The Chillicothe High School and Chillicothe Middle School cross country teams traveled to Higginsville Tuesday for the Lafayette County Invitational, competing in temperatures near 100 degrees. Despite the challenging conditions, the Hornets turned in strong performances while focusing on getting their first-race jitters out and staying healthy.
The CMS boys got the meet started for Chillicothe, finishing second as a team. Jace Brotherton led the Hornets with a fourth-place finish, while Allan Nielson placed 15th.
In the CMS girls race, Jaycee Dickson finished fifth, followed by Evie Fieffer in seventh and Nella Beetsma in eighth. All three earned individual medals.
In the varsity girls race, Abby Longo narrowly missed the medal stand, finishing 22nd.
The varsity boys pushed toward the front early and maintained their position throughout the race. Chillicothe placed four runners in the top 20 of the 122-runner field, led by Spencer Johansen in 10th at 19:29, Layton Baker in 11th at 19:31, Zeph O’Berry in 15th at 19:55 and Brody Norris in 20th at 20:08. Ben Cady, the Hornets’ fifth scoring runner, finished 36th, helping Chillicothe place second out of 12 full teams.
Both the CMS and CHS teams will return to competition Saturday at Knob Noster, where they will compete at Royal Oaks Golf Course.