The Boys 3200
Of course we have to start with the Boys 3200. It features quite possibly the strongest field any meet in the Midwest will see in this event in the month of March.
With so many athletes seeking to run in the elite division at the very beginning of the meet, Festus Head Coach and Meet Director Wesley Armbruster opted for two heats to accommodate. The Championship Boys 3200 will take place at 9:00am, followed by the Elite Boys 3200 at 9:15am, the latter of which featuring the faster seed times of the field.
In the Championship race, top athletes include North Point's Mitchell Lerner, Lafayette's Ezekiel Hagen, Notre Dame Cape Girardeau freshman phenom Aidan Morris, the SLUH trio of August Talleur, Nicholas Ahlheim, and Hendrix Fyvie, and the Rock Bridge quad of Samuel Shatto, Noah Canlas, Jackson Soete, and Colton Hulen.
Talleur and Lerner both ran 9:41 last spring, with Talleur having a slightly quicker time: 9:41.53 to 9:41.87. Lerner, though, finished with the all-state medal around his neck, placing sixth in Class 4 on a hot Friday afternoon last May. A quick start this cross country season was derailed by illness, but he should be among the top contenders in this heat. Talleur did have a stellar senior cross country season, earning a 14th at the Class 5 State meet, and will be looking to debut strong this track season.
Hagen, Morris, and Soete are three freshmen who have enjoyed solid starts to their careers, and two of them will be debuting in the 3200 this weekend. Hagen ran 15:39.80 this spring, capping off an incredible first high school season with an 18th place State medal. He ran 4:33.52 in the 1600 in his lone race this winter. Soete also only has a 1600 to his name so far: a 4:37.47 mark from the weekend. He may be breaking out from a 16:55.60 best this fall. Morris was sixth in Class 3 in Cross Country and shattered the 16:00 barrier as well. He debuted in the 3200 last weekend, running 10:00.61 on his home track.
Other athletes with sub-10:00 bests include Bourbon's Brett Payne, Jackson's Aidan Niedbalski, and Farmington's Axtin Brune.
In the Elite race, the entire field is seeded under 9:35 and features several state champions, national qualifiers, and one of the top freshmen in the entire country.
Carson Driemeier, Henry Acorn, Luke Sievers, and Ayden Taylor are the Missourian headliners in this ultra-fast heat. Driemeier and Acorn are the reigning respective Class 4 and 5 State Cross Country champions and will surely go down in history among Missouri's all-time greats when their careers are over.
Driemeier ran an eye-popping 9:06.28 3200 in his lone race this winter and is the reigning champion in this, his home meet, after running his outdoor best of 9:11.71. The 2024 Class 4 3200 meter champion will go toe-to-toe with the Class 5 1600 meter champion Henry Acorn. Acorn, a senior from Rockhurst, was 18 seconds behind Driemeier when he ran 9:06, running 9:24.26. He ran 9:12.62 last year and had a rough day at the office in the 3200 on Day 1 of the Class 5 State meet, but blew the field away in the 1600 with his 4:06.31 performance. Ayden Taylor showed this fall that he is not afraid of anyone and will be among the front-runners after he ran 15:04.76 for 5K. He also owns a 9:16.03 personal best in the 3200 and 4:11.96 1600 mark. Sievers, the 2023 Class 5 State Cross Country champion, has a 9:14.68 personal best to his name and ran 9:20.24 for 2 miles this winter.
While these four are the Missourians who are headlining the field, we would be remiss if we did not mention former Missourian Jackson Free, now hailing from Mountain Home, Arkansas. West Plains still pulled in a Class 4 team title this fall despite Free's departure which is doubly impressive considering the rise that he has made in the past year. The junior won the 5A State title in Arkansas this fall and ran 15:22.60. This winter, he finished the 2 mile at New Balance Nationals Indoor in 9:15.35.
Rockhurst will also bring all-staters Kai Somasegaran and freshman phenom Jack McGovern with them. McGovern has never run a timed 3200 as far as we can tell, but his 15:17.60 best from this fall shows that he will be able to hang with the best of them no matter what. The entire field earned an all-state medal this fall and all of them have combined for dozens of medals over the past three years. Expect the high-powered heat to feature a plethora of sub-9:30 marks...potentially from the entire field.