Cody Thorn and Chris Auckley
After being crowned one of the best teams in Missouri,
Rockhurst will have a chance to go up against the nation's
best.
A week after posting just 59 points and placing four runners in the top 17 to earn the Class 5 state title and staking their claim among the best teams in state history, the 2024 Rockhurst Hawklets just added some additional hardware and evidence for their case.
At the Nike Cross Midwest Regional Championship on
Sunday, Nov. 17, the Hawklets took second place out of 34 teams
running at Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country
Course in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Rockhurst became only the
second team ever, boys or girls, to qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals, or NXN, out of Missouri.
In 2006, Steve Davis' powerhouse Potosi boys were selected as one of 20 teams nationally and one of two from the Heartland Region to compete in the third year of what was then called Nike Team Nationals, which was held at Portland Meadows horse race track in Oregon.
That was one year before regional qualifying meets would begin and several years before Missouri would be moved to the Midwest Region from the Heartland, where it competed with teams and athletes from the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.
Sunday, teams and athletes
from Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan competed for
coveted berths to the Nike Cross National Championships in Portland, Oregon on Dec. 7.
In order to qualify for
Nike Cross Nationals, athletes must either be a part of one of the
top two finishing teams or place within the top five among
non-team qualifying athletes. Athletes can also qualify if their team
is selected as one of the four at-large bid teams from around the
eight regionals, but a third-place team finish at regionals will most certainly be
required in that case.
Rockhurst was one of four boys teams from Missouri to enter and qualify for the championship race in Terre Haute, joined by SLUH, Festus, and Webster Groves.
The Hawklets finished with 205 points, 15 better
than the Chicago suburb' school Plainfield North from Illinois, to take second.
The champion was Downers Grove North, another Chicago-area Illinois school.
Downers Grove North was
the 3A Illinois high school champion, while Plainfield North was the runner-up on Nov. 9 in
Peoria.
Rockhurst senior Henry Acorn got out strong a week after his 14:52.4 Gans Creek performance, which won him the Class 5 state title by 8.5 seconds. He went through the mile in 4:41.1 in 17th, right behind Class 4 state champ Carson Driemeier of Festus in 16th. Forest Park XC Festival champion Gabe McLain of Benton clocked 4:42 for 26th while SLUH's Alex Bendana was right behind in 4:42.3.
At 2 miles, Acorn was in 8th in 9:34.6, with Rock Bridge star Luke Sievers, Class 5 3rd-placer, in 10th in 9:35.0. Driemeier was in 14th in 9:36.6 while SLUH's Jackson Miller and Bendana were 33rd and 34th in 9:48 and 9:49.
Acorn kept moving in the final mile, but he couldn't make up enough ground on the 4th and 5th runners in the final homestretch. Acorn led the Missouri contingent with a 15:03.44, which gave him sixth place and 1st-Team All-Region honors, missing out on an individual nationals berth had he not earned a team spot by 6 seconds. The
Rockhurst senior, a Virginia pledge, improved from his 25th-place finish last year.
Seniors Andrew Davis (28th/15:28) and Kai Somasegaran
(40th/15:36) were next to finish for Rockhurst.
Freshman Jack McGovern continued his stellar rookie campaign, running 15:44 to place 47th overall and 2nd among freshmen, eight places, and 8 seconds back of the top frosh. The fifth runner, senior William Hayes, took 222nd.
Senior Zackary Zumwalt (226th) and
freshman Jack Morrison (255th) rounded out the runners from the
Kansas City Jesuit school.
Rockhurst had an average
time of 15:43.
Incidentally, the team with the fifth-best average
time was SLUH.
The Junior Bills' time was 15:59, better than four
teams above them in the standings as they left the meet with another top-10 trophy with an 8th-place finish. SLUH was led by a pair of top-30 finishers who just missed out on top-21 All-Region finishes, as sophomore Jackson Miller took 24th and Alexander Bendana placed 28th for SLUH, running 15:25.36 and 15:26.67, respectively.
MSHSAA Class 4
champion Carson Driemeier from Festus took eighth overall for 2nd-Team All-Region honors after just missing out on 3rd-Team honors last year with a 22nd-place finish. His 15:06.04 performance Sunday placed him 8th, but with Acorn and a Downers North runner ahead of him in 7th, Driemeier finished 6th among individuals, meaning he just missed a nationals berth by one place and 9 seconds.
Luke Sievers finished 27th in 15:27. Park Hill South's Thomas Garrett was 42nd in 15:37. Liberty's Todd Yeates was 63rd in 15:49. Derebe Carr of Lee's Summit was 72nd in 15:51. August Talleur of SLUH was 75th in 15:52 while Gabe McLain of Benton (IL) was 74th in 15:52, and Festus' Tate Uding was 77th in 15:52. Liam Adair 83rd in 15:54. Cameron Martensen of Rolla was 87th in 15:54 just ahead of Hunter Deleeuw in 89th in 15:55, making it twelve Missourians under the 16-minute barrier.
Festus placed 27th in the team standings, while Webster Groves was 34th. The teams both scored 113 points at state in the Class 4 race, with Festus edging Webster Groves for 2nd place by two places or 7 seconds.