helped us out really, really big.”

Senior Breckin McClure rounded out the team’s scorers by taking 38th with a time of 17:38.40. 

“Breckin McClure wrapped up as our No. 5 runner and he had bronchitis last week,” DeWerff said. “He didn’t end up running at regionals, but he came in and had a great race for us at state. He’s kind of one that’s been a very good story throughout the year.”

Sophomore Miguel Roman finished 57th with a time of 18:07.38 while junior Austin Sullivan landed in 79th with a time of 18:43.46 to round out the team’s runners at state.

Now DeWerff has seen Deniston and teammates like Landen Leonard win two state championships since May. They helped lead the Holcomb track and field team to the 3A state title in the spring.
 

“They’ve been an impressive group and very deserving group,” DeWerff said. “They've put in a lot of work, a lot of effort. A lot of time goes into it. They're definitely not kids that take a shortcut on the weekends. They put in their time, they put in the miles.”

At state track, Deniston took second in the 3200 meter, behind only Wichita Trinity’s Sam Ferguson, while finishing behind a trio of Knights runners in the 1600 meter. Deniston’s fourth place finish in the latter event was just a half-second behind Tofteland in third place.

Those results played a big part in Deniston’s motivation and determination in preparing for this fall season, as did Wichita Trinity’s recent run of three straight state titles in cross country.

“They've been winning a lot, so this year we kind of wanted it to be our time,” Deniston said.

Now the Longhorns will have the goal of replicating that same multi-year success shown by Wichita Trinity, as well as Southeast of Saline’s three-year run before that.

“I think it’s quite an honor to have our name thrown in with the likes of Wichita Trinity and Southeast of Saline,” DeWerff said. “Wichita Trinity, much recently, just has dominated Class 3A and Southeast of Saline has had quite a roll, even going back to 2018. They’ve been awesome for years under Wade Caselman there at Southeast Saline.

“I think just having our name thrown in that mix now, it’s affirmation that we’ve done the job right. We’ve put in a lot of work and it’s quite an honor to be thrown in with that group of teams right there.”

The journey to get to that point has been long for this Longhorns team. Holcomb won its first state title in 2001 before two-peating in 2008 and 2009, with all three wins taking place under head coach Lindall Cox.
 

DeWerff started teaching at Holcomb Middle School in 2015 and became that school’s cross country head coach two years later. He would move up to the same role at the high school in 2018 when Cox retired.

The Longhorns did not have a state placer in DeWerff's first two years leading the program.

In 2020, Daegan Vanpelt and Braxton Sizemore were the lone representatives for the Longhorns, with Vanpelt reaching the medal stand with a 20th-place finish.

Vanpelt would return to state the next year as senior with his teammates in tow. Holcomb would earn a ninth-place finish in the team race for the first of two straight seasons.

“We went into 2022 thinking we had a really, really good shot,” DeWerff said.

But after the team finished as the runner-up in the Blue Division boys race at the Rim Rock Farm Classic that year, behind only an out-of-state team, the Longhorns growing confidence immediately took a huge blow. Then-sophomore Eirik Ramos, the team’s third fastest runner at that event, got called up to play professional soccer in Spain.

 “He got the call to head off to play soccer in Spain, which really, really hurt our depth that year,” DeWerff said.

With a young group expecting to build on its ninth-place finish, instead they ended up finishing ninth once again.
 

The Longhorns kept working as they returned in 2023 to earn a third-place team trophy, led by a sophomore in Deniston replicating that third-place finish on the individual leaderboard.

“We knew the talent was there,” DeWerff said. “We knew the ability was there and we put in a lot of hard work and went into 2023, ended up being third, which was quite an honor.

“Southeast Saline and Wichita Trinity definitely were the two best teams that year, but to have our name kind of in that mix in 2023 was a really good feeling.”

It felt really good for their future prospects with both of those teams graduating multiple key pieces from their squad, while the Longhorns would not have that problem.

“We returned everybody, didn’t lose anybody off the team from our main five and put in a lot of work this offseason,” DeWerff said.

Adding to the momentum, many of those runners were key members of the Holcomb track and field team winning the state title last May.

“They kept it rolling this summer and put in a lot of work again, and it paid off this last weekend,” DeWerff said. “That’s just an incredible feeling right now. I was definitely nervous going into this weekend, but for it all to work out and work out very well it is a group of boys that are very well deserving of it. They do it the right way and they put in a lot of work and lead others along the way.”
 

DeWerff points to Deniston as a big reason for that mindset and culture taking ahold with this group.

“It has definitely been fun watching (Deniston) develop,” DeWerff said. “I had him at first in seventh grade basketball when we had him in middle school, and the kid was unique. He had a motor unlike anybody else does, three sports year round.”

DeWerff remembers watching Deniston develop during his freshman year, but ultimately was unable to medal at the state meet as he finished 31st with a time of 17:15.87. 

