JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – For a handful of fleeting moments, Lafayette thought it had won the Class 4 boys cross country title Saturday at Oak Hills Golf Center.
Once the results went up, Lafayette coach Sean O’Connor noticed something wasn’t quite right. He had a runner credited with finishing 17th in the race, but that runner was an alternate and had not been in the race.
“Maybe we wait to post results right away,” O’Connor conjectured. “That’s pretty brutal, and that’s a hard one to swallow.
“It’s all a learning experience. The goal is take something away from everything that happens, whether it’s positive or negative, and I think they’ll do that.”
When O’Connor spotted the extra runner, he immediately went to the timers’ tent and alerted them. A timing chip had not registered at the line, and after referring to the video feed, the timers had incorrectly entered the bib number of a Lafayette alternate.
After the results were corrected, Lafayette was awarded third place with 124 points and SLUH was credited with the team victory with 103 points. Rock Bridge was second with 119.
“I told them they can’t think of this as a failure,” O’Connor said. “We’ve only trophied at state twice, and that was last year and this year. Last year’s team, half of its gone. We rebuild the team and finish third again. So you can’t be mad at yourself and take away the positives. Remember what it feels like to be first place, that way we know what we need to do to get there next year.”
SLUH originally thought it had come up three points shy of first place. Instead, the Jr. Billikens capture their second straight title.
“I was happy; second for this team was really good, and we knew there were a lot of good teams and any one of five teams could’ve won,” SLUH coach Joe Porter said. “It’s just a little bonus to move up a spot.
“I’m just really happy for the kids. I’m really proud of the guys and how they fought to get there. To have three all-staters is a testament to those guys.”
SLUH found a way to run as a pack again. Shayn Jackson led the front pack in 13th, and Jack Sullivan and Thomas Hogan were close behind in 18th and 25th, respectively. The Jr. Bills has a 1-5 split of 36 seconds and placed the next two scoring runners in the top 50.
“It was just that we got used to seeing each other and being near each other, so when we race, we couldn’t not be with each other. This is how we do it,” Jackson said of the team’s pack running. “We had a slow start, but there was never a time when I couldn’t look to my left or right and not see Thomas or Jack.”
There was a restart to the race after several boys tripped and fell shortly after the initial gun.