Reed, Washington Girls Dominate GAC Central; Howell, FZW Take South
Going into the girls race in the GAC Central, we were looking forward to a showdown between Washington's Mikayla Reed and Holt's Emily Griesenauer. Unfortunately, Griesenauer decided to save her legs for a trip to the Disney Classic in Orlando (where she was victorious by 50 seconds in the Queen of Hearts division) so it was Mikayla Reed all alone for the win. In a post-race interview with MoMileSplit, Reed noted that she believes her home course on the high school campus is tougher than their course just down the road at Big Driver, a course she will be traversing in two weeks at District 2. Big Driver is often described as one of the top 3 hardest courses in the state (that is popularly used, that is). She solo-ed an eye-popping 18:53 on this course which makes the prospect of what is to come in the next few weeks that more intriguing. Reed was trailed by her sister Mia who was nearly 2:00 back in 20:40. Liberty's Abbigael Woods was 3rd with Morgan Holdmeyer, Claire Ayers, and Coleen Kuchem all close behind. The girls scored 18 points and were 34 points clear of Liberty for their 2nd straight GAC Central title.
Chile Pepper (last week) is right around the time the 3rd place Washington girls started to get all of their ducks in a row last year. They are a team notorious for training hard through the season and riding a solid taper in to the postseason so with the Reed sisters up front, and the returning 7th and 11th place finishers from the 2016 state cross country meet still lurking, Washington could be putting it all together at the right time.
On the boys side, it was a bit of a different story. The race was run more tactfully by Ft. Zumwalt North junior Sean Deeken, who sat just behind Ft. Zumwalt South's Josh Skeeters and Washington's Noah Little for the vast majority of the race. With around a half mile left, Deeken made his move and never looked back, putting an incredible 16 seconds on his competitors in just that half mile for the 17:22 victory. "I felt heavy at about 2 miles and thought about giving up," said Deeken after the race, "Looking back on it, I'm glad I didn't [give up]." Deeken's individual title, the first for a FZN athlete since Jake Benton in 2009, helped the Panthers grab their third straight GAC Central victory in six years of there being such a division.
In the GAC South, held on the same day, but at McNair Park, Francis Howell's girls continued their dominance of the GAC South with yet another victory. With their girls varsity/JV sweep, Howell is 6-for-6 in the past year and a half after sweeping in cross country in 2016 and on the track this past spring. This victory, though, would not come as easily as some of the others. Without senior Erin Gilbert, the Vikings relied on their pack running and depth to overcome their adversity as they were led by senior and former JV #1 Lexi Comparato. Comparato was 8th in 20:55 and followed by Chloe Figgins, Ally Hoppe, Lizzy Payne, and Maggie May in 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th. Their 16 second 1-5 split helped them overcome the hard fight that Ft. Zumwalt West and Francis Howell North would put up as their 44 points was 3 clear of the Jaguars and 4 clear of the Knights. Paige Hercules continued her fine season with a 20:15 win. On the boys side, Ft. Zumwalt West was able to hold off Francis Howell's boys as they would pull off a varsity/JV sweep of their own. Anybody's call heading into Thursday, FZW left no doubt as they won by 21 points. Jason Brown led the way with the individual victory as all 5 boys finished in the top 13. Impressively, they also put their top 7 JV boys in the top 7 spots.