Friday's races at the MSHSAA Class 5 State Championships closed the book on one of the most impressive seasons of Cross Country in Missouri history. In the boys race, the Rockhurst boys, led by the indomitable senior Henry Acorn, capped off a historic season with a historic victory.
After receiving a ranking of 20th in the COROS MileSplit50 Preseason Team Rankings, the Hawklets opened up their season with a victory at the Todd Warner Kickoff Classic, but were turned away a week later by the SLUH boys at the Forest Park XC Festival. But it would not be long before they were back on top with an incredible 73-point showing at the Gans Creek Classic Elite Twilight, 34 points ahead of reigning Class 5 champions Rock Bridge. They posted an eye-popping 15:32 1-5 average.
After the Gans Creek Classic victory, the boys would go on to earn victories at the KC XC Classic and Kearney Invitational, before stomping the competition at arguably the most competitive District meet in the state, putting 4 in the top 5 and winning by 81 points with an incredible score of 27. All signs were pointing toward another dominant victory, this time for their first State championship since 2018. The only teams that were standing in their way, seemingly, were the afore-mentioned SLUH and Rock Bridge squads, as well as the full Raymore-Peculiar contingent, teams they had not seen since at least September. Everyone else was either well off their radar or had easily been dispatched in the recent past.
A perfect-weather late Friday morning provided the Hawklets with the perfect opportunity to put a cherry on top of a fruitful season. Even with some residual soft points from the rain storms that had taken place earlier in the week - one at approximately 600/2600 meters, another at approximately 1500 meters, a couple more on the back side of the 3K loop, and another around 4400 meters - the course was otherwise in great shape and ready to play host to even more fast times.
The first 1000 meters looked typical to years past: a massive pack of boys up front and well under 3:00. Acorn was the first across the line in 2:50.4, with Rock Bridge's Luke Sievers, the defending individual champion, right next to him, SLUH sophomore Jackson Miller on their hip, and Kirkwood phenom Graham Stevener just behind them. Thirty-eight boys recorded a first 1K split under 3:00 and the first 115 boys came across under 3:10. The pack would start to separate around 1600 meters, as the group came through just under 4:40, and a group of eight within 3 seconds of each other would form as they took the turn and hit the 2K mark sensors.
Sievers stepped to the front as they rounded past the finish line and headed back down the starting straight, just a tick ahead of Acorn, through 2K in 5:45. Stevener and Miller still sat firmly in the mix, just behind the leaders, with Liberty Wentzville's Ayden Taylor and Raymore-Peculiar's Gabriel Voelker clocking a 5:46 and 5:47 split, and Park Hill South's Thomas Garrett and SLUH's Alexander Bendana coming through in 5:48. The chase pack formed up 5 seconds behind them and 17 boys in total crossed under 6:00, otherwise known as 15:00 5K pace. 
Photo: Clark Halferty
But, as we have learned ever since the opening of the Gans Creek Course, the 3rd K is the great equalizer and the 17 boys at 15:00 5K pace quickly dwindled to 7. The same group of 8 passed under the 3K split tower with a couple of notable changes. Acorn stepped back into the lead with Stevener, Sievers, Taylor, and Voelker occupying the next four spots. His 3:08 split brought him through in 8:53, with the next four all together in 8:54. Miller had fallen back slightly to 8:57 at this point, with Garrett trying to stay in the mix at 9:00.80. The team race had taken shape at this point, as well, as the movers and shakers had settled into positions. A battle between the two major Jesuit schools on opposite sides of the state. After trailing the Jr. Billikens through the first two splits, Rockhurst had jumped up to a 14-point advantage over SLUH, 62-76. The next two teams, Ray-Pec and Rock Bridge, sat 3rd and 4th with 112 and 113 points between them, 63 points clear of Liberty. Barring an epic collapse by one of the top four teams, it had appeared that the teams we had thought would be in the mix had already separated themselves from the rest of the field and were, at this point, fighting to see who would finish where in the top 4.
Photo: Clark Halferty
The battle continued onto the back side of the course as the front group crossed through 2 miles in under 9:30, but not a single inch was given by the frontrunners. Sievers was back out front with a 12:00.7 through 4K and Acorn was hot on the trail still at 12:01.1. Stevener was locked on at 12:01.4 and Taylor at 12:01.9. With four incredible kickers in the mix, it was anyone's guess who could take the cake with approximately 3 minutes left to go. Meanwhile, the rest of the Rockhurst crew had made moves to extend their lead over SLUH with Andrew Davis and Jack McGovern moving up 2 spots each to 7th and 9th and Kai Somasegaran moving into 13th. Rockhurst's 2 and 3 men were now running right alongside SLUH's 1 and 2 men, Miller and Alexander Bendana, and had nearly doubled their lead from 14 to 22 points. Ray-Pec and Rock Bridge continued to pull away from now 5th place Kirkwood.
