This week capped off the end of a great season for Trailblazer Cross Country. The Blazer boys team participated in the KSHSAA 6A State Championship at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence. The race started extremely fast and saw a decades old 5k course record shattered with the winning time in boys 6A (Senior Wyatt Haughton of Shawnee Mission East) at 14:59.65.

As a team, the Trailblazers started out strong led by junior Parker Walion. As the boys came through mile one, all seven of the Blazers crossed the mile mark under 5:09. This pace was one of the fastest of the season for the Blazers, and the chase pack of the Blazers and many other schools struggled to keep connected to the top runners in 6A. As the race developed, the top three teams would be decided by runners 2-7 on each team grinding it out until the finish. The Trailblazers ended up placing 4th in 6A, just missing third place and the podium by 12 points. The seven boys put together an amazing race with our top four runners under 17 minutes on an extremely tough and hilly course. Parker Walion earned 6A All-State Honors with his 5th place overall finish. As a team,the Blazers earned their second best team finish since entering 6A in 2011, placing 4th and only 12 points behind Olathe South (3rd), Olathe East (2nd), and Shawnee Mission East (1st). The Blazers would finish ahead of Garden City, Lawrence Free State and Washburn Rural who were all picked to finish ahead of GEHS in class 6A. Individual finishes are as follows: Parker Walion, a junior, 5th at 15:49.96,Nick Kilonzo, a junior, 28th at 16:44.04, Andrew Leach, a senior, 31st at 16:48.70 , Aidan Scherman, a sophomore, 41st at 16:57.18, Jackson Elsey, a senior, 46th at 17:06, Cade Halton, a freshman, 49th at 17:07, and Robert Falkner, a sophomore 54th at 17:14. Sophomore Connor Postel and senior Ken Morgan were listed as alternates and did not get to compete but trained and ran all over the course urging their team-mates to get the job done!

6 of 7 Blazers dropped course personal records for Rimrock, and senior Andrew Leach finished his four-year XC career with a career PR. A huge congrats to our seniors on their last race–Jackson Elsey, Andrew Leach, Ken Morgan (Alternate), Landon Comstock (Injured/ Managing this season).

A couple of interesting facts from the day: 1. Seven of the top 10 teams in 6A (both boys and girls) were all from the Sunflower League. This shows the amazing depth and talent of runners in this area.

2. Four of the Top 5 placing teams (both boys and girls) came from the Sunflower League.

3. Last year at State, Parker Walion ran 16:45.80 and placed 30th overall–this year he placed 5th and improved his Rimrock time by 55.84 seconds.

4. Five out of seven of these boys are coming back next year.