Rim Rock Gets Rocked by OCXC… Again

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!”       

A Hands-On Experience

OCHS students take classes at Flint Hills Tech

Article by Hannah Mondragon

Osage City High School students now have the opportunity to take classes at Flint Hills Technical College in Emporia during the school day in order to get technical training for potential future jobs. This year, six boys were ready to get the hands-on expertise they needed.

The schedule at Flint Hills Tech is quite different than here at the high school.  For example, instead of having blocks, they have a scheduled class for about an hour and a half, followed by a 15 minute break before their next course. Then they get to go to the shop and work on customers’ cars until it is time to come back to Osage City for their regular classes.

Junior Colton Tyler was asked about why he took the opportunity to go to Flint Hills Tech and he replied, “Because it’s what I want to do when I’m out of school, it’s close to the school (OCHS), I get to get out of my other classes here, and I’m making a lot of new friends, including the instructors. It’s all hands-on and it’s close to home.” Tyler is loving this experience that is going to help him in the future when he is out of school.

Each student can choose what area he would like to study.  Four of the OCHS students are involved in automotive work and one is studying welding.  When junior Quinn Boyce was asked about the classes he was taking, he replied, “I’m doing automotive and I’m also taking an electrical class.” In addition to taking classes, the Flint Hills Tech students have the opportunity to work on customers’ cars that are brought into the shop at the tech school in Emporia. Instructors wait there with them to answer any questions that they might have.  And that’s not the only thing that the students can do to gain hands-on expertise.

“Instead of just working on customers’ cars, we also have the chance to do our own projects. It’s a very independent, hands-on experience,” says Boyce.  Boyce says of doing his own projects, “Well, I took my mom’s car up there and fixed it for her, and I just got Austin’s car fixed for him.” So it’s apparent that being given the chance to take classes at Flint Hills Tech has benefited Boyce, as it will the rest of the students from OCHS.

The five boys going to Flint Hills Tech are having a great time gaining hands-on experience for when they get out of school.  They are being given the chance to step out on a limb and try something new while still in high school, and they will surely benefit greatly from this opportunity.

Above-Five of the six Flint Hills Tech students pose for a group picture: Senior Hawk Goad, senior Austin Stromgren, junior Quinn Boyce, senior CJ Holmberg, and junior Gunner Horn. Junior Colton Tyler was absent.