Lukas Koch

Running is the name of the game and former Centralia Panther, Lukas Koch has found continued success in both cross country and track at the college level after his high school campaign.

Koch now a senior at Kansas State is having a great year for the Wildcat cross country team and has helped the men’s cross country squad to their highest ranking in school history. The Wildcats recently moved into the 12th spot in the Midwest Regional rankings. At the least competition Koch ran to a time of 25:02.20 to place 14th out of 217 runners and helped the Wildcats placed fifth as a team out of 27 teams at the Bradley Pink Classic.

This season he recorded a 28th place finish with a time of 19:22.00 at the JK Gold Classic at Wichita State, while finishing 44th at the Cowboy Jamboree at Oklahoma State with a time of 25:52.90 and took 18th place at the Greeno/Dirksen Invite hosted by Nebraska posting a time of 26:39.3.

Over the course of his career at Kansas State the former Centralia Panther has ran in 21 cross country races and as a junior placed 43rd at the Big 12 Championship and competed at the Midwest Regional last year posting a time of 32:12.8 in a 10K. He also competes in track in both the indoor and outdoor season and has put together plenty of strong performances competing in the 800 and 1000 meters along with the mile in the indoor season, while running in the 1500 and 300 meter runs along with the mile in the outdoor season.

Back in high school Koch won multiple 1A State titles in the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter runs in Class 1A and was part of the Centralia boys 1A 2011 State track team championship, while also winning the 2012 1A State cross country title. Koch also holds the school record at Centralia in cross country for the 5K and also in track for the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter runs.

As he continues his running career this year Koch continues to study Agricultural Technology Management and has accepted a spot in the Master’s program in department of Biological/Agricultural Engineering.