On Saturday, October 25, freshman Kyrsten Lucent broke the school record time at the Class 4A regional cross country meet. 

The previous record holder was Kempsie Griffin and Lucent’s record-breaking time was 20:20, which was 27 seconds better than Griffin’s. Lucent’s previous best time was 20:47.9. 

“Cross country kept me busy because I wasn’t playing sports at the time.” said Lucent. “It also got me in shape for soccer, which would be coming up the next season.

“I plan to continue to run in cross-country for our high school for many years to come.”

Lucent then placed 23rd at the state tournament, which was held at Wamego on November 2.

Head coach Brandon Barger said Lucent’s performance was really impressive.

“She proved that she can run with some of the best runners in the state,” Barger said. “Does this mean she is really good yet? No, but it’s a good building block.”

Fellow freshman Elliot Herod took 55th at state. So the girls cross country program has a bright future.

“I’ve never had two freshmen (girls) go to state before,” Barger said. “We knew how good Kyrsten can be, but the darkhorse was Elliot. She is also another one we can build around. She has grown a lot from middle school to high school.”