SPORTS

Here's what Saline County cross country runners, teams are heading to state

Salina Journal

Southeast of Saline's Jentrie Alderson pulled away early en route to winning her third consecutive Class 3A regional title. Her time of 18 minutes, 20.7 seconds was a personal best as she is unbeaten in eight races this season.

Four Saline County cross country teams will represent their schools at their respective state meets on Saturday at three different sites across Kansas.

Southeast of Saline will lookto successfully defend its boys and girls team championships from 2020.

Here' are the county teams and individuals who will compete at state on Saturday.

Southeast of Saline sweeps team and individual regional championships

Southeast of Saline, the defending champions on both the boys and girls sides in Class 3A, is headed back to Wamego sweeping its home regional on Saturday.

The Trojan boys edged Wichita Trinity by one point to claim the team championship, while the Trojan girls beat runner-up Cheney by 42 points.

Southeast of Saline's Dylan Sprecker turns the corner for the final 400 meters of wire-to-wire win at Saturday's Class 3A regional.

Southeast swept the individual championships as well, with Dylan Sprecker winning the boys race in 15 minutes, 33.90 seconds. Jentrie Alderson won the girls race with a time of 18:20.70.

The Trojan boys also got a sixth-place finish from Levi Allen (16:48.60) and 10th place from Joel Kejr (16:57.10)

Southeast's girls had three runners place in the top five with Ashley Prochazka taking third (19:55.60) and Abby Commerford fifth (20:01.20).

The Class 3A state meet will take place at Wamego Country Club in Wamego. The Southeast boys will run at 10:40 a.m. Saturday, with the girls scheduled for noon.

Sacred Heart's Maddie Ehrlich wins regional and Knight girls take second; Wells qualifies for boys

Sacred Heart's Maddie Ehrlich won the Class 2A Buhler regional with a time of 21:02.30.

Ehrlich's first-place finish helped the Knights qualify as a team by placing second with 56 points, seven points behind regional champion Remington.

Sacred Heart's Brady Wells qualified as an individual on the boys side by finishing sixth with a time of 18:04.70.

Wells will run at 11:20 a.m. while the Knight girls will run at 10 a.m. Saturday at Sand Plum Course in Victoria.

More:Salina Central football's Kenyon McMillan, Inavion Lewis shine in Mayor's Cup

Ell-Saline boys qualify for state

The Ell-Saline boys are heading back to state for the second straight year.

The Cardinals finished second at the Class 2A regional hosted by Buhler with 78 points, 33 behind regional champion Berean Academy.

Ell-Saline had three runners place in the top 10, led by Carson Fouard's third-place finish in 17:57.10. Kelton Kern took fourth (17:58.70), while Garrison Zerger was eighth (18:23.80).

The Cardinal boys will run at 11:20 a.m. at Sand Plum Course in Victoria.

More:Here are the high school athlete of the week and top performers for Oct. 16-21 in Saline County

Salina South qualifies three, Salina Central one for state

Salina Central and Salina South will send a combined four runners to the Class 5A state meet at 4 Mile Creek Resort in Augusta.

Central will be represented by William Griffith, who finished fourth at the Great Bend regional with a time of 16:54.54.

South will have two runners on the girls side and one on the boys. Olivia Mancino-Hinde took ninth with a time of 20:20.13, while Grace Allen qualified with an 11th-place finish at 20:46.24.

For the Cougar boys, Izaac Leonard qualified in 11th place with a time of 17:28.67.

Griffith and Leonard will run at 11:20 a.m., while Allen and Mancino-Hinde will run at 10 Saturday.

More:Here are this week's top performers from Week 8 of high school football in Saline County

Dylan Sherwood has been a sports reporter for the Salina Journal since August 2019. He can be reached at dsherwood@salina.com or on Twitter @DSherwoodSJ