The North Platte High boys’ cross country team finished second at the biggest regular season meet of the year, the UNK Invitational on Monday in Kearney.

The Bulldogs finished 20 points behind first place Seward and 33 points ahead of third place Beatrice.

NPHS was led by Jack Knapp, who finished in sixth place with a time of 16:27.7. Jackson Einspahr of Seward won at 15:53.3. Knapp finished 17 seconds short of second place Carter Ribble of Beatrice and eight seconds from Ethan Smith of Grand Island Northwest, who was third.

Bryan Titus was the next Bulldog runner to cross the finish line as he finished 12th at 16:57.2. Jace Kackmeister finished 16th, nine seconds shy of a medal, at 17:12.3.

Also for North Platte, Nathan Vieyra was 19th and Caleb Yanez was 26th.

The North Platte girls finished fourth. They were led by Emma Nichols, who finished 17th at 20:43.3. Eden Majerus was 22nd. Katie Teets and Mary Nielsen finished back-to-back at 28th and 29th, respectively. Kierra Brunkhardt was 38th, Kennedy Miller was 42nd and Layla Thomas was 53rd.

Ham second in Class D race

Coltan Ham of North Platte St. Pat’s finished second in the Class D portion of the UNK.

The senior clocked in at 16:33.9. Kaser Johnson of Doniphan-Trumbull, the defending Class D state champion, was first at 15:55.2.

Wallace finished 15th and they were led by Max Hanson in 33rd place. Hershey was 20th as Matthew Blomstedt was 45th.

In the girls’ race, Zoe Johnson of Brady earned a medal. She came in 13th place with 21:28.5.

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