Goddard, KS — Lake Afton Race Article 2025 Link to Race Times https://milesplit.live/meets/704009 Link to Spreadsheet with everyone's updated times ranked by season best https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yBW2y4xJiUZGgIOopPElF2CgMBIVH7YN6Lnmq_lQ00w/edit?usp=sharing Link to Photos provided by Ben Povall https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCvmuT On September 25, 2025 Goddard Cross Country competed in their 4th meet of the 2025 season on our home course Lake Afton! Practice this week the Lions had the opportunity to run out at Afton before the meet allowing us to see it before our race! Course conditions were great for our runners as the course overall had a great chance to dry out from all the rain we had received earlier in the week, but temperatures during race time were on the higher side making it a true challenge for the Lions. Before the race it was emphasized to the Lions that today would be a race that would require a lot of courage, effort, and toughness to compete at a high level and go after season bests and personal records. I’m extremely proud of how the team ran in the tough conditions as a whole. We had 9 runners on the day who ran either a season best or a new personal record and 3 runners who earned a medal! Running is a journey and a process Lions. In the sport of cross country there will be highs and there will be lows. There will be good races and bad races. There will be good runs and there will be runs where it is just tougher. This sport is so amazing as it allows you all to overcome adversity and work through challenges much like life will present to you someday. Our next race when you run that season best or personal record its days like Afton that make it all that much sweeter and the hard work it took to get there. All us coaches will ever ask of everyone is to compete to the best of their abilities and we did that at Afton. More season bests and personal records will be ran this season Lions! Thank you parents and everyone for all your help yesterday running our home meet! It was an excellent day and the meet ran smoothly. It takes a lot of effort to run a Cross Country meet and we did it! Brian Buchanan our athletic director wanted me to personally thank everyone for all their efforts in running the meet yesterday. He was very impressed with our program and how we came together to help take down and clean everything up at the conclusion of the meet. Girls Varsity Our Girls varsity team took 5/9 as a team and we had two Lions run new Personal Records! Jillian Eck came away with an 18th place finish running a 24:51 beating her old PR of 25:26. Autumn Weaver finished with a time of 25:16 smashing her old PR of 26:11! These two freshman girls have been such a joy to watch this season as they have grown and evolved as runners. Our girls competed well as a team and this race is going to help them moving forward as we move closer to postseason! Boys Varsity Our Boys varsity team took 4/12 as a team and we had one Lion run a season best and another run a new personal record! Levi Brownell came away with a 7th place finish earning himself a medal and running a sub 19 minute season best time of 18:59! This was a tremendous race for Levi and a race to help him gain confidence as he inches towards postseason competition and chasing his all-time personal record of 18:01 and possible state appearance. Freshman Benji Kouns finished 15th overall in the boys varsity race with a new personal record of 19:51 beating his old personal record of 19:52! A second is a second and on a tougher course with hot temperatures this was a fantastic race for Benji. Our boys will look to run quicker times as a whole next week at Halstead; a course known for quicker times. JV Boys Our JV boys finished 6/11 on the day with two runners running new personal records and one finishing with a season best. Senior Brendan Martling finished 6th overall in the JV boys race earning himself a medal and more importantly running a brand-new personal record for his high school career! Before the race it was emphasized that our JV boys would running for Senior Cole Bennington as he hurt his ankle in practice the day before our meet. Brendan Martling going out and running a new all-time personal record for his high school career and keeping Cole in spirits exemplifies what the sport of Cross Country is all about. Well done today Brendan! Newcomer Connor Howard finished with a new personal record of 25:21 beating his old time of 25:24! Connor has been steady this season always giving it his all and it was so encouraging to see him persevere and put up this kind of time on a tough Lake Afton course. Lastly Kyle Horschel carried the momentum and ran another PR on the season! He ran a 27:20 beating his old time of 28:21. This is Kyle’s 3rd PR on the season as he keeps improving and getting better each week. JV Girls Our JV girls runners saw one runner finish with a new personal record and another run a new season best! Newcomer Lily Cooley ran a new personal record of 28:11 beating her old time of 28:28. Lily ran track with me last spring and mentioned interest in doing cross country next Fall. It has been so much fun watching her grow as a runner and continuing to push the limits and break down walls running faster race times. Zoe Liedl came away with a new season best of 30:22 beating her old season best of 30:45! Zoe had a big smile on her face concluding her race knowing she had beat her previous time and made improvement from Buhler. She will look to keep the momentum going into next week at Halstead. Next week we look to Halstead! Halstead will be ran on Wedgewood Golf Course where historically the Lions have ran a lot of PR's/Good times! We will look to be competitive next week and improve upon Lake Afton. Race itinerary will be sent out as soon.