Staff writer
Jordan Hett has placed at least fifth in every single Marion cross-country race this year. He had one of his best performances Thursday, coming in second only ten seconds behind the leader.
However, even that description does not do justice to how close Hett was to winning the race. He made his final push over the stone bridge at Marion County Lake and as he swung around a large tree that marked the final stretch, he could see Goessel’s Jared Reimer closing in on the finish line. The only thing that separated the two runners was a 50-yard patch of grass.
Hett also outran senior teammate Ryan Jones for the first time. Jones had a good finish as well, placing fifth with a time of 18 minutes and 15.74 seconds.
“For this course it wasn’t bad,” he said of his time.
Hett is a freshman. Freshmen usually don’t outrun the veteran members of their teams. Freshmen don’t come in second in races. Hett had no problem eschewing the norm.
Although Hett already won a freshman race this year at Hesston, this is the first time that he was the best runner for his team in a varsity contest. And the team benefits the most from his success. Jones said that this year’s squad is heavily laden with freshmen and should peak in the future.
The team came in third on Thursday.
The even bigger surprise from the meet was the performance of the girl’s team.
They placed third off strong performances from Monica Spacek, fourth 16:02.62, and Jaclyn DeForest, fifth 16:04.79.
“Monica and Jaclyn ran the whole race together and they pushed each other,” head coach Bethany Carlson said.
Carlson also said that in the last meet there were not enough girls to field a qualifying team (six is the magic number). Sickness and injuries plagued the Warriors, but they rebounded for their best performance of the season.
BOYS
2. @Jordan Hett—17:31.33*
5. Ryan Jones—18:15.74*
25. @Patrick McCarty—19.44.51
26. @Michael Kirkpatrick—19.45.33
34. @Brandon Mierhoff—19:56.35
41. @Jacob Cope—20:34.87
45. @Clark Kroupa—21:08.49
Girls
4. @Monica Spacek—16:02.62*
5. @Jaclyn DeForest—16:04.79*
21. @Elizabeth Goentzel—17:29.93
36. @Jessie Taylor—19:12.71
37. Anna Laurin—19:44.54
44. Whitney Christensen—21:05.23
*denotes medal winner
@denotes a personal best