It was a battle of Big Seven league runners on Thursday (September 26th) with two other teams competing alongside five Big Seven teams at the Royal Valley cross country invitational.

At the end of the day it was two of the top Big Seven league teams coming out on top as the Bluejays of Sabetha took home a pair of first place teams finishes with both their girls and boys winning, while Royal Valley Panthers girls and boys both took home second place team performances.

The Bluejays ladies were led by a pair of top 10 finishers as Brianna Gruber took home a fourth place finish with a time of 17:40.06 and Miranda Huettner finished sixth behind a time of 17:56.44. Lindsey Aberle and Magie Clary helped the Bluejays to a first place team finish with 12th (19:01.67) and 15th (19:49.09), respectively. Sabetha tallied 35 team points beating Royal Valley by only six points for first place.

On the boys side for the Bluejays they held off Royal Valley by one-point in the team standings to take first place. Sabetha was led by a second and third place finish in the competition as Keegan Cox took home second (18:32.72) and Corbin Cox (18:39.45) placed third. Mitchell Lierz and Kellen Russell each tallied a top 20 finish to help Sabetha win first place as they finished 11th (19:29.73) and 17th (20:11.56), respectively.

For Royal Valley the lady Panthers they were led by a seventh and eighth place finish by Kaytlyn Goodrel and Sarah McKinney took home those finishes, respectively with times of 18:06.39 and 18:30.80, helping the Panthers finish second as a team. Deasha Stewart, Elizabeth Blevins and Alyssa Garcia all finished in the top 20 for the Panthers taking home 14th, 17th and 20th place finishes.

Royal Valley Panther boys finished one point behind Sabetha for first place as a team after having five guys finish in the top 20. Bryce Golightley led the Panthers taking home fifth place, racing to a time of 18:51.20. While his teammates, Arrow Levier and Blake Bowden notched eighth and 12th place finishes with times of 19:19.86 and 19:30.97. Pallas Tye and Kwake Spoonhunter took home 14th and 18th for the Panthers.

Santa Fe Trail, Holton, Perry Lecompton and Jackson Heights all had at least one individual take home a top 10 finish in the competition in Hoyt.

For the Chargers of Santa Fe Trail it was Derrick Zaldivar taking home first place in the boys competition registering a time of 18:22.81, nearly 10 seconds better than second place. Kyle Wechsler joined his teammate in the top 10, taking home tenth place (19:25.54). Three lady Chargers posted top 10 finishes taking home third, fifth and tenth places. Jennifer Hall led the way in the girls competition taking third with a time of 17:38.29, while Devin DeShazer took fifth (17:48.12) and Skye Dunnaway nabbed tenth (18:27.93).

Holton Wildcats saw their best performance come at the hands of Dalton Colhouer as he placed seventh on the day with a time of 19:17.96.

The Jackson Heights Cobras took home one top 10 performance and that was second place finish by Kaitlynn Little who posted a time of 17:30.45.

Perry Lecompton saw their top performance come at the hands of Lexia Jamison in the girls competition as she took home a ninth place finish with a time of 18:21.96.

While, the meet was in favor of a pair of area teams the other teams saw top performances, also on the day at Hoyt. Now the teams turn their attention to build upon their performances moving forward in the season.

Full Royal Valley Cross Country Results -- click here