Lady Indians tear it up at the 3A State Cross Country meet
Article by Jake Butterfield
The last two weekends of their season, the Osage City cross country teams participated in their most competitive meets of the year. First, they attended the regional meet in Burlington at John Redmond Reservoir. Both the boys and girls ran well at regionals. Despite giving it their all, the boys team placed fifth and failed to qualify for the state meet. However, the entire Lady Indian team qualified for the third time in the last four years.
On Friday, October 31, hundreds of high school athletes and their families and friends gathered at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Kansas for the class 3A, 5A, and 6A State Cross Country meets. The Lady Indian runners were honored to be part of such an important meet. When asked about the privilege to run at state, senior Maren Peterson answered, “The girls and I were honored and blessed to run at state and I’m so proud of us for making it as a team!”
The team consisted of a variety of different runners. The Lady Indians were led by seniors and four-time state qualifiers Aundrea Koger and Sarah Peterson. They were joined by senior Maren Peterson, along with first-year runners senior Tori Tomlinson, junior Lexi Allen, freshman Jessica Davis, and freshman Faith Long. These runners were going up against some of the toughest competition they could face. “State is the most nerve-racking meet of the season, but that I am able to run with such good athletes is really an honor,” Peterson commented about the state meet. The Indians were one of twelve fortunate teams to be a part of the 3A State Cross Country meet. First-year cross country coach James Bellinger noted, “There were fifty-two other teams in the state that would have loved to be exactly where we were at the end of the season.”
The Lady Indian runners ran respectively well at Rim Rock despite facing bone-chilling cold winds. Koger finished sixth, trailed by Sarah Peterson, who finished thirty-eighth, and Davis, who finished eighty-fifth. Maren Peterson and Tomlinson finished ninety-first and ninety-second respectively. The remainder of the Lady Indian cross country team was brought in by Long and Allen. Despite finishing twelfth, Sarah Peterson still believes they were the best team at the meet. “We all supported one another. Not one of us ran for ourselves, we all ran for each other. We may not have been the best team there, but we were the closest team, which in my mind makes us the best!”
The PowWow of Osage City High School 