For the first time in seven years, Southeast of Saline High School’s cross country teams find themselves in unfamiliar territory.

You must go back to 2018 for the last time that neither the Trojan boys nor girls began a season without defending a Class 3A state team championship.

But while that sustained success is a testament to the standard the Trojans have set in recent years under veteran coach Wade Caselman, falling short in 2024 also fueled an intense desire for both teams to return to the top of the podium this fall.

That is especially true for the boys, who won their last of three straight titles in 2020, but have been runners-up for each of the past four years. As for the girls, they saw a streak of four championships come to an end last year when they finished third.

“We’re pretty motivated,” senior Brayden Walker said of the boys team. “We only lost one senior from last year and everybody else has gotten faster, so we knew that we were going to be strong this year.

Pictured- SE of Saline senior Brayden Walker

“Even at state track (2023) and state cross country, we’ve only gotten second, so getting first is the end goal.”

Walker is a three-time state individual placer after taking 14th as a freshman, 15th as a sophomore and 12th last year.

Pictured- SE of Saline senior Jacob Bircher

“Every year we kind of do this little thing at the beginning where we come up with three individual goals and a couple of team goals,” said fellow senior Jacob Bircher, who also has been part of three runner-up team finishes while placing 19th as a junior and 15th last fall. “Every year our big team goal has been to win state, and just falling short of that the past couple of years has really motivated to go for it all this year.”

In addition to Walker and Bircher, the boys return sophomores Zachary and Brooks Carlin, along with junior Caleb Franklin and sophomore Caleb Knopf from last year’s state team.

The Trojans already have runner-up finishes in two big meets where they faced larger schools, finishing second to 5A Wichita Carroll at Great Bend and second to 4A Wamego in the Wamego Invitational, where they moved up to compete in the 4A division. On Saturday they will run in the Rim Rock Invitational in Lawrence, site of the 3A, 5A and 6A state meets, facing some of the top teams from several states.

“They’ve been working hard,” Caselman said. “We’re not afraid to run up (a division). A course like Rim Rock is hard to mimic, and Wamego is a good course, so that’s going to help us.”

Southeast’s girls saw a four-year team championship run end last year when they finished third behind Hesston and Wichita Trinity in a race where they were favored to make it five in a row. But like the boys, they hope to be back on top.

“They were disappointed,” Caselman said of last year’s third-place finish. “They were favored to win it, but we had some illness and had two really good teams that we had beaten at regionals that ran well.”

Even so, the Trojans were just five points out of first place at state.

Pictured- SE of Saline junior Piper Brown

“I think we can (win), but we all need to come down in our time,” said junior Piper Brown, who was not at full strength at state last year, finishing 50th nearly two minutes off a personal best at regionals the week before. “But the last meet a lot of people (improved) their times.

“I’m excited (for Saturday at Rim Rock). It’s better competition and we’ll see teams like Hesston and Trinity.”

The Trojans return all but one runner from last year’s team. Brown has been the leader, finishing 11th in the opener at Great Bend and 10th at Wamego, and she is followed by sophomore Ava McGraw, junior Anna Jackson and junior Reagan Dunn, while sophomore Alea Barnaby and junior Layla Lund round out the lineup.

“I believe in them,” Caselman said of both the boys and girls. “There’s not another team I’d rather coach than Southeast of Saline cross country right now.”