Steinhauser Leads Allen at Region 6 Championships

by TIMOTHY EVERSON The Iola Register | October 31, 2017

Having to run without one of their top runners was not exactly what Coach DeGrado had in mind when he goes into championship season however in order to enhance his team’s chances of running their best at the end of the season that was exactly what he decided to do this past Monday.

“I would have liked to see our women take that next step in our programs development by winning the region title, but we just didn’t have it. However, I still like where we are headed as a program, we lost to better teams, but we still have 12 more days until Nationals.” DeGrado said.

The Lady Red Devils were able to have a lot of success out there when Abby Steinhauser won the conference championship making this the 3rd straight year where somebody from our team has won the conference title. Karen Perez really had a great meet and is coming on at the perfect time. She really moved through the packs of runners and kept passing people as did Amber Gloria who really stepped up even while she has battled an injury all season.

Lead by conference champion Abby Steinhauser the Red Devils finished 3rd in the Region and conference runner up. The women came up short in both region and the conference finishing third and second respectively behind Colby and Cowley.

“Colby’s a lot better than some people gave them credit for and Cowley has been ranked in the top 5 all season long,” DeGrado said. “I would have liked to of won on both ends however I wasn’t disappointed at all. I was happy with our lady’s effort because it was much better than the effort that they displayed two weeks before at Butler. Sometimes a team is just better than you and say it is what it is and move on.”

Abby Steinhauser still fought her way to the top spot in the Jayhawk East with a time of 20:25.1 while finishing third in the region while Karen Perez finished sixth with a time of 20:29.2 to round out the top 10.

Amber Gloria (20:49.9) finished 14th, Marianna Duenes-Gomez (21:39.2) finished 37th and Maria Puente (21:47.4) finished 39th.

“We’ve yet to display what we can really do,” DeGrado said. “We’ve shown glimpses of it and now it’s just doing it and cutting loose. We’re still waiting for the peak. We have better races in us. This wasn’t our best race and I didn’t want it to be our best race. We knew coming in that the weather wasn’t going to be ideal and the course was very hilly. I felt like we really handled ourselves very well. They ran tough and stepped up. I just wanted us to get in and get out with our legs still underneath us.”

We still have 12days until the biggest meet of the year. We are getting better and I believe we’re running our best right now. The goal is still to be a top 5 team and I believe this team has a very strong chance at that. Next up, both teams will compete in the NCAA National Cross Country Championship in Fort Dodge, Iowa on November 11th.

Region 6 Final Standings                                                                              Jayhawk East Final Standings
1^st           Colby – 43                                                                                           1^st           Cowley - 26        
2^nd          Cowley – 44                                                                                        2^nd          Allen - 42
3^rd           Allen – 89                                                                                            3^rd           Highland - 84
4^th           Butler – 127                                                                                        4^th           Johnson County - 100
5^th           Hutchinson – 173
6^th           Dodge City – 184                                                                              All Jayhawk East Team
7^th           Highland – 189                                                                                   Abby Steinhauser – Conference Champion
8^th           Hesston – 192                                                                                    Karen Perez – 4^th
9^th           Garden City – 218
10^th         Johnson County – 246

All Region 6 Team
Abby Steinhauser – 3^rd place
Karen Perez – 6^th place
Amber Gloria – 14^th place