As they came back around and into view of the hundreds of fans on the main side of the course, Acorn had regained his lead and was pushing the envelope down the hill toward the final turns. Stevener was trailing close behind, but Acorn was running just as strong as he had at the Elite Twilight, but had decided to go just a bit earlier this time around. When it was all said and done, it was Acorn across the line first in 14:52.40, a half-second behind Sievers' course record from 2023's finale. His final kilometer split of 2:51.40 was one of only four under 3:00 and four seconds faster than anyone else (Liberty's Patrick Cleary closed in a 2:55 to finish 11th just behind his teammate Todd Yeates and help push Liberty back into fifth).
Photo: Brandon Daniels
Stevener crossed the line with the needle pointing at E in a personal best 15:00.90, helped along by a 2:59 final kilometer split. Sievers would come across third in 15:08.10, with Voelker nearly beating his personal best in 15:09.10 for fifth, and Rockhurst's Davis passing Taylor in the final 50 meters for fifth. Taylor, whose legs were giving out on him as he crossed the line, still ran 15:15.60 for sixth and held off a charging Jackson Miller. Just behind Miller was freshman Jack McGovern, whose 15:17.60 was the exact mark that Miller had run at last year's State Championships for the Freshman State Record. As it stands now, the boys are tied atop the all-time rankings for 9th graders, though McGovern could change that at NXR Midwest this Sunday.
As for the team battle, to the victors Rockhurst went the spoils. Their 59 point total is the lowest we have seen in the largest classification since Lafayette Wildwood put up their historic 41 and 38 point efforts in 2014 and 2015. For the Kansas City squad, it was their seventh trophy and third championship as they picked up wins in 2016 and 2018 before this one.
"It was all about execution and sticking to the plan," Somasegaran, Rockhurst's 4th man across the line in 17th, said. "Just go out like it's the same race that we've always run."
Davis added, "It was about running for more than just ourselves, running for the people around us."
After an epic close to his MSHSAA career, Acorn told MileSplit: "For me it was just a game of instinct. There were a lot of moments in that race where I was like, 'I could easily just fall off right now,' but I just held on."
"Right after the 4K, on the downhill, I just let it go...and I didn't look back once."
Runner-up Graham Stevener was feeling the effects of a long cross country season after the race, staying behind in the chute area trying to regain his health, but was all smiles at awards. He led his team to a sixth place finish with 193 points, though he was the lone medalist on the day.
"I can't ask for a better outcome," he remarked. "I'm really happy with it and it's time to celebrate!"
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The SLUH boys ended up second with 89 points, the first time the runner-up has been under 90 points in the largest class since 86 points were scored in 2014 by...SLUH. The 2002 Liberty squad led by all-time great Adam Perkins hold that record still with 53 points in the runner-up effort. Miller and Bendana led the group with respective 7th and 9th place finishes, with August Talleur rounding out the individual placers in 14th. In their 32nd straight trip, a streak that started the year this writer was born, the Jr. Billikens picked up their school's 20 state trophy, tied for 3rd all-time with Warrensburg now and behind only West Plains and Herculaneum. With three sophomores and two juniors in the group, SLUH will have an advantage over senior-heavy Rockhurst heading into next season, although the Hawklets do return two of the best freshmen in the state not named Ezekiel Hagen.
Raymore-Peculiar ran a quietly stellar final kilometer, shedding 11 points in the process, and finishing in a strong third place with 96 points. Voelker led the way, with Carter Younger moving up five places for 16th and Jackson Peek moving up three places for 24th. All seven runners either gained at least one spot or stayed neutral through the final 1000 meters to guide Ray-Pec to its seventh state trophy and first since they won it all in 2019. Defending champions Rock Bridge were 4th with 119 points, led by Sievers in third and Cook Hudson in 13th. Matthew Kim just missed out on a medal with his 33rd place finish, but does still have his individual medal from his sophomore season in 2023. The Bruins' top 3 being juniors does not bode well for the rest of the state in 2025.
Photo: Brandon Daniels
Other impressive performances include a return to form for Park Hill South's Thomas Garrett, who has been battling injuries throughout the 2024 calendar year. In spite of just missing out on the State meet this spring, Garrett still posted 1:57.43, 4:14.78, and 9:15.95 performances in the 800, 1600, and 3200. More injury issues hindered his progress this fall, but a 15:20.10 personal best for 12th has us on high alert for an incredible next three seasons should he remain healthy for them. It's been a rough past two cross country seasons for Lee's Summit West's Jack Williams as, after finishing 7th in Class 5 and winning the freshman/sophomore race at NXR Midwest in 2022, he posted a DNF in 2023 and has been chasing his sophomore year 15:33.30 personal best ever since. Well, on Friday, Williams placed 15th, just two seconds off the mark with a 15:35.60 season best. Take away the mud spots on Friday and Williams surely would have been under, signaling his return to the forefront of the state's ranks.
Three boys improved by over 1 minute from 2023 to the 2024 State Championships, with Rolla's Brayden Shenefield (1:44.6 improvement), Liberty North's John Gray (1:25.1), and Ft. Zumwalt West's William Doyle (1:21.6) all dropping significant time. Among all-state athletes, the three largest improvements belonged to the Liberty duo of Cleary (55 seconds, 11th place) and Yeates (47.1 seconds, 10th place), and North Point's Hunter Stahl (43.7 seconds, 22nd place).