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SM East boys cross country team wins first state title in 55 years; girls take 2nd place

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Shawnee Mission East’s boys cross country team won this year’s Kansas Class 6A state championship this past weekend, the program’s first in more than half a century.

The upshot: The Lancers boys’ squad won its first state title in 55 years.

  • Senior Wyatt Haughton won the individual state title, a first for an individual Lancer runner since now-head coach Tricia Beaham won it in 1984.

There’s more: The Lancer girls’ cross country team placed second in Class 6A, as well.

What they’re saying: Beaham told the Post the whole team — both boys and girls — placing so high in the same year is rare in cross country.

  • “It’s the highest, I would say, ‘one-two punch’ that Shawnee Mission East has ever had with the boys and girls finishing together that high,” she said. “We’ve never both won it at the same time, but this is the best as far as the whole team.”

The recap: At the Class 6A state meet on Saturday, Oct. 29, at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, the boys’ team placed first with 65 points, according to a recap on the team’s website.

  • Haughton placed first by running the 3.1-mile-long course in 14:59.65, an average of 4:49.3 per mile, according to records maintained by the Kansas State High School Activities Association.
  • The Lancer girls’ cross country team came in second place overall with 95 points, according to the team’s website.
  • Individually, junior Lida Padget placed fourth and senior Scarlett Pearlman placed seventh in the girls’ division.
SM East cross country championship
Senior Wyatt Haughton, above, at state. Photo credit Mac Moore.

Key quote: “These boys, they’ve worked so hard these last couple years and most of them have been friends with each other since middle school,” Beaham said. “It’s something we knew coming up they were a special group.”

What’s next for SM East cross country

Beaham said the team is already back to practicing for an upcoming competition they qualified for by winning state, the Nike Heartland Invitational later this month.

  • Each of the state champions in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and several other Midwest and Great Plains states, are invited to the race on Nov. 13, in South Dakota.
  • Beaham said the top two teams from that competition will then be invited to the Nike National Championship in Oregon for an all-expenses-paid trip.

About the author

Juliana Garcia
Juliana Garcia

👋 Hi! I’m Juliana Garcia, and I cover Prairie Village and northeast Johnson County for the Johnson County Post.

I grew up in Roeland Park and graduated from Shawnee Mission North before going on to the University of Kansas, where I wrote for the University Daily Kansan and earned my bachelor’s degree in  journalism. Prior to joining the Post in 2019, I worked as an intern at the Kansas City Business Journal.

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