By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

After the Class 3A Cimarron regional concluded Saturday, Coach Matt Dumler and the Monarchs weren't certain whether the Thomas More Prep-Marian girls' cross country team qualified for state. Coaches aren't allowed to look at regional results before officials announce them at the awards ceremony. Four teams -- Ellinwood, TMP-Marian, Norton and Larned -- all had a chance to qualify.

"I was talking to several coaches, a couple of them thought we were second, a couple of them thought we were third," Dumler said.

At the awards ceremony, the Monarchs discovered their finish. They earned second place with 59 points, two points ahead of Norton for third and nine points ahead of the fourth-place team. Ellinwood won with 47 points. Top three teams qualified for state. When TMP-Marian was announced, the girls linked arms and walked to the podium.

"The joy on their faces was something I will never forget," Dumler said.

Paced by three freshmen and three upperclassmen, the Monarch girls became the first squad in Dumler's four years to reach state. Freshmen Heather Ruder and Allison Pfeifer finished 2-3 at the regional and the Monarchs' top five runners were in the top 27.

"It's really cool going to state as a team and everything," Ruder said. "I like running with the girls. The upperclassmen help us with everything. They tell us about the course and help us. I am just glad that everyone else is doing well, too."

On Saturday, the Monarchs will complete a strong season when they run at the Class 3A State Championships at Wamego Country Club. TMP-Marian will run at 12:30 p.m., the final race of the day.

Ruder, who called a high team finish her top goal, is a favorite to win the individual title. The Monarchs are in the running for a top-3 finish and a team trophy.

"Several teams can contend for one of the three trophies, and I think that we are one of those that can contend," Dumler said.

Ruder, who has two firsts, four seconds and a third-place finish this season, finished second in the Class 3-2-1A division at Wamego on Sept. 12. Ruder ran 16 minutes, 18 seconds and defeated several of 3A's top runners, including Allen-Northern Heights sophomore Kim Smith and Riley-Riley County sophomores Karly Ruggle and Emily Collins.

"It kind of makes me just more comfortable," Ruder said of already running at Wamego.

At the regional, Ellinwood's Jenna Snell beat Ruder by three seconds, the first time a 3A runner has defeated Ruder all season. Ruder has the second-best time of all four 3A regionals. It's a standing she and Dumler pay little attention to, since all four courses were different.

"We looked at where everybody came out at," Dumler said. "But it depends on the day, depends on the course. So many factors that are in play when racing. You can look at it, 'OK, this is the time that she ran here, look at what they did there,' but that is a flaw. You try not to do that too much."

"When you get out there, it's anyone's race," Ruder said. "The course is different, so you can't really go by times."

The Monarchs, though, have posted impressive times all season. Ruder, who didn't start running competitively until seventh grade, set multiple records at Kennedy Middle School.

"From the very first meet, get out the top 10 lists and look, 1-2 in everything she did. By the end of the year, she would get up to the No. 1 spot in all of them," said Monarch assistant coach Tyson McGuire, who coached Ruder and the freshmen at Kennedy Middle School last year.

Ruder, though, didn't run anything longer than 400 meters until late season. At one meet, Ruder ran the 800-meters and 1,600-meters -- and excelled.

"Anything you throw at her, she is going to be pretty good at it," McGuire said.

Entering the fall, Dumler knew his freshmen had plenty of talent. The team set a goal of qualifying for state. But because of several injuries, he didn't have the Monarchs run a preseason time trial.

"We just kind of had to guess what we had," Dumler said.

At the first meet, the Hoisington Invitational on Sept. 5, the Monarchs finished second. Ruder, Pfeifer and freshman Anne Mindrup were all in the top five, a meet that Dumler said his squad "ran very, very well." At that point, Dumler considered qualifying for state a possibility. However, he kept the focus on daily practices and the regular season.

"We kind of had an idea that it might happen, but we didn't really discuss it as a team," he said. "Some parents discussed it amongst each other and asked me about it. There would be little things here and there, but we never really talked about it. ... It was always kind of in the back of their mind."

Ruder, who has set the school record of 15:09, has continually placed high at every meet. Pfeifer, who fought off illness before the regional, has seven top-six finishes.

"I think a big thing is her work ethic and then two, her and Allison, two girls that are both that good having each other to run with, all of those other girls that are at the top of the state, I don't think they have that other person pushing them," McGuire said. "Those two compete so hard, are so good together."

Helped by three improving upperclassmen, seniors Emily Volker and Kalee Kirmer and junior Hayley Taylor, a returning state qualifier, the Monarchs were ranked fourth in 3A entering the regional. Ruder and Pfeifer earned top three finishes, while Mindrup was 16th (17:30), Taylor finished 21st (17:53, three seconds faster than her state qualifying mark from 2008), Volker was 27th (18:26.29), and Kirmer 40th (19:53.56). Afterward, the Monarch girls talked with Ruder and Pfeifer. At the awards ceremony, the Monarchs realized they would head to Wamego as a team.

"We passed this girl and this girl," Ruder said. "They just tried their best, they knew which girls they had to pass for us to go as a team. It was nice to see them excited about them passing girls. Just being able to go as a team is really cool."

Norton qualifies teams

The Bluejay girls, led by freshman Regan Simpson, finished third at Cimarron and will head to state as a team. Simpson was fourth at the regional (16:41.29). Sophomore Abby Bainter finished 12th, while freshman Julia Kent was 15th, freshman Kamilia Jones finished 20th and junior Dustyna Sprigg was 22nd.

On the boys' side, the Bluejays finished second with 96 points. Holcomb won the meet with 55 points. Zach Hartwell was fifth (17:30.77), Bryan Henry finished seventh (17:38.85), Troy Bainter was 17th, Kegan Vanover finished 24th and Chris Maddy was 45th.

Colby in Class 4A

Colby junior Katrina Kaus was the lone Class 4A qualifier from the area when she finished fifth in the Bishop Carroll regional in a time of 16:37.