Introducing the 2022 Wichita Eagle high school boys cross country All-Metro team

The Wichita area featured some of the best high school boys cross country runners in Kansas this season and that star power is highlighted on The Wichita Eagle’s 2022 All-Metro girls XC team.

The All-Metro squad consists of the seven top runners and the top coach from Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey counties, based on season-long performance with an emphasis on postseason finishes.

Trinity Academy junior Clay Shively, who won the Class 3A state championship and led the Knights to a team title, was named the Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year on the All-Metro team.

The Wichita Eagle All-Metro girls cross country team can be viewed here.

Luke Brock, Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior

After winning the 1600-meter title in Class 5A this past spring on the track, Brock followed it up with his best cross country season to conclude his career. He registered his second straight top-10 finish at the state meet, this time moving up to fifth overall in 5A with a season-best time of 15:54 at Rim Rock. Brock also won the City League title and notched top-10 finishes in all seven of his races this season, which helped the Crusaders come away with a third-place team trophy from the state meet.

Kapaun coach Gage Garcia: “He was the reason why we had a different year than we’ve had in the past with our team. We’ve had some good individual runners these past couple of years, but now our team has finally started show how good it can be and Luke took a big responsibility with that being our team captain. He still had to compete at a high level and score low points for us and lead our team. He’s actually more of a speed guy, so I can’t wait to see what he can do on the track this spring.”

Sam Ferguson, Trinity Academy junior

Another one of the reliable top-three runners on what some consider the best team in the state, Ferguson once again came up clutch at the state meet with an eighth-place finish overall in Class 3A. He ran a season-best time of 15:32 in Olathe and took runner-up, again cracking 16 minutes, in a loaded Wild Wind Festival race just before the postseason. A three-time state qualifier, Ferguson delivered his best performance at the state meet as a junior.

Trinity’s Sam Ferguson: “I would say my favorite part of the season was the summer training. Me and my teammates just put our heads down and went to work and stayed consistent through the whole season. I think everybody on our team would agree that we couldn’t have done it without each other.”

Trinity coach Randy Mijares: “I think Sam is going to ultimately end up being a really good 10K type of kid. He really came into his own this season and absorbed a little bit more mileage this summer. He’s a great, young guy who is an excellent competitor and having those three guys at the top of our lineup, it didn’t matter what meet we went to, we would have been able to win the team title scoring through three at every single meet regardless of who we raced against. What a luxury to have him and he’s so consistent and it’s just a tremendous blessing for us coaches.”

Kaleb Glazier, Maize junior

The surprise contender who came out of nowhere, Glazier took the cross country scene by storm and ended his debut year of distance running by finishing second at the Class 5A state meet. He had never run a cross country race before, but ended up winning five of his seven races and won the AV-CTL Div. I and 5A regional championships this season. He cracked 16 minutes in five of his seven races with a season-best time of 15:39 to immediately stamp himself as one of the best runners in the state.

Maize’s Kaleb Glazier: “The highlight for me was coming from track season right into cross country and becoming pretty good at it. It was a great season looking back on it. I had some amazing coaches.”

Maize coach Skeeter Rankins: “He just came out of nowhere and I think it would be difficult to find another story like this. Not just in Kansas, anywhere. One of my coaching colleagues shot me a text and they said they’ve never seen a first-year runner ever run under 16 minutes at state and he’s been coaching for as long as I have. I don’t know how you would expect someone to run 15:48 at Rim Rock after just nine weeks of training. You just don’t see that. His two-mile split was just ridiculous. I’ve never coached a coach who hit a two-mile split at Rim Rock under 10 minutes and he hit it at 9:50. You run out of superlatives at some point and I consider myself pretty well-spoken, but even I run out of adjectives trying to describe this. I’ve never seen a kid do something like this ever in my coaching career.”

Jacob Hobson, Trinity Academy junior

Another one of the star runners who helped Trinity Academy to its second straight dominant performance at the Class 3A state meet to win the team championship. Hobson was once again superb for the Knights, finishing runner-up to his teammate, Clay Shively, and finishing with one of the sixth-fastest time (15:41) at Rim Rock between the 6A, 5A and 3A state races. He broke 16 minutes in four of his six races and recorded a season-low time of 15:34 in Olathe early in the season.

Trinity’s Jacob Hobson: “Oh man, what a great year for all of us. I’m so grateful for the tremendous progress our team made this season. I’m grateful for the Lord’s provision. He gave us the strength to endure the whole season. And I’m grateful for my team and for my coaches.”

Trinity’s Randy Mijares: “Jacob is a kid that every coach wants on their team. I’ve been coaching for a long time and Jacob has as good of an attitude as anyone I’ve ever met or coached. He’s always the first guy to the starting line, it doesn’t matter how bad the workout is. He’s always the first guy to say, ‘Bring it’ and he’s always ready to go. When you combine with his ability with his attitude, he is going to be an exceptional distance runner for a college coach at the next level.”

C.J. Meyer, Collegiate senior

Meyer quietly pieced together one of the best cross country careers from the area over the last four years, finishing in the top-11 at the state meet all four years and ending with a career-best third-place finish at this year’s Class 3A state meet. Meyer was a 3-time AV-CTL Div. IV champion and became a first-time regional champion this year, while he also claimed a prestigious victory in the Rim Rock Blue race earlier this season and recorded a season-low time of 15:29 in Olathe. He also helped pull along his younger brother, Will, another All-Metro selection, to become one of the area’s top runners.

