., KS — Great Bend , KS — Class 5A Regional Cross Country Championship Great Bend, Kansas October 27, 2024 Link to Race Results: https://milesplit.live/meets/637289 Link to Race Pictures Courtesy of Becky Andrews: https://bandrews.smugmug.com/Goddard-Cross-Country-2024/Regional-2024 Today our Varsity Cross Runners competed in the Regional Cross Country Championship in Great Bend, Kansas! Going into Regionals the Lions had goals of qualifying for the State Cross Country meet, running personal records, and having fun! Our last practice of the week I brought up a movie clip from my all time favorite Cross Country movie "McFarland USA." If you have not seen the movie I would highly recommend it. In the movie the head coach says "You kids have some of the biggest hearts I've ever seen. Now go run your race." This group of kids was extremely special and our senior class is extremely special. Our kids have some of the biggest hearts I have ever seen and that allowed us to have the season that we did. Last week we had 22/24 run personal records or season bests at league and today we had 7/10 runners run a personal record or season best. 6/7 of those runners were personal records. This season I can confidently say we got every last minute/second out of each one of our runners and everyone ran to their full potential this season. We gave it our absolute best and had many notable accomplishments along the way! Today was filled with many emotions as more runners completed their last race of their season/career, but today was also filled with much joy and excitement as Goddard will be sending 3 runners to State! Highlights from Regionals: 1. Luke Griffith (3rd Place 16:35), Nathan Lewis (11th Place 17:16 PR), and Olivia Brownell (15th Place 20:48 PR) all qualify for the State Cross Country meet at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, KS next weekend! 2. 7/10 runners ran either a new personal record or season best! We had 6 personal records ran today and 1 season best! Nathan Lewis - 17:16 Personal Record (Beat 17:25) Sam Brown - 18:32 Personal Record (Beat 18:41) Ayden Smith - 18:07 Personal Record (Beat 18:09) Olivia Brownell - 20:48 Personal Record (Beat 21:11) Korrtney Koirth - 24:25 Personal Record (Beat 26:18) Giselle Avitia - 24:52 Personal Record (Beat 26:30) Hudson Donaghue - 20:24 was a Season Best 3. The Goddard Boys took 4th Place as a team and gave it their best today! Many personal records and season bests were ran. This group of Boys are extremely special and accomplished so much this season! 1st: Valley Center: 61 Points 2nd: Eisenhower: 66 Points 3rd: Salina Central: 67 Points 4th: Goddard: 91 Points 4. The Goddard Girls ran their hearts out today with each of them running a new personal record and Olivia Brownell qualifying for State! Senior Reflection: I am still going to wait to write my Senior Reflection as we still have three seniors who have one last race to finish their career <3 OUR STATE QUALIFIERS: Luke Griffith, Nathan Lewis, and Olivia Brownell! Today Luke Griffith, Nathan Lewis, and Olivia Brownell all qualify for the State Cross Country meet next week at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, KS! There is perhaps no better way for these 3 Seniors to end their High School career on the biggest stage the sport of Cross Country has to offer. These three go into Rim Rock Farm with aspirations of running one last personal record and earning a medal. For those wanting to travel to Rim Rock Farm to support these 3 Seniors I will be getting a race itinerary sent out soon with info. GO LIONS! Coach Andrews/Coach Heim