ST. LOUIS – Lafayette will have to clear out some more room in the trophy case after sweeping the Class 4 Sectional 1 cross country races Saturday at Parkway Central.
The Lancers won the girls’ race by a narrow six points over Eureka, 51-57. The boys claimed their title with 49 points, 34 ahead of runner-up DeSmet.
“That’s the first time in school history that that has happened,” Lafayette girls coach Scott Brandon said. “It’s a really good day for Lafayette cross country. It’s just neat to see that. Typically what has tended to happen is our girls will be strong and our guys are a little bit down, or vice versa. So to have both teams performing this well, it’s a really positive energy for all of the kids. They feed off of it and relish in each other’s success.”
The Lafayette girls remained consistent up front with Sarah Nicholson and Anna West in fourth and seventh, respectively. The Lancers had a little boost with Elise Larson (18th) and Emma Riordan (19th) bringing up the back-end of the scoring. It also helped that Lafayette put its sixth and seventh runner in front of Eureka’s No. 5.
“Our one and two have been consistent all year,” Brandon said. “And our four and five runners really made a big move today, and that helped a lot. We’ve been putting pieces together, and today they came together better than what we’ve had in the past. Today was a nice day to do it.”
The Lafayette boys have been one of top contenders all season, and the sectional race was no different. The Lancers, No. 2 in the Big River Running rankings, had three runners in the top 10 and a first-to-fifth split of only 34 seconds.
Dylan Quisenberry led the way in third, followed by Austin Hindman in sixth and Devin Meyrer in ninth.
“I think we just went out and executed our race and ran really intelligently,” Lafayette boys coach Sean O’Connor said. “It’s a nice continuation from last week and a confidence boost going into (state).
“I think Devin had a great race. He’s consistently gotten faster and faster each week. He ended up being our third guy, and he’s been our No. 5 all season. He dropped almost 15 or 20 seconds from last week. As a whole we ran a whole lot better; it’s coming along at the right time I hope.”
The Lancers don’t have a senior in their top five, and only one in the varsity seven in Tyler Laudeman, who was 31st. They also won sectionals last year when they had three seniors in the scoring five. That team went on to claim third place at the state meet.