Aquinas’ Ethan Marshall wins KC Classic cross country

Ethan Marshall didn’t seem all that impressed Saturday with what he accomplished.

Marshall, a St. Thomas Aquinas junior, recorded his first victory of the season during the Greater Kansas City Cross Country Classic at Raymore-Peculiar. That was all fine and good, but what Marshall and the rest of the Saints really wanted was a team title.

And Rockhurst was too dominant to let that happen.

“I was just hoping the team would win,” Marshall said. “But second is not bad. It is what it is.”

Marshall survived a fast-paced race on Ray-Pec’s winding 5-kilometer course and crossed the finished line in a personal-best time of 15 minutes, 55.90 seconds. He spent most of the race battling Rockhurst’s Tom Seitzer and Peter Campbell for the lead before breaking way with less than a mile to go.

“It thinned out really quickly, and I just made sure to hang on to the Rockhurst kids from there,” Marshall said. “I hung on until about 800 (meters) to go and then I made my move.”

Seitzer and Campbell finished third and fourth behind Marshall and Edward Wilhite of Warrensburg, leading a foursome of Hawklets who placed in the top 11.

Rockhurst’s Andrew Connor was sixth and Wesley Porter finished in 11th.

That was more than enough to give the Hawklets a comfortable 42-89 edge against Aquinas in the team standings.

Olathe North, led by Brian Beach placing seventh, claimed third with 103 points and Mill Valley finished fourth with 120 points in the 23-team field of Kansas and Missouri schools.

“We all did our best,” Marshall said. “There were a lot of good teams out here, not just Rockhurst.”

The same was true in the girls’ varsity race, which saw a closer finish in the team standings. Mill Valley finished second with 84 points, just one point more than host Ray-Pec. Delaney Kemp’s 10th-place finish paced the Jaguars, but wasn’t enough to overcome the second- and third-place finishes by Ray-Pec’s Miranda Dick and Makenzie Stucker.

Olathe North, led by Claire Fulhage’s eighth-place finish, took fourth.

Olivia Sovereign placed fourth for the seventh-place Aquinas girls. Riley Beach placed fifth for Blue Valley Northwest and Blue Valley West’s Sophie Call was sixth.

This story was originally published October 2, 2017 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Aquinas’ Ethan Marshall wins KC Classic cross country."