Class 1 Girls
After a tough 2015 season in which Summit Prep's Claire Workman battled some injuries, Workman defended her 2014 Individual State Title with overwhelming success by running 19:21 for her second title in Cross Country. Her teammates Katie McCune (20:41) and Claire McCune (20:44) finished second and third. Alexys Barton (20:49) of Liberal finished 4th, and Mound City's Kenedy Eaton (20:50) finished in 5th.
Crystal City withstood Summit Prep's 1-2-3 finish to win the 2015 Class 1 Girls Title 114-118. Emma Shirley (20:58) and Emma Foster (22:01) finished 16th and 19th respectively to lead the Lady Hornets. Lone Jack was third with 144 points. Rounding out the top four was the defending 2014 State Champs Salisbury scoring 152 points. The Class 1 Girls race set the tone for a spectacular State Meet on Saturday. This race contained some great individual and team competition that was a blast to watch.
Class 1 Boys
Hardin Central's Riley Gorham (16:43) overtook Humansville's Dustin Shoemaker (16:56) late in the Class 2 Boys Race. Dustin stated "that he wanted to get out and try to put some distance between Riley Gorham and himself and that it backfired in mile 3." I was impressed with the class and dignity in which Dustin handled the outcome of the race. He went for the win and it just didn't happen. St. Vincent's Levi Krauss (17:03) was third. Keaton Wheeler of Marion C. Early (17:11) finished fourth just ahead of Peyton Ford ( 17:18) of Zalma.
The Hermitage Boys defended their 2014 State Title with success on Saturday at Oak Hills. Hermitage (61 points) placed four runners in the top 25 to edge out state rival St. Vincent (85 points). The Hornets were paced by All- State performances by Easton Sabala (6th, 17:21), Bailey Jones (9th,17:30), Dillon Meyer (16th, 17:42), and Zac Sutt (25th, 17:52). St. Vincent was able to place three runners in the top 25 as well. Lutheran of Kansas City placed 4th with 149 points. New Haven finished 5th with 155 points.
Class 2 Girls
Defending Champ Brianna Haller (18:49) made up some ground in the last mile to pass her teammate Anna Massman (19:05) to claim victory for the second year in a row. Both Lady Comets had been running great all year and Saturday was no exception. Herculaneum's Danielle Prince (19:32), Emily Enghauser (19:47), and Nautica Stricklin (19:49) finshed 3rd, 4th, and 5th to lead the Class 2 Girls Race.
Fatima and Herculaneum placed all five of their runners in the top 25. Fatima (37 points) went 1-2-10-11-18 to edge out Herculaneum's (44 points) 3-4-5-15-23. What a battle between to quality Class 2 programs. Bowling Green claimed 3rd with 116 points and Whitfield ended up with 4th with 132 points.
Class 2 Boys
The Class 2 Boys had plenty of SW Missouri flavor in the Individual race. 7 of the top 10 finishers were from the southwest region of the state. Springfield Catholic's Stephen Kielhofner dominated the race by running 16:13 on Saturday. Strafford's Shane Burns (16:36) finished 2nd. Caleb Stillings (16:45) of Ava squeaked by Lamar's Nicholas Ray (16:45) for 3rd. Whitfield's Simon Gelber (16:51) claimed 5th.
Kielhofner along with All State teammates Austin Reith (10th, 17:09) and Lachlan Moore led Springfield Catholic to the Class 2 Boys State Title with 67 points. Herculaneum (81 points) edged out Strafford (88 points) for 3rd. Fatima finished 4th with 138 points.
Class 3 Girls
Taylor Werner capped off her high school Cross Country career with her fourth consecutive Individual State Title on Saturday by running a blistering 17:14 on Oak Hills Saturday. Mia Jerman (18:33) was runner up for the second year in a row. Following the senior girls of Werner and Jerman, are some talented up and coming underclassmen. Alaina Baumgart (19:17) of Notre Dame of Cape Girareau finsihed 3rd. Mariah Lister (19:31) of Grain Valley edged out O'Hara's Caroline Meyers (19:31) for 4th.
St. Genevieve got two other All State performances from Sarah Moore (8th), and Amy Huck (11th) to go along with Werner and Jerman to claim the Team Title with 52 points. Geneva Lee (6th) and Lexi Walsh (9th) guided MICDS to a 2nd place finish with 91 points. Notre Dame of Cape (110 points) and Helias Catholic (151 points) completed the awards stand with a 3rd and 4th place finish respectively.
Class 3 Boys
Ben Naeger of Ste. Genevieve was all by himself on Oak Hills and he still ran a tremendous time of 15:34 to claim his first Class 3 Cross Country Individual Title. Naeger's time was the second fastest time recorded on the day. Evan Peterson of Pembroke Hill (16:23) placed 2nd. John Murray (16:38) of Westminster Christian Academy finished 3rd. Freshman sensation Maxwell McDaniel (16:30) claimed 4th. Schuyler (16:38) and Nathaniel (16:38) Ogden ended up 5th and 6th respectively.
Festus placed all seven runners in the top 26, one place shy of what was predicted as a possibility earlier this week. McDainels (9th), Jacob Schweiss (12th), Noah Hunter(16th), Charlie Samarzich (17th), Hunter Darnell (18th), Brendan Pratt (19th), and Drew Farber (26th) scored 47 points to lead Festus to their second straight Team Title in Class 3 boys. A very good Ste. Gen team behind Naeger and the Ogden's claimed 2nd with 74 points. Westminster Christian (13 points) edged out Priory (130 points) for 3rd.
Class 4 Girls
Anna West of Lafayette (17:46) claimed her first Cross Country State Title on Saturday by winning the Class 4 Girls race. West was followed by teammate Sarah Nicholson (18:01) Super Sophomore Tori Findley (18:07) of Blue Springs South finished 3rd. Melissa Menghini (18:30) of Rockwood Summit finished her impressive high school XC career with a 4th place honor. Another Super Sophomore Mikayla Reed (19:38) of Washington rounded out the Class 4 Girls top five.
The Lafayette Lady Lancers scored 55 points to claim the Class 4 Girls Team Title. Along with West and Nicholson, All-State perfomer Grace Breiten finished 11th to help lead the Lafayette to the title. Ray-Pec (117 points) used three all state performances from Kiley Dean (9th), Kami Tabor (13th), Jamie Wharton to bring home 2nd place honors. 2014 Class 4 Champs Nerinx Hall ran well enough to finish 3rd with 139 points just ahead of Jackson who scored 153 points.
Class 4 Boys
Devin Meyrer of Lafayette pulled away in the last mile to claim the Class 4 Boys Inidividual State Title with the best time recorded of the day at 15:25. Teammate Austin Hindman finished 2nd with a 15:40. Hillsboro's Aaron Dugan (15:51) placed 3rd. Kearney's Clayton Adams (15:58) garnished 4th place in front another Lancer Alec Haines (16:00) and Parkway South's Nick Matteuchi (16:00).
As expected, the Lafayette Lancers scored 38 points to win the Class 4 State Title. The Lancers placed four runners in the top 25. Rockhurst packed their way into a 2nd place finish by scoring 131 points despite having having only one runner John Luder (8th) in the top 25. West Plains' 40 second pack allowed their relatively young team to finish 3rd with 145 points, followed by Rock Bridge with 162 points. The Class 4 Boys race concluded a great 2015 XC Championship in Jefferson City.