State Meet Recap

We ended our season at the State Championship Meet at Gans Creek Recreation Area in Columbia, home course of the University of Missouri and site of the 2025 NCAA DI Cross County Championships.  This year we had two individual boys and our entire girls team qualify for the meet, and each of these athletes put a phenomenal exclamation mark on their season.

Boys Race

Carter and Luke were our lone two boys to qualify for the first race of the day.  Going into the meet, Carter was a dark horse candidate to claim a state title.  Unfortunately life had other plans.  Carter woke up in the morning feeling nauseous, and it didn't take long into the race for that feeling to become legitimate vomit.  But ever the competitor, Carter battled to the finish line, finishing 8th overall and with a new personal best for the state course.  It wasn't the day he had hoped for, but he made the most of a frustrating situation, passing 17 individuals in the final 3000 meters.  With his finish he joined Levi Krauss and Corin Carroll as the only runners to ever win all-state honors three times in their career.  He's still got one more year to go and will be back with unfinished business in 2026

Luke was our only other runner in the boys race.  In his first trip to the state meet, he was out to gain experience on the Gans Creek Course so he can help lead the charge to get our entire boys team there next year.  The race was also an opportunity for Luke to show the fighter he is in his resilience through all he's dealt with this season.  A month ago the idea that Luke would finish the season with a PR would have seemed wishful thinking at best, but that's exactly what he accomplished.  He went out with a pretty fast first 1000 meters, but after having to recover from that during the second kilometer, he continued to push the rest of the way, passing 22 runners from there.  His 76th place finish put him well ahead of where someone who was 24th at districts should have been.  But it makes sense when you consider that he finished the race a minute faster than last weekend.  His time of 18:40 was also an 11-second improvement on his PR from last year's district meet and placed him just outside of the top 10 sophomores in program history.  With some healthy blocks under his belt, the future is bright for Luke in his next two seasons.

Girls Race

Fresh off a district championship, our girls went into the state meet looking to upgrade to a bigger trophy.  We knew that was going to be easier said than done.  Even with only 4 districts in the state, fighting into the top 4 at state presented a challenging task given the strong schools in some of the other districts.  The state rankings always underestimate us, but even a more positive analysis had us pretty firmly established in 5th place behind three of the schools (Dora, McAuley Catholic, and School of the Ozarks) that out-raced us last year, as well as a strong South Nodaway team that finally found enough girls to score.  We knew it was going to take some Grade A races from our entire team and maybe even a little help to get ahead of any of them.

Our ladies delivered on their part.  Our team always starts out more conservatively than most of the adrenaline-charged field, so it wasn't a total surprise that we were 10th out of 15 teams after the first kilometer.  But then we started our ascent.  By the second kilometer we had climbed into 7th place, and by the the 3K mark we slid in front of Maysville to take control of 6th place.  But at that point we still trailed district rival Alton, and McAuley Catholic held a 25-point lead over us for 4th place.  When that gap had only shrunk to 17 points with a kilometer to go, it really looked like we were going to end up with 5th place for a second year in a row.  But that's when our ladies made the magic happen.

That started up front with Reagan.  Going into the race we knew she would be near the front of the pack.  A state title wasn't out of the question, but a few other strong runners loomed in the mix.  In the end Norwood's Jayden Chambers ran a phenomenal races to PR by nearly a minute and take the title.  Freshman Amaya Shafer from St. Paul Lutheran, the early favorite, spent most of the race battling with former state champion Mya Wray for second place.  After settling into fourth place during the second kilometer, Reagan stayed their for the next two kilometers.  By the 4K mark the gap to third had widened to 20 seconds. 

Just when all hope seemed lost, Reagan showed why she's the state champion in the 800m and 1600m.  While Shafer pulled away for 2nd, Reagan was able to close the gap on Wray and edge her out by a microscopic 5 hundredths of a second, running the fastest final kilometer of the entire field.  That was big for Reagan, who shaved more than 30 seconds off her personal best and thus the school record.  She moved up 20 places from last year's state meet to earn the highest finish at state for a girl in program history.  But it was also big for the team, as Wray counted as a team point and marked the first of steps up in the final kilometer.

Anna was our next girl to finish.  In her freshman season last year she just missed out on the top 30.  This year she looked poised to earn all-state honors.  It was only a question of how high she could finish.  Anna ran an an aggressive first kilometer that had her in 16th place.  That zapped her of some ability to move up, but it also gave her less moving to do.  By the 3K mark she had climbed to 13th and remained there with 1000 meters to go.  The gap to 11th and 12th place was 9 seconds, but both of those runners counted for team points.  Anna was able to close the gap on one of those runners--Dora's Isabelle Martin--to finish 12th.

