After looking in recent days at girls results from the district, conference, KC Metro and Rim Rock meets, I have come to this conclusion:
The Sectional 4 team race Saturday morning at the Raymore-Peculiar cross country course is going to be one nail-biting time for runners, coaches and fans.
So which four teams (or maybe five squads!) will qualify for the State Meet on Nov. 9?
It depends on how well how ALL five scoring runners do on Saturday. That's not startling news, just so very true.
Indeed, while I enjoy looking at some of the "virtual meets" you can do with momilesplit statistics, the Sectional 4 race could yield a number of surprises.
The front runners appear to be:
St. Teresa's (winner of District 7 but only 3rd best of all Sectional 4 teams that ran at KC Metro).
LS West (second at District 7 but the top team at KC Metro and Red Conference winner).
LS North (3rd at District 7 but 2nd best at KC Metro and Gold Conference winner).
Liberty (1st at District 8 and 2nd by only 1 point to LS North at Gold Conference).
Raymore-Peculiar (4th at District 7, 4th best at KC Metro and 3rd at Gold Conference).
Also certainly with chances to surprise if their athletes run well:
Kearney (2nd at District 8 and 2nd in Blue Conference).
Staley (3rd at District 8 and perfect-score 15 winners at White Conference)
Among the story lines:
St. Teresa's has the odds-on favorite for the individual championship in Ann Campbell, who has had a superb year of running with recent victories at District 7 and KC Metro and a runnerup to an Iowa City runner at Rim Rock. (But notice: Campbell usually really gets rolling in the last mile and Rim Rock was only a 4k. Just saying....) Hayden Lee has been a good No. 2 runner in several races, and could be peaking at the right time: She finished ahead of 3 other good District 7 runners who had beaten her at KC Metro. Lindsey Valdiviez also has the opportunity to propel the Stars forward on Saturday.
LS West has been dealing with injuries and health problems all year, yet still has posted a very solid season thanks to its depth. Annika Sisson and Kennadee Williams continue to be the Titan's top two runners, and Ally Iseman stepped up to run very well at District 7. Getting a few healthy runners back for Sectionals would seem to ensure safe passage to State once again for LS West.
LS North is very strong up front (Elizabeth Carpino, Danielle Rock and Jesse Dinkins). In fact, through the first 4 scorers, North was ahead of the entire District 7 field last week and comfortably ahead of LS West at KC Metro before settling for their final positions after the 5th runner crossed the line. So, again being Captain Obvious, the Broncos have to hope they can bunch a few more runners up front at Sectionals.
Liberty has a solid No. 1 in Madison Nasteff, then some strength in the middle with Johnna McGlaughlin and Jennifer Myers. The squad almost came from way behind after four runners to beat LS North at the Gold Conference, falling short by a point. The Blue Jays have a solid shot at being a team qualifier because of the upfront running of Nasteff. And, like Ray-Pec, LS North does have have the opportunity to place five runners in the top 30 and get them to State if the situation presents itself.
Raymore-Peculiar has a young team led by Kami Tabor, Kiley Deain and Kayla Allen. While Ray-Pec doesn't yet have the super high finisher individually, I see this as a team that - if it doesn't qualify in the top 4 - just might take advantage of the Missouri rule that allows five runners who finish in the top 30 at Sectionals to go to the State Meet. Of course, that means the Ray-Pec scorers also would have to beat a number of fine runners coming to the meet from District 8.
Kearney and Staley are intriguing teams that I have not seen run often this year. However, both had good 1-3 performances at the District 8 meet.
I want to spotlight at least two other runners who have shots at finishing very high individually - teammates Sabrina Monsees and Emma Evans of Winnetonka. They placed 2nd and 3rd at District 8 (behind Nasteff) and 2nd and 3rd at Blue Conference (behind Sammy Laurenzo of Liberty North).
It will be interesting to see who steps up to grab the golden tickets to the State Meet. Best of luck to all the athlete