WILLIAMS, SILSBY LEAD EAGLE RUNNERS IN 2024
By Staff
CANTON – Only three runners closed out the 2023 season for the Canton/Galva cross country program, but coach Tina McMannis is excited to welcome four freshmen and a sophomore into the group for 2024.
McMannis, who has been a track/field coach for 25 years, begins her second season leading the Eagle cross country runners while being assisted by Carman Abernathy.
IN 2023, only freshman Honesty Williams and Ethan Brozek ran at the Class 1A regionals where Williams set a personal best run of 26:49.03 to finish 35th in the girls race and Ethan Brozek finished 17th in the boys run. Garrett Silsby, a junior at the time, did not run at regionals after being injured at the Wheat State League Meet where he finished 12th with a run of 21:55.16.
Now a sophomore, Williams placed 8th at the Wheat State League meet before setting a record time in regionals. She will now be the team leader for the Lady Eagle runners that now includes freshmen Londyn Dietrich and Faith McMannis, both of whom found much success in junior high.
Faith McMannis was the league champion in the two-mile cross country run as an eighth-grader where she set a new Lady Eagle junior high mark of 13:51.81, before setting another junior high record by winning the 3,200 meters (14:07.85) at the league track/field meet in the spring.
Even though Dietrich will be running cross country for the first time, she has demonstrated much success running sprints and hurdles during her junior high meets.
For the boys, Silsby will return for his senior season while Brozek has made the choice of not running cross country this fall.
(Garrett Silsby)
Three freshmen will be joining Silsby on the Eagle boys team including Jaycob Dieker, Aaron Long and Everett Schmidt.
Dieker placed second in the league two-mile cross-country meet (12:23.50) for junior high last fall and followed that up by winning both the 400- and 800-meters in track/field with times of 56.99 and 2:25.55.
Long is another strong runner who ran fifth at the junior high league meet in 2023 and then ran second at the league track/field meet in the 3,200 meters with a time of 13:53.34.
The third incoming freshman is Everett Schmidt, running cross country for the first time though he did run the two-mile in eighth grade.
“Both the freshmen girls and boys coming up had success at the junior high level and have been working hard this summer with the weights and conditioning to prepare them for the longer distances found in the high school competition,” explained coach McMannis. “We will be able to field a boys’ team this fall with the incoming kids and that will make it exciting at the league, regional, and hopefully state meets.”
Concluding her reflections on the upcoming 2024 season, McMannis added, “Our only senior will be Garrett (Silsby), and he has been out for cross country all through high school so we will look to him for team leadership. It will also be nice having three Lady Eagles running so they can have each other to train and push at both practice and meets.”
The Eagle cross country runners will open the 2024 season on Wednesday, September 4 at Tescott. Here is the remaining schedule:
Thursday, September 12 – at Hesston
Thursday, September 19 – at Herington
Thursday, September 26 – at Marion
Thursday, October 3 – at Berean Academy
Thursday, October 10 – at Goessel
Thursday, October 17 – at HOPL/WSL Challenge
Saturday, October 26 – at Class 1A Regionals
Saturday, November 2 – at Class 1A State Meet in Wamego
(The Staff covering McPherson County Activities can be reached by email at macks.people.places@gmail.com)
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