Class 1 Girls
The Missouri High School State Cross Country Championship will start off with bang on Saturday, November 7th at 9:00 A.M. with the Class 1 Girls race. Pardon the starting gun pun, but what a great race to begin Missouri's 2015 Cross Country Championship. There are seven teams that have a legitimate shot to win the Class 1 girls team title. Depending on which 2015 virtual meet that you look at…Only 48-65 points separate 1st through 7th place in the team division. The defending State Champs Salisbury looks to be in the mix again in 2015. Along with Salisbury, the following schools will have a chance to bring home the state title on Saturday: Crystal City, Glasgow, Lone Jack, Lutheran (Kansas City), Summit Prep, and Van Buren.
On the Individual side, Claire Workman of Summit Prep will looking to defend her Individual State Title from 2014. Claire ran her first meet in over a month at Districts this last Saturday. Claire' last race before districts came at the Missouri Southern Stampede on the 19th of September. At that race, Claire looked to suffer from exhaustion/dehydration. Workman has the talent to repeat, but she will have plenty of runners that plan on keeping her company at the front of the pack. A few of those runners are Workman's own teammates Claire and Katie McCune and Liberal's Alexys Barton. All three runners have had excellent 2015 seasons. Again, the first race of the day looks to be a great race on the team and individual side. Could it be the best race of the day? Let the fun begin!
Class 1 Boys
The 2014 Class 1 Boys race ended in a tie between Hermitage and St. Vincent with Hermitage winning in a tie breaker. How will it be on Saturday? From the look of things thus far, Virtual Meets has Hermitage to be the decisive favorite heading into Saturday based on the accumulated results thus far in 2015. But that doesn't mean that this race will not be fun to watch. Nine other teams are right there together to make the trailer at the conclusion of Saturday's Championship.
The Class 1 Boys Individual Race will have several athletes that finished in the top five last year and they are looking to claim the Individual crown in 2015. Humansville's Dustin Shoemaker, Hardin-Central's Riley Gorham, and St. Vincent's Levi Krauss finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th last year respectively at Jefferson City. Hermitage's Easton Sabala is having an outstanding 2015 campaign. Shoemaker, Krauss, and Sabala will be trying to lead their team to the medal stand as well as chasing their own dream of being an individual champion on Saturday.
Class 2 Girls
The 2015 Class 2 Girls Championship showcases two perennial powerhouses in the Fatima Lady Comets and the Herculaneum Blackcats. Fatima returned to the 2015 season as the two time defending State Champs in Class 2 with five athletes that ran at the State Meet in 2014 along with defending State Champion Brianna Haller. Heading into the 2015 State Meet, the Lady Comets have the top two ranked runners in Class 2 in Junior Anna Massman and Sophomore Haller. Freshman runners Alyssa Stuemph and Katelyn Vanderfeltz along with returning All-State Junior Madison Day round a very solid team to defend Fatima's State Title.
Runner-up Herculaneum returned to 2015 with six of their top seven runners along with 5th place finisher Danielle Prince, 7th place finisher Ana Gil Diaz, and All State performer Haley Damkroger from 2014. The Lady Blackcats have added Freshman Emily Enghasuer and Nautica Stricklan that are currently ranked in the top 5 in Class 2. These two teams are set to do battle in the second race of the day this Saturday.
On the Individual side, Junior Anna Massman of Fatima has had a tremendous 2015 Cross Country campaign while training and racing with her teammate and defending Class 2 State Champion Brianna Haller. Massman has been ranked as high as 15th in the entire state this year. Along with the Fatima duo, look for Ava's Bailey Ray, Holden's Alice Evans, Father Tolton's Rachel Selva, and Herculaneum's Prince, Enghauser, and Stricklan to lead the pack on Saturday's Championship
Class 2 Boys
As everyone knows, anything can happen at the Oak Hills Golf Course at the Missouri Cross Country Championships, but the Class 3 Boys race looks to be between two schools that are located less than 30 miles from one another. The Springfield Catholic Boys teams lead by Stephen Kielhofner has had an excellent 2015 season thus far. The Irish will be looking to cap of the season off by claiming the Class 2 Crown after finishing runner up in 2014. Strafford will be looking to break into the top four after finishing a year ago. Of course you have Herculaneum and Fatima that have a rich tradition on coming up big at the State Meet. This is a quality Class 2 Field that will run on Saturday.
