Fremont High School seniors Mitch Hunt and Holly Bussa earned district individual cross country titles at Valley View Golf Course Thursday in Fremont.
Bussa finished with a time of 15:19.99 over the the damp and spongy 4k course while Hunt finished the 5k course in 16:47.14.
“This course is not fast to begin with and today it was basically a sponge,” FHS head boys coach Sean McMahon said. “To run a time like that when the conditions were rather mushy is awesome.”
Bussa and Omaha Burke freshman Emily Moore jumped out early on the pack but while Moore faded Bussa kept up the pace.
“The Burke girls took off pretty fast so that last 1,000 was pretty tough,” Bussa said. “I knew coming in that there were some strong contenders but we were working for a team championship so it was just try and get in front of all the people ahead of me to help our team as much as I could.”
A large pack ran together over the first 1-K and then Hunt and Omaha Northwest junior Joseph Fitzgarrald pulled slightly ahead of the field around the midway point.
Hunt distanced himself from Fitzgarrald the last kilometer and won by nearly 10 seconds.
The race was just part of the overall goal for Hunt.
“I’m just looking forward to state right now,” he said.
The district race was the first time in several weeks that Hunt was 100 percent. A sore foot kept him from running and instead training in other ways.
He ran in last week’s Heartland Athletic Conference meet finishing fourth.
“The two weeks he spent in the pool were the hardest two weeks we’ve trained someone ever,” McMahon said. “He wasn’t running slower than normal last week because he was out of shape it was because he was exhausted but now he’s starting to get his legs back under him.”
For the girls junior Kayla Fenske added a third-place finish (15:43.04) while sophomores Lisa Poppe (15:52.72) and Hannah Schroeder (15:59.51) placed fifth and sixth respectively and senior Ashley Vance was 10th (16:26.05).
Jose Nuno placed fourth for the boys (17:03.27) while Cory Poehling was fifth (17:09.59), Nate Nevius seventh (17:18.80), Britt Jensen eighth (17:28.61), Tim Ciochon 14th (17:36.23) and Tyler Hall 17th (17:48.86).
Bussa and Hunt and the rest of their teammates will run next Friday in Kearney at state.
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