Saturday, Sept. 28 — Buffs’ Roundup
CROSS COUNTRY
Freshman Jocelyn Sosa and senior Ethan Fisher each had top 25 finishes in the prestigious Rim Rock Classic Saturday, Sept. 28, at Lawrence.
Sosa clocked a 20:13.0 for the 5-kilometer race to place 12th overall out of 278 runners to help the Lady Buffs to a 23rd place team standing in a field of 38 teams.
Fisher, meanwhile, placed 22nd in the boys Crimson division, running a 5-K time of 16:55.2 to help the Buffs’ boys to a seventh-place team finish 347 points to end up among the top four Kansas schools in that division.
Santiago Nunez was 61st with a time of 17:32.7, Brody Hoff was 63rd in 17:35.5, Devin Chappel 91st (17:50.6), Austin Hess 115th (18:06.1) and Mario Bustillos 156th in 18:26.7. There were 315 runners and 45 teams in the Crimson boys division.
On the girls side, other counting runners included Kiera Hageman (79th, 21:36.0), Kaety Kohlhorst (142nd, 22:47.0), Katie Aubauer (178th, 23:26.2), Destiny Avila (186th, 23:38.0) and Ana Casados (217th, 24:19.4).
“I’m proud of our runners,” said head coach Krista Linenberger. “Our boys team put themselves in great positions early in the race and kept sigh of one another throughout the race.”
Linenberger had high praise for her freshman Sosa, the highest placing Lady Buffs in this race in several seasons.
“Jocelyn was not intimidated at all,” Linenberger said. “She placed herself within the top 15 from the start and maintained that through the race.”
The Buffs’ girls and boys teams will travel to Colorado Springs on Friday, Oct. 4, for their next meet.
BOYS SOCCER
With all the scoring taking place in the opening half, the Garden City Buffaloes’ boys soccer team escaped the Hays High Indians, 2-1, on Saturday in an important Western Athletic Conference match in Hays.
The Buffs got on the scoreboard first when Jesse Sotelo took an assist from Alex Macias for a goal in the 13th minute. Hays tied it in the 14th minute on a score by Diego Muller.
The game-winner came from the foot of Roger Benitez, who scored in the 26th minute to make it 2-1 at intermission. It was a defensive battle in the second half, with the Buffs finishing with 10 shots to just two for Hays. The Buffs had two saves in the net while Hays recorded five saves in goal.
Saturday’s win improved the Buffs’ season record to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the WAC.
The Buffs have two WAC matches this week, Tuesday, Oct. 1 on the road to Great Bend and Thursday, Oct. 3, at home against rival Dodge City. Varsity matches are at approximately 6:30 p.m., following 5 p.m. junior varsity matches.
GIRLS TENNIS
At the GCHS Girls Tennis Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 28, the girls squad was split to allow both Carson Linenberger and Sage Riggs to compete in the No. 1 singles division, the second such occurrence in the past week.
At the Dodge City Invitational, the two had met in the finals, but on Saturday, both lost semifinal matches, Linenberger to Scott City and Riggs to Colby and both in tiebreakers. Thus, the two ended up playing for third place, with Linenberger recording an 8-5 decision over her Lady Buffs’ teammate.
In No. 1 doubles, the Buffs also split their top two teams, with Hannah Kipp and Carole Galia placing third for the GCHS Black squad while Ashleigh Chappel and Brooke Ptacek placed seventh. In No. 2 doubles, the pair of Yen Nguyen and Rylee Ortiz (GC Black) took an 8-4 victory over the GC White unit of Syndey Nanninga and Chloe Powell.
In the overall team standings, the GC Black squad placed third with 30 points, behind Great Bend’s 32 points. Colby was second, also with 32 points, but lost in head-to-head matchups. The GC White team was sixth with 21 points. There were 10 teams in the field.
It will be a busy first week of October for the Lady Buffs, as they travel to Gardner Edgerton on Wed., Oct. 2 and then will compete in the Hutchinson Invitation.on Thurs., Oct. 3 and finish the week on the road for a Sat., Oct. 5 tourney at McPherson. They will host the WAC championship on Oct. 7.
Garden City High School 