On Saturday, Kodi Downes and Jordyn Picolet represented Council Grove High School at the 3A State Cross Country meet in Wamego. Downes finished 2nd to cap an amazing freshman season, and Picolet finished 8th in her second trip to the state meet.
Kodi Downes, 2nd Place, 16:35.15
The boys' race started to get interesting about a mile and a half in, when Downes, Cormick Logue of Girard, and Ryan Heline of Smoky Valley broke away from the rest of the field to make it a three man race. They were all three stride for stride going into the third mile. With a little over half a mile left in the race, Logue started to pull away. Downes and Heline were battling each other again as they did last week at Regionals, when Heline bested Downes by 36 hundredths of a second, passing him at the finish line. But this time, Downes held his lead to capture second place, beating Heline by 82 hundredths of a second.
Jordyn Picolet, 8th Place, 21:17.24
In the last race of the day, Picolet was in 15th place at the mile mark, and there were about 20 more runners behind her, chasing a medal. Jordyn has been so good in the middle mile all season long, and Saturday was no different. As the race started to spread out, Picolet started to pick up spots. She had worked her way up to 10th by the two mile mark, and picked up two more before crossing the finish line. Her strength in the second half of the race was impressive, charging up the hills and battling the strong winds to pick up those spots while not allowing herself to be caught from behind by a single runner.
Jordyn Picolet and Kodi Downes
Both Kodi and Jordyn have had great seasons and finished them with exclamation points at the state meet. They handled the windy conditions and were absolute beasts up the hills. I think our work on hills throughout the season, and especially the last two weeks, paid off as they both looked as good as any runner on all of the hills the Wamego course has. They both had really good game plans for the day, and then went out and executed them. They have turned in two of the most impressive seasons in CGXC history.
Story and Photos by Coach Gant
Comments