Even through the hills, crowds, and jitters of running on a difficult course at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, the South Loup Bobcats cross country team persevered and had an excellent showing at this meet last Monday.

This course, which is also the same course used for the State Championship meet later this month, draws a slew of runners - more than 250 in the boys Class D division and nearly 200 in the girls - and the Bobcats still brought home three medals and recorded new personal bests. In addition to this year being the first time South Loup has had any placers at this meet, each runner improved their times between 2 and 4 minutes, according to head coach Nicole Recoy.

For the boys, junior Logan Recoy placed 15th with a time of 18:10.11. Freshman Josiah Coleman ran a time of 19:39.07. Fellow freshman Eli Rogers finished at 23:59.82 and sophomore Caleb McFate’s time was 25:05.42.

“Josiah Coleman ran a heck of a race and ran a personal best all season this year, which is tough at UNK because it is a very challenging course,” said Coach Recoy.

The South Loup sophomores Ella Cool and Ivy Tullis continued to bring home the hardware. Cool finished 14th with a time of 22:05.03 and Tullis right behind her in 18th place with a time of 22:38.12. The other Lady Bobcat runner, Gracie Neth, finished with a time of 35:01.21. The girls team finished in 14th place.

“Ivy Tullis ran a very smart race,” said Coach Recoy. “She was able to relax the first mile and then go hard and chase people down.”

The junior high Bobcat runners did not participate in this meet.

South Loup hosted the Mid-Nebraska Activities Conference (MNAC) meet at the Arnold Golf Course on Tuesday. Results were not immediately available.

They will travel to Cambridge on Oct. 13 for the Class D-5 district meet where they will compete against 20 other schools for the chance to run at the state meet. Spectators are invited to come cheer on the Bobcats.