March 29, 2024

Garden City boys cross county takes home 2nd at state

Lawrence, KS (westernkansasnews.com)-Four years ago, the Garden City boys cross country team was mostly shocked that they had qualified for state. 

Fast forward to their senior years, and not only was state expected, a title was in short order. 

Garden City did not hoist the hardware, but they came oh so close. 

The Buffaloes finished as the state runner-up, falling 52 points shy of state champ Olathe East. 

“It’s a great feeling,” senior Marcus Tula said afterwards. “Our team worked so hard for this.”

Tula paced the Buffaloes with a third-place finish-recording a time of 16:33.2. Javier Cervantes was fifth followed by Erik Chaparro at No. 10. 

Boys

1. Olathe East, 67; 2. Garden City, 119; 3. Manhattan, 125; 4. Dodge City, 139; 5. Olathe North, 145; 6. Topeka-Washburn Rural, 154; 7. Lawrence-Free State, 157; 8. Shawnee Mission Northwest, 165; 9. Shawnee Mission East, 172; 10. Olathe South, 223; 11. Shawnee Mission South, 240; 12. Wichita East, 245.

Garden City 

3. Marcus Tula, 16:33.2; 5. Javier Cervantes, 16:35.1; 10. Erik Chaparro, 16:49.1; 49. Sotero Salazar, 17:40.3; 83. Kameron Wildeman, 18:12.8; 98.