On Monday Sept. 30, the South Loup cross country team traveled to compete at the annual Kearney invite where they ran against 50 teams, and 481 total class D runners. The boys' team came home with an impressive 12th place and three runners in the top 75: junior Josiah Coleman (19:18.5) 27th, freshman Jaden Baker (19:59.2) 58th, and senior Dawson Mason (20:17.7) 71st.

Junior Eli Rogers (23:23.5) enjoys the number of competitors saying, “It was a lot of fun to see all of my friends from around the state who I have met through cross country and other activities.”

In addition to the amount of competition, this is also a challenging course. The meet is held at the Kearney Country Club and has numerous steep hills throughout the 3.1-mile course. Senior Ivy Tullis (23:42.3) who placed 52nd said, “This is definitely not the hardest course we compete at or the easiest, but the competition and hills combine to make a really challenging meet.”

The Kearney meet allows runners to see what the State course is like, as they are held at the same location. Senior Ella Cool (22:45.6) who placed 28th said, “The UNK cross country meet is one of the biggest meets of the year. It is on the same course as the state meet so it is like a trial for the big race. Overall, everyone did really well, and we hope to be back on the course in a few weeks!”

Head Coach Nicole Recoy is very proud of the team's performance. “Everyone either ran a course personal record or came very close to it,” she said. “Eli Rogers ran an impressive 3 minutes faster on this course this year compared to last year. Jaden and Dawson also ran very well for the first time on this course.”

South Loup hosted the conference meet in Arnold on Tuesday, Oct. 8 – the final meet before districts on Oct. 17. Results of the MNAC meet were not available at press time.