New Haven Boys End Hermitage's Streak, Take First Team Title In School History
It was a big year for New Haven on the boys side. Coming in with three of the strongest boys in the state - junior Joseph Rethemeyer, senior Nathan Ford, and junior Tim Madden - the Shamrocks had a good foundation for a state championship run. With quality performances throughout the season, they knew they would have to face off against a tough Hermitage squad eventually, though. Hermitage was the three time reigning champs and were trying to cap off the four-peat. But, on Saturday, the Shamrocks were able to put 4 boys ahead of Hermitage's #2 and, even though Hermitage had all 7 ahead of New Haven's #5, it was not enough to grab the victory as New Haven pulled off the 10 point win, their first cross country state championship in school history on either side.
Rethemeyer led the way as he finished 11th overall. Pegged as a potential top 5 finisher, he was still able to score a solid 8-spot for the state title hopefuls. Ford was 2nd in 18th while junior Martin Lewis came up big for New Haven as he came across 27th just ahead of Madden in 29th. With 4 in the top 30, it came down to year-long #5 man Dominick Lewis who had been sitting over 20:00 for the better part of the year before making the jump only recently. He came across in 71st in 18:58.66 to pick up 44 points for New Haven which was good enough for the win. It was their fourth straight trophy, but first ever title.
Hermitage's 2nd place finish may have been a result of Sabala's victory foremost as none of their boys came across better than 31st otherwise. Freshman Josh Galloway earned that distinction as he was, in fact, the 4th fastest freshman in Class 1 on the day. The next three boys were within 32 seconds of Galloway, though, as the 2-5 crew kept it tight for the Hornets. Though they were 10 points behind New Haven, they were 34 points ahead of Liberal in 3rd.
Ranked 4th headed into the race, Liberal was able to leap into 3rd and grab their first ever team trophy in only their 2nd ever appearance at the state meet (2016). The Bulldogs pulled off the rare feat of not putting a single boy in the top 30, but still grabbing a trophy by putting together a tight 1-5 split of 34 seconds. Led by senior Jayden Dalby, Liberal put all 5 boys between 32nd and 62nd for a 138 score and the 3rd place as a team.
Lutheran Kansas City was the team that got leapfrogged in the predictions as our predictions almost came true for all 5 teams (Fair Play was 5th), but it was fairly close, though, as only 12 points separated both teams. Junior Jesse Schultz did his job, taking 4th overall, while senior Christian Hinrichs fell off toward the end of the race and ended coming across as their #3, in fact, in 42nd. Sophomore Nathaniel Fischer was the Knights' #2 as he came across 39th. They made it close with Fair Play, though, as only 2 points separated them from 5th.