No one left doubting about Lafayette

 
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – There was no confusion about which team was No. 1 in Class 4 this year.
 
Lafayette rolled to the boys’ Class 4 title at the MSHSAA Cross Country Championships Saturday at the Oak Hills Golf Center with 41 points. Lafayette placed four scoring runners in the top 10, and the Lancers’ 41 points is the lowest boys’ team total in Class 4 history, which dates back to 1979.
 
“That’s better than I would’ve imagined,” Lafayette coach Sean O’Connor said. “I thought we had a pretty good chance to run a special race and have a great day, but four in the top 10 is pretty unreal. I still can’t quite believe it.”
 
Last year Lafayette had been briefly scored as the winning team, but O’Connor notified the timers of a mistake and the Lancers were given their rightful third-place trophy. SLUH earned last year’s title with 103 points, and this year the Jr. Billikens were runner-up with 86.
 
“Most years you can score 80 or 90 and you’re going to win,” O’Connor said. “SLUH scored 86 today and they were second and that’s almost unheard of. That speaks volumes of what our kids did, and the SLUH kids obviously had a great day, too.
 
“It is something special. I think it also talks to how hard the kids are working and what we’re doing is working.”
 
Potosi owns the lowest boys’ score with 16 points in 2006 while running in Class 3. Since the introduction of separate classes in 1975, only Lindbergh in 1976 and 1977 and West Plains in 2002 have scored less than 50 points in the largest classification prior to Lafayette’s 41.
 
Lafayette started the scoring with Austin Hindman in third (15:44) and Dylan Quisenberry in fourth (15:48). Quisenberry has been battling a back injury and missed nearly three weeks of training sandwiched around the district meet. He said having Hindman nearby for most of the race helped pull him through at times, but he also wondered if he relaxed too much because it was his teammate by his side.
 
“At some points in time, I have no drive to want to race my teammates,” Quisenberry said. “We run together because we’re friends. I wonder if Austin wasn’t there if I would’ve had more drive to catch Clayton Adams.
 
 
“We’re all best friends, so it’s not that hard to put us together. We all hang out every day, and we all love each other, and that helps our chemistry when we run. We’re all pushing and we believe. It sounds corny, but we all put our best effort in to do great.”
 
Devin Meyrer was next in seventh (16:00) and Alex Haines took 10th (16:04). O’Connor said the best surprise was the Lancers’ No. 5 runner, Tommy Laarman, who ran a PR of 16:39.41 to finish in 36th.
 
SLUH scored its second-lowest team total with 86 points to finish runner-up, and coach Joe Porter said there wasn’t much more the Jr. Bills could’ve done. SLUH earned the 2009 Class 4 title with 65 points.
 
“This is the fastest average time we’ve ever had as a team,” Porter said. “It’s the second lowest point total SLUH has ever had. Matthew Hennessey (sixth, 15:50) ran the fastest time at the state meet for us ever. Those are the things we take away from this. We ran great and had a good day and ran fast, but (Lafayette) ran unbelievable so you have to give it to them.
 
“The runs we did early in the season at meets like Palatine and our conference meet, the perfect score, it was definitely a successful season for us.”
 
Rock Bridge was third (144), and West Plains captured its 33rd boys’ trophy with a fourth-place finish (160).
 
Lafayette has plans to start adding to its string of podium appearances after taking third the previous two seasons. The Lancers will graduate only their No. 6 runner Josiah McElmurry.
“I already know as a fact our coach on the way home is going to be like, ‘Alright guys, let’s talk about next year,’ because that’s how he is,” Quisenberry said.
 
 
Before the Lancers get too far into planning for 2015, they first have another trip to the Nike Cross Regionals in Terre Haute, Ind., next weekend. After the state title, the expectations might be a little different this time.
 
“We didn’t really take Nike Cross Regionals seriously last year,” Quisenberry said. “It was just a race where all of us were sophomores or freshmen. We went to run it to get a national race under our feet, but I guess this year we’re taking it seriously and trying to get to (nationals).”