Here are Topeka-area girls to watch at Kansas state cross country meet

Washburn Rural and Seaman girls cross country teams qualified their squads for Saturday's Kansas High School Activities Association's state tournament while six individuals will also be looking for hardware.

3A/5A/6A will take place at Rim Rock in Lawrence while 1A/2A/4A will be in Wamego.

Shawnee Heights, Topeka West, Hayden, Rossville and Silver Lake girls qualify individual runners

Representing Rossville at the 3A state meet will be senior Amelia Foster. Running for Silver Lake will be senior Tessa Gerber and sophomore Mariah Farmer.

Hayden will be represented in the 4A championship at the Wamego Country Club by sophomore Elliot Wrench.

Shawnee Heights junior Verena Trollman and Topeka West freshman Payton Rice qualified individually for the 5A girls meet.

More:Two Silver Lake runners are peaking at the right time after falling to injuries last year

Washburn Rural and Seaman girls cross country teams qualify for state meet

Two Topeka cross-country teams just missed medaling in last year’s state championships. With strong casts of returners, those teams hope to take a place on the podium this year.

The Washburn Rural Junior Blues finished just nine points out of third at the 6A state meet, while the Seaman Vikings were just a few dozen points away from third at the 5A meet. Both will make another run at it Saturday.

Washburn Rural will send a group of seven runners to the state championship, six of whom competed in the race a year ago. Only Khloi Bird, who placed 14th a year ago, graduated from that team. Last year’s fourth-place finish was the school’s highest since 2011, when it also placed fourth.

“We were just nine points out of third last year, so we were right there,” said Washburn Rural coach Matt Swedlund. “We got a little taste of what that’s like. That can be a motivating factor that sticks with you and drives you.

“We knew we had a good group coming back, very goal oriented and motivated to be the best we could be this year. The girls have been out since June for this moment. We’re ready to give it another shot.”

The Junior Blues have an experienced leader in senior Madeline Carter, who has qualified for state all four years of her career. She placed seventh in the 6A race last year and is determined to go out having given her all, despite being hampered by a quad injury all season.

“I’m not quite where I want to be, but I’m definitely getting there,” Carter said. “My body is starting to feel back to where it was, and I’m mentally getting there. This is my last year, and I’m going to give it all I have and make sure that my team gives it all that they have.

“We were close last year, and I think this year we have an even better chance. Six of us went to state last year. That experience helps you see what you need to work on for the next year.”

Carter said competing against the top runners in the state brings out her best.

“There’s higher expectations and it’s stressful knowing that you have all these good runners going,” Carter said. “But it’s a blessing in disguise because, for me, I think I race better when I’m chasing someone. When you’re running with good runners it pushes you and makes you realize what you can do.”

Carter will be pushed by sophomore teammate Payton Fink, who came in 19th place in last year’s state meet.

“For my first time at state, in my first cross country season, I was terrified,” Fink said. “I didn’t know what to expect. But it was a great experience. I learned a lot, and now I know what to expect and what to do different … to not stress about it but think of it as any other race.”

Fink took the experience of her freshman season and built herself into one of the top runners in the area this year. Fink won the Topeka City Championship and the Centennial League Championship this season, then placed first in the regional meet.

“I’ve improved by continuing to do my workouts each week,” Find said. “My legs are growing and I’m getting stronger as time goes on. I learned how to pace myself better and learned what mentally to tell myself going up hills and during the harder parts of the course.”

Fink’s times during the season rank her behind only a handful of entrants at state.

“They’re all incredible runners who have insane times,” Fink said of the competition. “I hope to just get in the lead pack and stick with the girls that I know I can run with and see what happens.”

Swedlund said the Junior Blues are familiar with many of the top runners in the state, having endured a tough schedule.

“We chase that competition all season long. We want to see them during the season, to know what we’re up against,” Swedlund said. “We’ve raced a lot of the top schools. There’s a lot of parity there. There are six or seven schools that could be at the top.”

The Junior Blues placed second at the regional meet, a fact that Swedlund said focused the team at the right time.

“We’ve had a lot of success this year. We won the city meet. We won the league meet,” Swedlund said. “But last year we had the same thing. We won city and league and then won regionals. So when we didn’t win regionals this year, we took it as a good reminder ‘Hey there’s a lot of teams out there. If you want to be at the top, you’ve got to beat all of them.’”

The Seaman Vikings are also guided by a senior and paced by an underclassman. Senior Bethany Druse has been one of the best distance runners in the area for three years and will challenge for one of the top spots in the 5A race Saturday at Rim Rock Farm. She came in in sixth place at the state meet a year ago.

“She’s more of a track kid than she is a cross country kid,” Seaman coach Rick Brading said. “But she has a super attitude about cross country and has been an excellent leader for us for four years. She’s been in the top 10 the last two years and it wouldn’t surprise me for her to be up there again this year.”

Seaman has found a new leader this year in freshman Ryin Miller, who placed second in the Vikings’ regional meet. She has consistently paced the Vikings in their meets this season.

“Ryin is just an unusual athlete,” Brading said. “It seems like she could do just about anything well. We’re just lucky that she chose cross country and that she enjoys it. She’s a really competitive kid. You’ve got to kind of reel her in, or she would want to go hard every night.

“We’re fortunate that we have some veteran kids like Bethany on our team who set a good example of how to succeed. Bethany has had a lot of success herself. I try to keep Bethany in that leadership role and she plays it really well. And I just let Ryin do her thing, so she doesn’t feel like she has to carry the team.”

The Vikings won their regional meet with Miller finishing in second place, Druse in third, and Stella Appelhanz in fourth.

Brading said the Vikings should expect to compete with anyone in the 5A race.

“I feel like that the playing field is pretty level,” Brading said. “St. James would be considered the team to beat. But after that, I feel like us and Aquinas and DeSoto and Great Bend and Kapaun Mt. Carmel are very similar. I feel very confident that we’re in the hunt for that top three. We’ll just see how we’ll do. The kids make it happen on that day.”

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: 7 Topeka-area girls cross country teams send runners to state