Her time of 20:58 mark knocked more than 30 seconds off her previous PR.  It was also over 100 seconds faster than her time at the State Meet last year.  It cemented her place as the fastest sophomore girl in program history as well as 4th on the all-time list.  It also gave us two all-state girls for the first time in program history.  And most importantly, it lowered our team score by one more point.

We knew going into the race that our 3rd through 5th runners would have the most potential to influence the race, and in the final kilometer it all came down to them.  That began with Audrey.  Fresh off a new PR at districts, Audrey went off at state.  She ran very smart and safe first kilometer before beginning her attack.  From the 1K to the 4K she passed 28 runners, but she was just getting started.  Over the final kilometer, Audrey passed another 13 girls.  Her final kilometer of 4:20 was faster than any of the kilometers she'd done in training.  In fact, it was faster than all but 5 of the next 50 girls in front of her.  

That paved the way for a finish time of 23:37 which cut more than 45 more seconds off her PR.  It was also 108 seconds faster than her time at State last year.  It was also exactly 4.5 minutes faster than her season best during her first year on the team as a sophomore, showing just how remarkable her improvement has been throughout her career.  But for the team standings this is what we call carrying.  Of the 13 girls Audrey passed in the final kilometer, two of them were McAuley Catholic girls, and 5 more counted for team points.  That means she single-handedly made up over half the gap in team points.

Jocelyn and Adeline were our next girls to finish.  Last year Jocelyn was our alternate at State, and Adeline is a freshman.  That made this the first time either had ever run the course at Gans Creek.  They took to it like professionals.  Both ran smart first kilometers.  The field was a little thinner at their point in the race, but they both passed 13 runners prior to the 4K mark.  What simplified things at their place in the race is that nearly everyone was a team point.  Jocelyn passed 5 girls in the final kilometer, and Adeline got in front of 4.  All of those girls were team points, and so collectively they lowered the total by another 9 points.

​For Jocelyn, her finish time of 25:10 marked a 41-second improvement on the massive PR she had just set at Districts.  It was 2:45 faster than her first 5K this season, but most notably it was almost 8 minutes faster than her 2024 season best.  That's an absolutely mind-blowing drop!  

For Adeline, her finish of 25:14 was a 46 seconds faster than her PR from Districts.  But it was also good enough to make her the 10th fastest freshman girl in team history.  

We knew that if we were going to make the podium, it might come down to a tiebreaker.  That made our 6th runner a key part of the race.  With Sybella and Sybina staying close throughout recent races, we were hoping for strong races from both of them.  They certainly delivered.  ​Both girls ran a smart first kilometer.  That left them near the back of the path, but they gradually moved up, passing seven runners along the way.  Included among those were the 6th runners for both Dora and McAuley Catholic, giving us the tiebreaker over all of the schools ahead of us other than School of the Ozarks (who were in position to run away with the title) and Alton.  

Sybella's time of 28:11 was the second fastest of her career, trailing only her time at an insanely fast District Meet at Arcadia Valley her freshman year.  The fact she didn't run at all last year make's this performance an all the more impressive conclusion to her career.

For Sybina, the 28:16 finish time fell just 4 seconds off her time at the State Meet last year and marked the third fastest time of her career.  Unfortunately she never got one of the cold races she thrives on this year, but she nonetheless had a strong season and brought an impressive end to four years on the team.  With each season her confidence has grown, and she became an anchor teammate for this squad.

In the last kilometer, our girls lowered their team score by 20 points.  Of the 40 teams that made the podium across all of the races at the State Meet this year, that was the second highest jump.  And it was good enough to leapfrog us over both McAuley Catholic and Alton and into 4th place by a narrow 4-point margin.  That marks both the second trophy in team history and the second highest finish ever for our girls. 

It also concludes an impressive progression for the senior class.  In their freshman season they finished 10th at districts, but then slowly progressed from there to 5th at districts and then 5th at state in the next two seasons.  They become a testament to the power of consistency and dedication over the long haul.  This group of 5 senior girls has been wonderful to work with and will be greatly missed!  

They set a high bar for the future, but we are proud of the magical season our girls team produced and the fantastic finish they put on it!

Find Full Results Here

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