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It's wasn't quite the finish Eudora cross country coach Paul Boone wanted in his team's first meet of the year at Anderson County, but the fourth-place finish for the girls squad was a respectable first showing and the boys squad ran just four varsity runners because of injuries.

"We did well," Boone said. "We had 11 kids running for the first time so that's us. Sometimes you look at running age versus how old the kids are physically and running age is important.

"We're relatively young running-age wise so we really look at setting up different goals for kids based on that, so I was pretty happy. We hit our paces early on and we competed late. That's what we were looking for."

Leading the way for the girls at the 4K race was junior Molly Brunton, who finished in 21st with a time of 18:57. Sophomore teammate Chelsea Grammar finished two spots back at 19:07, Liz Hoese, Taylor Johnson and Bre Miller finished 28th, 32nd and 39th.

Eudora totaled 118 points on the girls side, finishing behind Anderson County (74), Baldwin (40) and De Soto, who finished first with 20.

Boone said Brunton's strong showing was a result of her work ethic since summer.

"She's been able to do the workouts we had for her last year so much easier this year," Boone said. "We've been really pleased with her. She's gained confidence, and I think she's going to see some big improvements throughout the year."

On the boys side, senior Chase Brecheisen led the Eudora runners in the 5K event finishing 35th with a time of 20:04. Fellow senior Nima Jafari crossed the line six seconds later to finish 37th, senior Colby Root came in 46th at 20:38, and Alex Tacke finished in 48th at 20:47. Brecheisen's run was 2:15 seconds better than his time at the same event a year ago.

"He's always had good leadership skills, but this year's he's just taken his running to another level," Boone said. "He's been able to stay healthy this year and do the workouts we've had setup for him. He made a better commitment in the summer, and he's kind of resolved to do better and become a better runner.

"And I think physically he's kind of matured, which has helped but really for him as much as anything it's been a mental shift, 'Hey, I'm putting in time so I'm going to go out and do something, be competitive.'"

The Cardinals would have liked to have sophomore Ivan Espinosa for the meet but he was out with an injury.

"I've been pleased with him," Boone said. "He's a guy that pushes really hard, and he's really shown discipline not to try to run through this. He's as tough as nails but this is something he better not run through."

Kaya Riemann was held out of action for the girls squad as a precaution, though, Boone said had it been the state meet she would have been able to run. Eudora will next run in the Wamego Invitational Saturday Sept. 13.

"Wamego's a great chance for us to run against 4A competition and it's a great chance to be able to get a feel for how we stack up with other competition that we'll compete against at the state level," Boone said. "It's a real competitive race."

Boone said about 19 schools would be there, including Baldwin and De Soto. He said the Wamego Invitational was a bigger race compared to the state race where the there is 12 schools. Last year the girls finished ninth and the boys finished 10th at Wamego. Boone said that the golf course was a little more difficult to run than in the past.

"It's a windy up and down course," he said. "They've added some things to make the course a lot tougher than it used to be. It's a course you can run fast on. Even though it's got some pretty good hills its got some pretty good down hills, too.

"It's the kind of course, though, you really have to stay focused on. If you lose your focus especially in the type of field well have there a couple seconds can make the difference between five or ten places. So you really have to keep your composure as a runner."

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