Snell wins 3A meet, Ellinwood places ninth

By MIKE COURSON

WAMEGO — Ellinwood’s Jenna Snell did in her first year of cross country what many career runners never accomplish: the freshman won the 3A cross country meet Saturday with a time of 15:38, beating TMP’s Heather Ruder by eight seconds for the state championship.

“She worked hard all through the year, and we always preach progression throughout the year,” said Ellinwood coach Lyles Lashley. “Every little thing she did as far as workouts, all the way through the year she progressed. She worked hard to achieve that.”

Snell started running with friends this summer, and that blossomed into her state title several months later.

“A friend of mine, Jim McMullen, asked me to run this summer just to see how I liked it,” Snell said. “I ended up deciding to do cross country just to try it out, and I ended up finding the sport that I love.”

Snell credits her success to hard work and good coaching. She won the Stafford meet and league meet in Hesston before earning a regional, then state championship.

“I just worked really hard,” said Snell. “Coach Lashley is a great coach. He pushed us all hard, and just knows what he is doing and really got it through to us that we could do well at state.”

Seven of the top nine finishers in 3A this year were freshman, including Ruder, but Snell will not have to compete against those runners at state next year because Ellinwood is moving to 2A.

“I think it would have been good to stay in 3A,” Snell said. “It was nice to run against the bigger schools. Even going to 2A, there’s still going to be a lot of competition. We’re still going to have to train just as hard. I don’t think it’s a big difference.”

Other finishers for Ellinwood were: Becky Elsen (41st, 17:52); Michelle Klepper (50th, 18:06); Paulina Montoya (60th, 18:28); Rebecca Strecker (73rd, 19:11), and Hannah Maddy (91st, 22:07).

Riley County won with 82 points. Ellinwood finished ninth as a team with 159 points.

“They ran well,” said Lashley. “We were beat by better teams. We weren’t the best team on that day.”

With no seniors on the team, Ellinwood could return the entire team that ran at state, in addition to more talented youngsters from middle school.

“They’re starting a tradition, so hopefully we can build something from there,” Lashley said.

Larned’s Shanna Prescott finished 23rd at 17:14.

Jahman Hill, also of Larned, finished 29th at 18:30 in the boys’ race.