Collegiate’s C.J. Meyer: “It was a great season and I was really happy with how me and my brother both improved throughout the year and took a big jump from last year. We had a lot of big races together, finishing first and second in a couple of them, so that was just a lot of fun.”

Collegiate coach Clark Ensz: “What you have to remember is that the time C.J. ran (15:56) at state would have won every 3A meet ever except one. As far as I could find, there was only one other sub-16 minute runner in 3A before the top-three this year. It’s interesting because C.J. and Will were running at such a high level, but yet there were still people ahead of them. It’s pretty amazing how much talent there is right now in Wichita and C.J. is a part of that. He’s incredibly dedicated and focused and he’s willing to put the hard work in and put in as much time is necessary. That’s really what separates those top-level runners from the next group and C.J. has earned his spot in that top echelon.”

Will Meyer, Collegiate sophomore

Following right behind his older brother’s footsteps, Will Meyer will soon make a name for himself in the final two years of his career. But for this season, he savored the final cross country season of running at the top of races with his brother, C.J., another All-Metro selection. He finished right behind his brother in almost every race and improved his finish at the Class 3A state meet this season to fourth-place overall with a near PR time of 16:04 at Rim Rock.

Collegiate coach Clark Ensz: “It’s interesting because he’s a very different runner than his brother and we have to work two completely different ways with them. Will is not as straight-line as C.J. I think C.J. knows what he needs to do and does it, while Will kind of says, ‘Well, maybe I ought to try this out.’ It’s just different ways of approaching the sport. They are very close and they care enormously about each other. Will has always had his big brother to chase and it will be interesting to see what happens next year when big brother is gone.”

Clay Shively, Trinity Academy junior

The relatively new distance runner completed his ascent to stardom this season by winning the Class 3A individual state championship as the top runner on arguably the best team in the state. Shively delivered his best in the biggest meets, shattering his PR with a time of 14:47 in Olathe early in the season and then finishing sixth in Minnesota in one of the largest meets in the Midwest. And when it came time for the state meet, Shively ran what is believed to be a meet record time of 15:26.

Trinity’s Clay Shively: “I’m super happy with how this season went. We had some great chances to go run fast and also some great chances to compete against some great competition. It was a super successful season, but really now we’re already focused on a greater vision for what we can do next year and we’re setting some goals for that.”

Trinity coach Randy Mijares: “We knew he definitely had the track speed and at this time in his developmental life, he is a miler without a doubt. But we also knew he had the capacity to stretch himself out to longer distances and the whole goal this summer and fall campaign was to extend his ability to maintain his speed over a 5-kilometer distance and his progress was tremendous. We believe that 14:47 he ran is the third-fastest time all-time by a Kansas high schooler. That puts him in a very elite level, an All-American level.”

Eric Carroll and Randy Mijares, Trinity Academy coaches

A dynasty is well underway at Trinity Academy, as the boys cross country team won its second straight Class 3A team state championship in dominant fashion. After its top four scoring runners broke 16:25 at Rim Rock, the Knights made a strong case as the best team in the state, regardless of class. The team was led by senior Ian Carroll with the foundation in a loaded junior class that features Clay Shively, Jacob Hobson, Samuel Ferguson and Wes Ferguson with sophomores Caleb Tofteland and Grayson Payne. The Knights’ winning team score of 35 points at state was the lowest of any team at a state meet this season.

Trinity coach Eric Carroll: “The biggest takeaway from this season for me is how the boys ran together as a team. I think so often personal accolades rise to the top, but this is a team sport and it took everybody doing their part. I’m most proud of the fact that these boys ran for one another and set aside potentially some personal shine, so that they could elevate the entire team. I really admire the way they ran for and cared for one another.”

Trinity coach Randy Mijares: “These boys are phenomenal athletes, but they’re also great young men and it was a tremendous amount of fun to coach them. From a purely statistical historical-basis, I believe this is as good as any team that’s ever been in any division in Kansas state history. That’s significant. I think for sure we are the best 1A through 6A team in Kansas this year, but I also think we are as good as any team there’s ever been in Kansas. And the great thing is we only graduate one guy. So next year will be a lot of fun too.”

All-Metro second team

Alex Ayin, Maize junior

Jake Beauchamp, Wichita Southeast senior

Zach Briscoe, Berean Academy senior

Daniel Enriquez, Kapaun Mt. Carmel freshman

Zach Johnson, Maize senior

Blake Logan, Circle junior

Will Niederee, Kapaun Mt. Carmel sophomore

Landen O’Neil, Andover Central senior

Ryan Son, Wichita East junior

Caleb Tofteland, Trinity Academy sophomore

Lewis Wiebe, Berean Academy coach

All-Metro third team

Brody Bloom, Campus sophomore

Ian Carroll, Trinity Academy senior

Aiden Davis, Andover senior

Wes Ferguson, Trinity Academy junior

Andrew Harder, Berean Academy senior

Michael Johnson, Augusta senior

Logan Libel, Goddard Eisenhower senior

Thomas Martin, Bishop Carroll senior

Connor McKinney, Bishop Carroll senior

John Mies, Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior

Brock Moses, Valley Center sophomore

Dawson Schmidt, Augusta sophomore

Caiden Unruh, Maize junior

Trent Zimbelman, Bishop Carroll senior

Gage Garcia, Kapaun Mt. Carmel coach