West Plains Nearly Perfect Scores, Takes Both Sides of District 5
The first test was passed with flying colors, now comes an even bigger test at Sectional 3. But the boys and girls from West Plains appear up for the challenge. The boys, at least, appear to be unstoppable at the moment and may not get their biggest test until the state meet. On Saturday, they let everyone know just how strong they are as they went 1-2-3-4-17 and easily took down 2nd place Nixa by a whopping 53 points. Led once again by senior Ben Stasney in 15:54, the Zizzers saw Jacob McCrackin come across 2nd for the team - a first for him this season after throwing down a 15:16 in 2016 - and fellow senior Ethan Hutchinson made it a 3rd Zizzer in a row. Not to be outdone, the junior in the midst of a major breakout Caleb Boys came across in 4th in 16:17, 3 seconds ahead of Branson junior Keifer Dooley, to cap off the huge race from the boys in red. Dylan Hayes was 17th, but has run 16:42 this season and will be the key to West Plains' success going forward. Their 16:18 average on Saturday is scary, though. Nixa, as previously mentioned, was a distant 2nd, but used a 28 second 1-5 split to comfortably hold off Kickapoo. Blake Procell led the way for Nixa again in 16:56, taking 11th, with senior and recent Rhodes College commit Brendan Fusco just behind him in 17:04 for 12th. Nixa will have a good shot at making it to the state meet next weekend as they appear to have a solid pack and an interchangeable top 5. Brenden Crews led the way for the Kickapoo Chiefs followed by sophomore Brady Bauder's 10th place finish. Bauder has been big for Kickapoo all season and helped them finish 20 points ahead of Branson. Dooley's 5th place finish was solid, but it was the performance from sophomore Reece Long that really keyed Branson to the 4th place finish. His 8th in 16:41 was 49 seconds faster than his time on Nixa's course a month earlier and only 5 seconds off his personal best from the lightning quick Camdenton course he will see again this Saturday.
Kaylee Hatley proved herself once again on Saturday and for that reason, we must take notice. The time has come (and probably came a few weeks ago, to be honest) to end the questions about Hatley's legitimacy - she is a top 10 talent in Class 4 right now. The junior not only took down sophomore stud from Rolla Emma Puetz for the second straight time, but she did it with only one shoe after losing one of them after the mile mark. Hatley's 19:04 is another personal best for the young lady who will be making a big leap into our next set of MoMileSplit rankings after sitting just on the bubble in the last installment. Just behind her was fellow junior McKenzie Bergman in 2nd. She was 19:24 and a full 12 seconds ahead of Puetz in 3rd. Sophomore Mia Harris, coming back from a mid-season hiatus, was originally thought to be the best talent the Zizzers had on the girls side, but her 21:14 on the day was 5th for the team as senior Whitneigh Drown was 3rd (5th overall) and freshman Sadie Hutchinson was 4th (9th overall). With 3 underclassmen not named Mia Harris in the top 10 on Satuday, we all should take notice of not just Hatley, but this whole girls team. They are good and should be set up to be good for years to come, just as they have been for years already. Their victory was even larger than their boys team as they came through 61 points ahead of 2nd place Kickapoo. Junior Anna Weiner took a surprising 4th in a personal best 19:47, 14 seconds ahead of what she ran at Chile Pepper earlier this season. A relative unknown heading into the season, it appears that the Chiefs' junior is starting to put it together at the right time. She helped her team to a 9 point advantage over a solid Branson team led by junior Madeline Caruthers. Caruthers was 6th for the Lady Pirates in 20:12. Rolla took the 4th spot with a big 8th place finish from senior Krista Hilmas and a 15th from junior Olivia Holmes.
These individuals and teams will meet up with District 6 at Camdenton's Ha Ha Tonka Park, another exceptionally flat course for these harriers to continue their blazing fast times.