(Photo: Noah Weidner)
JV Boys and Girls Races
(Photo: Ted Paduck)
The top 3 girls JV teams will square off in the Green Division on Saturday with St. Theresa's Academy, Liberty North, and Francis Howell all duking it out in the second high school race of the day. St. Theresa's girls #14 is at 22:30 and they have their 8-12 all under 22:20 with 2 under 21:40. Liberty North benefited from a fantastic race on their flat new home course. They now boast 3 girls under 22:00, but their #12 is a 22:46. Francis Howell's girls are coming off a victory at Brooks Memphis Twilight Classic in which they put 5 in the top 30 there. They also won the FZN Invitational JV race with the C Team. They will bump up their lone sub-22:00 to Varsity, but retain 5 girls between 22:08-23:17 on the season, three of which with sub-22:20 bests. Blue Springs has the fastest non-varsity runner in the state right now as they can boast 8 girls under 21:00. Lexi Stetler will be vying for a varsity spot and may just turn some heads in this JV race. Last year's green division champions were Bentonville (AR) by a very wide margin, but they will not be in attendance this year.
Rockhurst brings in a stellar JV squad from the Kansas City area. They will be the ones to beat in the Green division as they boast an average 5K (17:36) from their 8-12 that is 46 seconds faster than the next closest team who will be attending -- Blue Springs. Liberty North, Rock Bridge, and St. Louis University High, as well as Lafayette and Festus will all bring in similarly deep and historic JV contingents. Rock Bridge, in particular, put on a show at Fleet Feet Wright City when they scored 6 boys in the top 10 on varsity and then took the first 14 spots on JV. Rockhurst won last year's race fairly easily and looks poised to repeat this year.