JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Fatima won another girls’ Class 2 title, but it got there a little differently this year.
The Comets defended their MSHSAA Cross Country Championship with a true No. 1 runner this year. Freshman Brianna Haller arrived on the scene and started winning races from the outset. The trend continued when she captured the Class 2 title in 19:35.68 to help propel the Comets to the team title with 52 points.
Haller got a preview of the course during the Capital City Cross Country Challenge, where she took second place behind Summit Prep’s Claire Workman with a time of 19:51. She shaved 15 seconds off en route to winning state, and Haller credited having a little more awareness of what the Oak Hills Golf Center course had to offer.
“We got some more practice in and I knew the course more,” Haller said. “I knew where I could push my pace and really work up on those hills. I wanted to work those corners and push up and down hills.
“It was really fun working together, but that was our goal to win state again. It made us try our best and work for it.”
Fatima coach Marcus Bridges said last year’s squad won with pack running. Having a lead runner gave the rest of the team something to work off of and target.
“(Last year) we had a lot of athletes that were kind of the same caliber, bunched up. This year with our freshman Brianna Haller, we had a true frontrunner,” Bridges said. “She’s Fatima first state champion in cross country, and our other girls stepped up to match her performance because they’re used to trying to stay with the lead.”
Junior Riley Caminiti and sophomore Madison Day both improved on last year’s finish when they were ninth and 10th, respectively. This year Day took fourth in 20:22, which was nearly 20 seconds faster, and Caminti captured sixth in 20:27, an improvement of 10 seconds.
“For (Day) to step and finish fourth this year, she had a really outstanding race. Riley Caminetti, our senior, she also gave a really good race this year,” Bridges said. “They’ve gotten faster every year, and that’s really all you can ask.”
Bridges said Haller probably felt a little pressure to perform, not only to achieve her individual goal of a first-place finish, but also of hitting that low score for the team’s benefit. He credited Haller for handling pressure well, especially for a freshman, but Bridges conceded that this victory likely bumped up the expectations for the years to come.
“She went out today to win, that was her intention. She prepared herself to do that, and she handles pressure really well,” Bridges said. “She races like she has way more experience than she does.
“I hope she just takes it as it comes and we’ll just try to improve each year. But it definitely sets the bar high. You run 19:25 as a freshman, you’re in a pretty elite group.”
Haller’s 19:25 places her 10th on the all-time Class 2 rankings.
Herculaneum took second place with 95 points behind the duo of sophomore Danielle Prince and Ana Gil-Diaz, who took fifth and seventh, respectively. It marks the 11th consecutive state trophy for the Bearcats, who own six Class 2 titles since the run started in 2004.
Whitfield was third (132), and Bowling Green fourth (134).
“It took a lot of sacrifice, a lot of dedication and hard work to make it up there,” Whitefield coach Matt Politte said. “I’m very proud of the girls for what they were able to give up to get where we ended up.”