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The De Soto girls cross country team is ranked No. 2 in the state behind Baldwin. But last Thursday at the Anderson County meet, the De Soto girls finished first and Baldwin came in second.

"We knew they were going to be really tough," De Soto coach Chris McAfee said of the Baldwin girls. "But our kids have been working really hard and they're very determined, and we wanted to go in right away and see where we were at. They got kind of bored from training and they wanted to see what kind of shape they were in."

Leading the way for the Wildcat girls at the 4K run was sophomore Ellie Sheridan who finished first with a time of 15:46. Sheridan was hurt much of last year but had a strong season running track.

"I was really excited about adding her into the mix this year," McAfee said. "She has a tremendous amount of ability and she's just a calm and relaxed kid and very confident."

Sheridan's teammates Carly Stanley and Lacey Erickson finished second and third with times of 16:11 and 16:12, respectively. And sophomore Beth Richenberger finished fifth at 16:31.

One of McAfee's challenges tp his team with early in the summer was to mesh really well.

"They really take it upon themselves to build that group," he said. "So I'm really happy about that. They really lay it out there for each other, so I'm really pleased with all aspects of the girls program right now."

The boys also had a strong showing, finishing second behind Baldwin. Senior Colin Jokisch paced the Wildcat runners at the 5K event, finishing fourth with a time of 17:53. Jokisch fell early in the race and McAfee said that threw him off.

"Obviously fourth place is a great finish and the kids that beat him are very talented kids, so you don't know if that would have worked out any different or not but I think he still had a tremendous run," McAfee said. "That race is going to give him some confidence."

Three spots back of Jokisch was teammate Trey Lind who came in seventh at 18:12. Austin Hinchey finished 10th with a run of 18:27.

"Trey ran really well," McAfee said. "He's got a couple things he needs to differently race strategy-wise and I think if we correct those things we'll see him run well.

"And his mistakes on Thursday had nothing to do with not thinking it was more about wanting to do well. He was so excited to run, so we're going to try to calm him down a little bit and he'll do better."

Freshman Bryan Jessip finished 18th at his first high school run at 18:53. Next up for the Wildcats is the Wamego Invitational Saturday morning. Last year the De Soto girls finished first at the meet and the boys finished second. And McAfee said he was looking for a repeat performance.

"I think we're feeling pretty confident on the girls side," he said. "We know that this is kind of a pre-state meet for the girls and so it's a good chance to see where we stack up with everybody else and really know what we've got to do for the rest of the year."

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