Hiawatha Girls Cross Country Team

All year it’s been dominate performances on courses across Northeast Kansas for the Hiawatha Lady Red Hawks cross country team and that trend continued this past weekend when the team took home a Class 3A Regional title at Sabetha posting 48 points, to win the meet by 22 points.

All year it’s been junior, Jordan Puvogel leading the charge for the Red Hawks as she captured another Regional championship to add to her trophy case posting a time of 16:06 to win by 17 seconds. Freshman, Molly Kettler continued her strong season also with another top 10 finish, notching tenth place by posting a time of 17:27.

The roster along with Puvogel and Kettler touts many promising young runners for the Red Hawks as the team has blossomed this year and the future looks bright, too. Sophomore’s, Kailey Davis and Mykah Barnes registered the third and fourth best performances for the Red Hawks at Regionals taking 13^th and 17^th place, respectively behind times of 17:49 and 18:10. Freshman, McKenna Gilpin joined them in the top 20, by running her way to 19^th place with a time of 18:17. While junior, Katie Rosa and freshman, Jada Rosa took home 28^th and 29^th place finishes, respectively with times of 18:46 and 18:48.

Young Red Hawk cross country squad has continued to bloom this season notching top flight finish after top flight finish under the tutelage of Coach, Mark Carter. The season opened for the Red Hawks at the Jeff West Invite with a second place team performance behind three top 10 finishers. Then it was a run of four start first place finishes at the Holton, Nemaha Valley, Horton and their home Invitational.

At the Holton Invite the Red Hawks posted three 10 finishers, again while having four more gals register top 20 finishes. Hiawatha won the Nemaha Valley Invite by a 20-point margin with four top 10 finishes leading the way and took home the Horton Invite crown with three top 10 finishes. At their home meet three top 10 finishes lead the way for the Red Hawks to register a 35 point team win.

The Sabetha Invite was up next on the schedule for the Red Hawks and they placed third as a team behind a pair of 4A schools and the regular season action was capped off by Hiawatha being crowned the Big Seven League champs with their top five finishing in the top 16 on the day.

Goal of State meet and many other goals have been accomplished by the Hiawatha Red Hawk girls and the young squad gets set and ready to run one last time this year as they compete at Rim Rock Farm this Saturday.