The Bluejay harriers are working towards the sunset of the regular season and have been logging miles in practice and chipping away at their personal records in preparation for league and regionals. With another relative tuneup meet towards the apogee of their season, the Jays traveled to the Mission Lake Country Club on Thursday, Sept. 29, in Horton for the next rung on the ladder. Along with Horton and Sabetha, runners from 13 other schools were in attendance.

For the boys, freshman Charlie Lukert continues to be a tough competitor on any course he travels to and he continues to run at the head of the pack. Lukert finished third at the Horton meet with 17 minutes, 57.42 seconds, just 30 seconds behind a Hiawatha second-place finisher and the top finisher from Marysville, who finished with a time of 16 minutes, 47.10 seconds. There were 72 runners in the boys division.

Freshman Josh Enneking ran strong and finished in 18th place with a time of 19 minutes, 29.14 seconds, and classmate and fellow harrier Korbyn Stinnett crossed the finish line in 26th place with 20 minutes, 4.94 seconds. Sophomore Tabor Bachelor continues to improve his time and finished in 52nd place with 22 minutes, 7.83 seconds.

Sophomore Laura Metzger ran a great race at Horton and finished with a time of 22 minutes, 7.15 seconds to gain second place overall in a field of 60 athletes. Metzger was one minute, two seconds behind the first-place finisher from Rock Creek.

Freshman Jyllian Stapleton ran with the front of the pack and finished the course in 23 minutes, 23 seconds to give her an 11th-place finish. Sophomore Lauren Bowles and junior Emerson Montgomery completed the course in 35th and 44th place, respectively, and sophomore Ellyannah Clinton took 49th place. Bowles finished with 26 minutes, 46.67 seconds, while Montgomery finished with 28 minutes, 6.65 seconds and Clinton finished with 29 minutes, 12.54 seconds.

The girls placed fifth as a team, and the boys were short one of their runners and fell out of contention for placement.

“It was a great day to run,” said Head Coach Doug Leiker. “With cool air in the breeze, our kids ran well and now we have only two weeks to prepare for the Big Seven League meet!”

The Bluejays will host their own meet at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, at the Sabetha Golf Club course.