eTrailblazer

State Cross Country

Kodi Downes finished 3rd in the 3A boys state XC race, and Jordyn Picolet finished 7th in the 3A girls state XC race Saturday at Wamego.

Kodi Downes off to a good start

Kodi ran the 10:40 am race, and it was an exciting one. Dylan Sprecker had established himself in the first spot shortly after the mile mark, so it was a race for 2nd after that point. Kodi and Clay Shivley traded the two spot throughout the race, with a trio of runners right behind them, threatening the whole way. Shivley looked to have the two spot in hand, but Downes gassed it to the finish, closing the gap from four to five seconds to under one in the last quarter mile. If the race had been ten yards longer, Kodi would have caught him. Kodi is really tough on the uphills and that's where he made his moves. He had that burst at the end that we haven't seen in him before, so that is something that he will continue to work on. His season has just been amazing. Kodi shaved nine seconds off of his time from a year ago at state.

Camryn Frazier, Cahaya Dody, Abigail Bachura, Ally Hower

Jordyn capped off the day with the final race at Wamego on Saturday, and it was a heck of a performance! Jordyn was see-sawing between 10th & 11th place from the mile mark to the two mile mark. And then she started picking girls off: one by one. She gained about 15 seconds on the girls in front of her in the last mile. Jordyn has always been good in the middle mile, and today she was even better in mile three. In each of her three state races over the past three years, she has risen to the occasion and given a great performance and run a great race. Jordyn dropped her time from state a year ago by 40 seconds and improved her place by one spot from a year ago.

 

Jordyn with her 7th place medal

Kodi with his 3rd place medal

Coach Gant

Photos by Myles Gant; Story by Coach Gant

League

Jordyn Picolet, 2nd Place, 20:46

Seasons Best Times:

Cahaya Dody 28:08; Liz Mascote 28:10

Nobody could touch him
Kodi Downes PR 15:59, 1st Place

 

Jesse Rodgers PR 17:45, 10th Place

Valentin Mascote PR 18:02, 13th Place

David Seymour PR 18:35

Gavin Mills PR 18:59

Levi Waring PR 19:20

Jacob McIver PR 20:14

Evan Carr Seasons Best Time 21:38

Daniel McLaren

Mason Goeckel PR 23:33

Eli Kormanik

Photos by MHouse; Editing by Lauren Brown

Cross Country Invitational

Jordyn Picolet, 1st Place, 20:57

Led by Kodi Downes, Varsity Boys placed 2nd

Isaac Mahoney, 2nd Place in JV, 20:27

Jesse Rodgers, 18:26, 12th 

Kodi Downes, 16:10 PR, 1st Place

Eli Kormanik

Mason Goeckel

Wyatt LeMay, 22:38

Jacob McIver

Tyler Rodgers 20:22

Jesse Rodgers

Liz Mascote, Season Best Time 28:45

Jordyn Picolet

Liz Mascote, Cahaya Dody, Season Best Time 28:32

Jordyn Picolet

Photos by Myles Gant; Editing by Brenden Adams

Boys First at the Orchard

 

Jordyn Picolet finished 2nd in the girls varsity race, running a season best 21:14 in a great race
against Peyton Wertz of Wabaunsee. 

Liz Mascote and Cahaya Dody both finished with season's best times

Jordyn Picolet

The varsity boys team won 1st place with a strong showing, medaling six in the top 20 and led again by Kodi Downes, who
posted a season best time of 16:22, cruising to another 1st place finish.

David Seymour, Gavin Mills, Valentin Mascote

Gavin Mills, Valentin Mascote

Senior Jesse Rodgers had his best race, PRing and finished 4th with 18:52

David Seymour 11th

 Gavin Mills 16th

Valentin Mascote 14th

Levi Waring

Isaac Mahoney 4th in JV; Jacob McIver

Tyler Rodgers finished 2nd in JV

Daniel McLaren, Evan Carr

Mason Goeckel

Wyatt LeMay

Photos by MHouse; Editing by Brenden Adams

Boys Varsity 2nd; Downes and Picolet Win

Jordyn Picolet and Kodi Downes won the girls and boys varsity races by large margins: Picolet by 30 seconds and Downes by 65.

Kodi and Jordyn weren't the only ones with great races. All of our varsity boys improved their times from last week, and our JV boys were great as well. Isaac Mahoney ran a really good race, finishing 3rd in the JV boys, and Daniel McLaren was much improved as well, finishing 7th. Our new guys and our freshmen are figuring out how to practice and compete, and they are doing a great job of figuring it out quickly, leading to improved times and confidence. 

Jordyn Picolet

Kodi Downes leads the pack

Jesse Rodgers

David Seymour, Gavin Mills

Levi Waring

Photos by Mrs. McIver; Editing by Brenden Adams; Story by Coach Gant

Great Races at State

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

League of Firsts

The Braves Cross Country team competed at the Flint Hill League Meet on Thursday at Mission Valley. The high school races resulted in some firsts for the Braves.

Jordyn Picolet is the first CGXC runner to win a FHL title as she won the girls' 5k with a time of 20:29. Leading wire to wire, it was tight the first mile, with West Franklin's Lily Judd and Central Heights' Taryn Compton on Picolet's heels. Coach Gant thought that Judd was deliberately hanging back to draft and lull Jordyn into a sense of security, but if that was the case, Jordyn wasn't having it in the middle mile, stretching out her lead. Picolet kept stretching her lead in the back half of the race to cruise to the first place finish and a PR of 20:29. 

Shortly after Jordyn Picolet became Council Grove's first FHL Champion, Kodi Downes became our second. Avenging an early defeat to AJ Rubio of Mission Valley, Downes turned in a time of 16:28 to win the boys FHL title. He had to keep Rubio at bay and turned an early ten second lead into an 18 second victory. The high school squad had one season best time, eight PRs and two first place finishes. Complete Results 

The high school team will look to take some of these good vibes with them to what will most likely be the fastest Regional in 3A this year at Southeast of Saline on the 24th. Girls will race at 10:00 am, and boys will race at 10:30.

Photos by MHouse; Story by Coach Gant

Cross Country Invitational

Jordyn Picolet, 5th - 21:35

 

Bree Hilton PR

 

Cahaya Dody PR

 

Kodi Downes recorded his fourth consecutive first place finish this season. 16:41

 

Jesse Rodgers, 25th - PR 19:16

Gavin Mills PR 20:20

Jackson Comer PR 20:51

Chase Buchman PR

David Seymour PR

Photos by MHouse; Editing by Ashley Irwin

The Orchard

Jordyn Picolet turned in another impressive race with a time of 22:04 and a 4th place finish.  It got strung out in the back half with the top five girls all fairly spread apart which can make it tough to find that finishing gear, but Jordyn ran a strong race throughout. 

Cahaya Dody

Kodi Downes won his 2nd consecutive race in another close battle. He smoked to the 1st place finish almost a minute faster than last week at Lyndon with a time of 16:20. It was fast throughout with Rubio & Redeker hot on Downes's heels. That ties the battle between Rubio and Downes at 1-1 head to head this season. They put on a good show.

Jackson Comer 21:16 PR

David Seymour 21:42 PR

Evan Carr 21:50 PR

Mason Goeckel 27:32 PR

Photos by MHouse; Editing by Rylee Powell; Captions by Coach Joshua Gant

Jordyn Picolet Qualifies for State in Cross Country

Jordyn Picolet finished with a PR time of 21:37.88 to finish 8th in the girls race at Regionals in Riley County last Saturday. She will run in the 3A State Cross Country meet Saturday at 10 am at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence.

Photo by MHouse