On the Individual side of the Class 2 boys, the State Meet will showcase some very good runners. Stephen Kielhofner of Springfield Catholic, Daylan Quinn of Mountain View Liberty, Shane Burns of Strafford, Nicholas Ray of Lamar, Simon Gelber of Whitfield, Hunter Henier of Fatima, and Caleb Stillings of Ava are just a few names that will be vying for the Individual Crown on Saturday. Anyone of the talented aforementioned runners is capable of having that great day to finish their season as Individual Champ of Class 2.
Class 3 Girls
The 2015 Class 3 Girls will have some great teams competing on Saturday, and the best of those will be the Ste. Genevieve Lady Dragons. Ste. Gen has so much talent and experience. Seniors Taylor Werner, Mia Jerman, Amy Huck, and Mallory Koller are all seasoned and talented runners with bright futures ahead of them post high school. There will be some other very good teams looking to finish on the trailer on Saturday. Only 21 points currently separate Bolivar, Carl Junction, Helias Catholic, MICDS, and St. Francis Borgia in the Virtual Meet Standings.
On the individual side, Taylor Werner will be looking to become the second lady Cross Country runner repeat as a 4-time Individual State Champion since Jamie Vest of Stoutland accomplished the same feat in 2004. Mia Jerman will again repeat as the runner-up. Marshfield's Tabitha Weber, Notre Dame's Alaina Bumgart, and O'Hara's Caroline Myers are just a few names that could break the top five. The Class 3 Girls Individual race will be just as competitive as the Team Race.
Class 3 Boys
The Festus Tigers will have a chance to place all seven runners in the top 25 on Saturday at Jefferson City and run away with the Class 3 Boys Title for the second year in a row. Festus is very talented group of runners and they have had a great season thus far. Jacob Scweiss, Hunter Darnell, Brendan Pratt, Charlie Samarzich, Maxwell McDaniel, Noah Hunter, and Drew Faerber could all finish with All-State honors. Look for Ste. Gen to finish second behind Festus. Several schools including Grain Valley, Priory, Westminster Christian, Warrensburg and Hannibal will be racing for the remaining spots on the trailer.
Ste. Genevieve's Ben Naeger looks to be the class of the field in 2015. Ben has ran sub 15:45 in every race thus far. Pembroke Hill's Evan Peterson, Schweiss and Darnell of Festus, Malik Holman of Mexico, and Duncan Clark of Kirksville are a few other names that will be in the hunt for a top five spot in Class 3 on Saturday.
Class 4 Girls
The 2015 Class 4 Girls race will be very interesting to watch. Anna West and Sarah Nicholson will have a very good chance to finish first and second on Saturday and possibly help seal the team title. Ray-Pec's trio of Kiley Dein, Jamie Wharton, and Kami Tabor will try to combat Lafayette's one-two punch and give Ray-Pec a shot at the title as well. Defending Champs Nerinx Hall, Lee's Summit West, West Plains, Jackson and Park Hill South will also have excellent chances to finish in the top four as well.
Lafayette's Anna West will be looking for her first Individual State Title after competing against the likes Hannah Long for the past three year. Teammate Sarah Nicholson, Jackson's Cheslea Drum, Blue Spring's Tori Findley, Rockwood's Melissa Menghini, and Washington's Mikayla Reed are some other names to watch on Saturday. The Class 4 Girls race is an amazing and competitive event to watch and cheer for. Missouri has an excellent tradition of Cross Country and it is demonstrated at its finest with the Class 4 Girls race.
Class 4 Boys
The 2015 Class 4 Boys race features Lafayette. I am the one that usually roots for the underdogs, but this Lafayette team has been fun to watch. Regardless of the amount of publicity this team has received already throughout the nation, you cannot truly appreciate this team until you see them in person. Lafayette repeating as State Champions is not the only thing to watch in the Class 4 Boys race. West Plains, Webb City, Jefferson City, Rock Bridge, Rockhurst, Lee's Summit West, Blue Springs. They all have a chance to be on the trailer at the conclusion of Saturday's race. The XC Championships will start with the Class 1 Girls and end with the Class 4 Boys. Both races will showcase outstanding team competition.
Wow! The chase for the Individual race will be spectacular. Six runners in the Class 4 boys competition have averaged under 16:00 minutes for all of their races in 2015. Those runners are Lafayette's Austin Hindman, Devin Meyrer, Alec Haines, and Dylan Quisenberry, Kearney's Clayton Adams, and Kickapoo's Nathan Hall. Add in Blue Springs' Cody Berry and Victor Mugeche, Hillsboro's Aaron Dugan, and Parkway South's Nick Matteuchi. What a race to watch! Saturday will be a fun and exciting day for all Cross Country fans. Don't miss it. This may be a State Meet for the ages.