By Huey Counts
Although he wasn't sure exactly how he was going to do it, Garrison Zerger did know he wanted to run fast at the Beloit Invitational.
The annual meet had changed locations, moving from its previous location in Beloit to this year's 5-kilometer course on the Lakeside Park & Golf Course in Cawker City.
Zerger, a senior runner at Ell-Saline, jogged parts of the course before the race, checking out the various turns and hills.
"I'm terrible about judging how fast (a course) might be," he said. "I thought this might be pretty quick, but then the wind kinda picked up and I figured I'd just run and see what happens."
Before he toed the start line with about 100 other runners anxious to test the new course, Zerger chatted with a handful of his competitors.
"I talked with some of the ones that I knew might be up near the front with me and I wanted them to come out and help me with setting a good pace,' he said, "because I knew it would be windy and I really wanted to run fast today."
The hoped-for race alliance didn't go at all as expected, but it didn't stop Zerger from getting the time he wanted. He finished in a clocking of 16 minutes, 12.9 seconds, more than 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Nick Williams from Bennington.
The time is a new personal best, breaking Zerger's previous best of 16:23.80 set last fall at the NXR Heartland Regional Championships, and is the second-best time of any Saline County runner this season, behind only Southeast of Saline's Brayden Walker's 16:08.58.
Zerger trailed Smith Center's Gavin Hickert by several meters for much of the first mile, before making a push for the front position. And once he moved into the lead, the gap between the Ell-Saline standout and the rest of field just grew.
"(Hickert) was a lot taller than me so I wanted to get right up behind him," Zerger said, "but he kept pushing and I thought 'I'm not going to keep pushing that much into the wind to just catch you.' ""I knew he'd come back to me eventually so I thought, 'let's just go with him somewhat' and once I got even with him I told him to come with me to help keep pushing, but he never really did."
The victory is Zerger's third in five races this season and comes just five days after running a solid 16:36.50 last weekend at the Rim Rock Classic in Lawrence. "I didn't push it quite as much as I wanted to," he said. "I kind of wanted to keep pressing the entire way. I had a time of 16:30 to 16:20 in mind today. I kind of got it, but I don't know if that was a true 5k today, but it's Kansas cross country, you can't complain."
Last season, Zerger was fifth at the KSHSAA Class 2A state cross country championship and this season is ranked third in 2A, behind only a pair of runners from Central Heights.
"Things have definitely come together a lot over the last couple of races," Zerger said. "The first couple of races were like, 'eh, you did OK but it wasn't your best.' But now with the speed work that is getting added, instead of just running off the summer strength training, it is showing up a lot more. Rim Rock was the first time that going through at 10:30 felt easier than it had in the past."
In the girls race, defending 3A champion Sacred Heart placed three girls in the top 10 as the Knights were tops in team scoring with 38 points, 23 more than second-place Smoky Valley Homeschool.
Mia Hamilton secured fourth place in 20:19.80 to lead the Knights. Caroline Stone was seventh in 20:54.30 and Libby Kierscht eighth in 21:21. All three times are personal bests.
