Home Meet Recap

Our Home Meet marked our very first 5K of the season.  This was the 14th year we've hosted a meet our at the Seminary Picnic Grounds.  Each year we try to make it a little bit better than before, and we're grateful to the Seminary Picnic Committee for giving us a place to run in front of a hometown crowd.  This year we introduced professional timing and also brought in food trucks.  We also pivoted to cookie cakes from Hoeckele's for our meet trophies.

This year our meet featured 14 teams.  Some of them like Chaffee and Valle have been coming since pretty much the beginning.  But we also brought in new schools like Northwest, as well as St. Pius X who returned after a hiatus.  All told we had 100 boys and 65 girls race.  The number of fans and spectators on the other hand was too large to count, more than we've possibly ever seen.  That might have been helped by the fact that the weather was also among the coolest in all the years.

Boys Race

Our boys were the first to race.  With Luke unable to run, we went in to the race missing 3 of our top 4 boys from last year.  That left a gap for some of our younger runners to step into, and they definitely stepped up big.  We were the smallest school to score as a team, and yet we managed to hold our own, finishing seventh place behind some tougher schools.

On the individual side, Carter was the first across the line for our team.  He spent most of the race on the heels of Jayden Metzler from St. Pius.  These two have a lengthy history of competing with one another.  Unfortunately the race was a little thin after that, and so these two were mostly forced to run alone.  This time Jayden came out on top, but Carter still ran a great race, good enough for the fourth fastest time for a junior in program history.

After a gap, we got through our scoring five pretty quickly.  Our 2nd through 6th boys were separated by just 20 seconds.  That's an incredibly tight packing that gives us a lot of depth and strength if we can keep that group moving forward.  This time it was Collin next across the line in what was his first ever 5K.  He started out a little behind the others but paced smartly.  He was able to pass 11 runners from the first mile through the end of the race.

Caden was just 0.05 seconds behind.  He took charge of our pack during the second mile, passing 5 runners during that stretch.  Not only was his finish time more than three minutes faster than last year, but it marked a new PR for him by more than 30 seconds.

Just four seconds behind those two was Jackson, who was also running his first 5K.  While he's still learning the demands of a full-length race and how to pace, Jackson hung tough with our more experienced boys through the end of the race and passed 7 runners along the way.

Noah was our next runner to finish only 15 seconds later.  He led the group through the first mile, and while he fell off a bit in the last mile, he was integral in keeping the pack together.  He also improved on his time from last year by nearly 3 minutes, running the 5th fastest time of his career.

Bo was the final runner of our tight pack.  He worked through some discomfort in the final mile and maintained his position.  He also finished just under three minutes faster than last year, running the 3rd fastest time of his career.

Our last boy across the finish line was Tristin.  He ran one of the best paced races of the day, which helped contribute to his recognition with our Spirit Stick.  While the race was a bit thinner around his position, he still managed to pass 4 boys after the first mile.  Not only was his time more than two minutes faster than last year, it marked a PR by more than 30 seconds.  

Girls Race

Our girls were next to the starting line.  Like the boys the face a little bit of reload, with three of our top seven runners graduating last year.  That didn't keep them from picking up right where they left off last season.  While the team trophies went to two Class 5 schools in Northwest and Fox, our ladies finished 4th, just behind a Potosi team that finished 14th at State in Class 4 last year.

Reagan kicked off the scoring, and she certainly scored.  She held with a pack of three other runners through the first mile before making a move in the back loop of our course.  By the second mile she had pulled away, and by the finish she had more than a 20-second lead on second place.  While the win was plenty exciting, that was just the start. 

Last year at our meet Reagan was still working through some challenges and even had to stop at one point to be able to finish the race.  A second strong showing to start the season gave her a finish time six minutes faster than last year.  That time wasn't just a new PR for Reagan by more than a minute, it also shattered the meet record set back in 2022 by Perryville's Tegan Bishop.  It also broke our own school record, which was set by Laura Steele back in 2011 during the very first year of our program. 

Anna was our next girl to finish and kept the magic happening.  She ran a solid first mile before moving past four girls during the second to work her way into the top 10.  Unfortunately there was a sizable gap after that, leaving Anna to race the clock into the finish.  She definitely won that race, as her finish time was more than two minutes faster than last year.  It also shaved 6 seconds off her PR performance at state last year.  That time makes Anna the 4th fastest sophomore in team history.

Audrey crossed the finish line next.  She also covered a lot of ground in the second half of the race, passing an impressive 11 runners after the first mile to finish in the top 30.  Her time was also more than two minutes faster than last year and earned her a new PR by nearly 20 seconds.  

We game planned to keep a couple pairs of ladies together during our races, and they executed that plan extremely well.  Adeline was part of the first duo.  In her very first 5K, she was also learning the challenges of a longer race.  She gutted her way through a tough last mile to finish with a solid time.

Right with her was Jocelyn.  Fresh off her strong performance at Jackson, she was ready to apply those improvements over 3.1 miles.  That she did.  Not only did she finish more than seven minutes faster than in 2024, it bested her PR she ran at the end of her freshman season by more than a minute.  A common narrative in the sport is that girls run fastest as freshmen and then fall off after that.  It's true that progress isn't always linear, and the last two years haven't always been easy for Jocelyn.  But we are grateful she stuck with the dedication and showed that narrative to be false.  

Sybina followed next.  She really kicked things into gear over the second half of the race.  She said that she felt stronger at the end of the race than she usually does, and it showed.  She passed five girls between the first mile and the finish.  Her time was more than four minutes faster than last year and put her in a great place going forward with the season.  

Our second duo closed out the racing for our ladies.  Sybella was running her first cross country 5K in over 20 months.  She looked good in her return.  There weren't as many runners toward the back of the race, but she caught up to two of them by the end of the race and finished right on the heels of another.  Despite the hiatus, she managed to finish faster than the last time she ran our Home Meet back in 2023.  

With less than a month of running experience, the plan for Sydney was to stick Sybella and she did just that.  She had to find another gear when it mattered, but she managed to hold off a challenger at the finish line.  Despite having to run 1.1 more miles than last Saturday at Jackson, her pace per mile at our meet was nearly two minutes faster.  As her fitness continues to improve, so will her confidence and her performance!

All told, out of our 10 returning runners we had 6 PRs and 9 meet bests.  Our season is off to a great start, and we're excited to see how that shows as we begin facing more teams we'll see in the postseason!

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