Starting the season off in the annual North Platte Invitational, the West Platte boy’s cross-country team finished in first place and North Platte sophomore Noah Heckman finished in third place overall to lead the Panthers on Aug. 31
The Blue Jays impressed in their season debut with four runners finishing in the top-10 of the two-mile race. Charlie Kinslow beat everyone as the junior ended in first place with a time of 11:06.
“The boys’ team is projected to be pretty solid this year and right out of the gate they showed some of that potential by winning the event for the fourth straight year,” West Platte head coach Mike Lowe said. “Charlie Kinslow won the individual title for the second year in a row finishing 20 seconds better than his time last year.”
Not far behind Kinslow was Ryan Pattison in fifth place, Jonah McGivern in ninth place and Tristan Newkirk in 10th place. Kinslow narrowly got inside the top-5 as he beat the next runner by one second, giving him a time of 12:22.
McGivern shined in his high school debut as the freshman ended with a split of 12:47. Right behind him was Newkirk who ended with a 12:54 time.
The West Platte boy’s cross-country team finished in first place in the North Platte Invitational 2-Mile Competition on Aug. 31.
“McGivern is expected to play a major role with this year’s squad and had a very good showing for his first career race. Then (Tristan) Newkirk and (Sam) Davies fought through some physical adversity to finish around the top-10,” Lowe said.
West Platte won the invitational comfortably with a team score of 28 points, which was 29 points lower than second place Mound City. North Platte finished with 73 points in fourth place, but Heckman shined with a time of 11:59.
Junior Panther Joshua Schaffart ended with a 12:45 split, giving him an eighth-place finish. The Panther trio of Gabriel Goodlet, Wesley Meadows and Wyatt Stapelton all finished around the same time in 33rd, 35th and 36th place.