Hutchinson, KS — Hutchinson, KS — Goddard Cross Country raced in their 3rd meet of the season at the Buhler Invitational Cross Country Meet 9/19/24. At this meet we raced against top level high schools and competed against top level runners in the state of Kansas. Historically Buhler has presented itself as a tougher meet for our team, but today the Lions came out and raced hard! Today the Lions did not run as fast of race times, but today we accomplished a lot and us coaches learned a lot about our team and our potential. We may feel we ran poor today, but did we?! Below I will highlight the meet and why I feel we raced well. Race times were slower today on this course and today I don't believe it's because we ran bad, but I think today was just a tough day for some reason. The reason I say this is looking at the Varsity Boys times. The young man from Southeast of Saline who took first place overall in Boys 5k ran a 16:48 today. Last week in Wamego he ran a 16:08. The 2nd place runner from McPherson ran a 17:11 today. Last week in Wamego he ran a 16:16. Today Luke Griffith ran with this runner from McPherson and was only 2 seconds behind him running a 17:13. At the top level these two runners were 40 seconds to a minute slower. This highlights just how well Luke Ran yesterday. This is one example, but our times I don't believe reflect our performance yesterday. Conditions were extremely hard today and I am encouraged by the way we raced and competed. We will be ready for Lake Afton and Rim Rock next week. Link to Results: https://morgansports.net/results/buhler2024.php Link to Photos Courtesy of Becky Andrews: https://bandrews.smugmug.com/Goddard-Cross-Country-2024/Buhler-CC-91924 Team Accomplishments: 1. We had 2 runners run new PRs today! 2. We had 3 runners medal today! 3. We had 2 runners run faster race times than Wellington! 4. Our Boys Varsity team beat Great Bend High School. This was extremely important for us as Great Bend is a school we could see in Regionals. Varsity Girls 1. Olivia Brownell earns a medal placing 19th Overall! 2. Giselle Avitia runs a new Personal Record! She came in at 27:00 and beat her old PR by 50 seconds! 3. Adeline Hudson runs 10 seconds faster than her last race in Wellington! 4. As a team the girls took 8th place overall! Varsity Boys 1. Luke Griffith takes 3rd overall and earns a medal running a great time of 17:13! 2. Nathan Lewis takes 17th overall earning a medal running a great time of 18:36! 3. As a team the Lions took 7th place overall! 7th place may not seem that great but we beat a very important school in Great Bend today! All 6 schools who finished ahead of us were either 2A schools or schools that are in different divisions of our League. Great Bend is a school we may see in Regionals and we beat them by 5 points today. We also beat Salina Central another school we will see in our League. JV Boys/Girls 1. Cooper Stelling ran a new personal record today! He ran a 23:28 beating his old PR by 27 seconds! 2. Conner Huddleston ran 28 seconds faster today than Wellington! 3. Overall our JV Boys team took 7th place! It's back to drawing board for the Lions as they prepare for next week! The Lions will gear up and get ready for our home meet at Lake Afton and our Varsity Boys team gets ready for Rim Rock in Lawrence, KS! Race itineraries to come soon! GO LIONS!