“It was one of his first races he didn’t get a medal at and it didn’t discourage him,” he said. “He definitely wasn't happy about it, but he definitely has put in the work, put in the effort.”

Now as a junior, Deniston led the way for Holcomb once again as the Longhorns finished climbing that mountain.

DeWerff also had no doubt that Deniston will be even more focused on coming back to next year to try and take first place as an individual.

“I knew he would've liked to come away with a win yesterday,” he said. “I knew he would've liked to be a little more healthy. He's been sneezing and coughing a lot of this week and we didn't know exactly what we'd have going into the race.”

DeWerff also expects the rest of the squad to follow Deniston’s lead in trying to come back even stronger next season, although they'll need to replace Leonard, Baker and McClure from this year's state squad.
 

“We have a lot of question marks that'll need to be answered,” he said. “We had some kids that we thought would be running later in the year for us that did not. Some health issues came up throughout the year and some other issues that we kinda were banking on a couple kids that did end up hurting our depth this year.”

But DeWerff also expects there to be a couple talented freshmen moving up from the middle school ranks that should be great additions to the squad.

Of course, DeWerff also knows that its no easy jump for those young runners taking on older high schoolers.

“It's not competing against kids your age, it's competing against kids that have now done it for two, three, four years,” he said. “So definitely going to be looking for who's going to be willing to step up. Definitely looking for who's gonna be willing to be that guy that can take 30, 40 seconds off their time from this year.

“I'm looking forward to the challenge, looking forward to what we can do going into the next year and seeing if we have that opportunity to go back-to-back.”
 

CLASS 3A BOYS

TEAM SCORES

Holcomb 58, SE of Saline 79, Wichita Trinity 93, West Franklin 113, Lakin 124, Scott Community 150, Girard 201, Santa Fe Trail 201, Nemaha Central 214, Jayhawk Linn 234, Marysville, 249, Caney Valley, 298.

INDIVIDUAL MEDALISTS

1. Caleb Tofteland, Wichita Trinity, 15:36.75; 2. Brody Deniston, Holcomb, 15:52.14; 3. Will Meyer, Wichita Collegiate, 15:57.67; 4. Alex Luce, Lakin, 15:59.68; 5. Hunter Bailey, West Franklin, 16:03.77; 6. Austin Ritsema, Lakin, 16:08.66; 7. Houston Mcgown, Girard, 16:15.27; 8. Landen Leonard, Holcomb, 16:21.27; 9. Kamden Tarlton, Hoisington, 16:28.18; 10. Dominick Schnider, Royal Valley, 16:28.60; 11. Bryce Roberts, Santa Fe Trail, 16:30.36; 12. Brayden Walker, SE of Saline, 16:47.34; 13. Jeb Stoppel, Holcomb, 16:49.71; 14. Brody Rossman, Hoisington, 16:50.57; 15. Jacob Bircher, SE of Saline, 16:52.44; 16. Whit Geoffray, Wichita Trinity, 16:54.40; 17. Jeter Adams, Riley County, 16:54.80; 18. Weston Baker, Holcomb, 17:00.25; 19. Jacob Tonne, SE of Saline, 17:05.36; 20. Michael Hermosillo, Scott Community, 17:09.30.

CLASS 3A GIRLS

TEAM SCORES

Hesston 104, Wichita Trinity 105, SE of Saline 109, Norton Community 133; Scott Community 145, West Franklin 151, Hiawatha 175, Southwestern Heights 178, Jayhawk Linn 1991, Girard 205, Heritage Christian 222, Prairie View 228.

INDIVIDUAL MEDALISTS

1. Emily Hein, Wichita Trinity, 18:26.90; 2. Bree Allen, Prairie View, 19:22.95; 3. Esther Clark, Smoky Valley, 19:35.98; 4. Janae Fugitt, Cimarron, 19:44.30; 5. Reese Quinn, Hesston, 19:47.12; 6. Molly Ehrlich, Ellsworth, 19:47.72; 7. Avery Larson, Hesston, 19:57.00; 8. Cate Jensen, Chaparral, 19:57.24; 9. Pauly Rockey, Hiawatha, 20:01.14; 10. Emma Collins, Norton Community, 20:01.29; 11. Jyntri Wilson, Cimarron, 20:02.19; 12. Brecken Howell, Wichita Trinity, 20:03.39; 13. Ashley Lehman, Hesston, 20:04.76; 14. Juliana Parr, Heritage Christian, 20:14.01; 15. Kennedy Keller, Girard, 20:17.30; 16. Kaison Miller, Norton Community 20:20.56; 17. Tianna Lutters, Hoisington 20:25.34; 18. Natalia Onelio, Girard 20:26.49; 19. Josie Shelton, Royal Valley, 20:28.87; 20. Lea Roberts, Santa Fe Trail, 20:29.62.