(pictured above the# 9 team, 2009 SLUH)
BIG RIVER CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS OF THE DECADE
For those of you who have followed our website you know that we put together rankings during the cross country season each year highlighting top teams and individuals. As the 2000s come to a close we thought it might be fun to come out with our top ten Missouri High School cross country teams of the decade. To come up with the top teams we looked heavily at their performance at the Missouri State Meet as we feel staying healthy and peaking correctly is a big part of being a great team. We also examined the 1-5 spreads, average times and the strength of their top runners.
Enjoy!
TOP 10 BOYS TEAMS
#10) FORT ZUMWALT SOUTH, 2005- The 2005 Bulldogs won the first of back-to-back State titles for legendary Coach Paul Enke at FZS. Led by 3rd placer Kyle Rood this squad dominated the State meet with three all-staters, a 16:36 average time and a 49 second spread. Their unadjusted finshers were 3-9-20-27-32 for an eventual adjusted score of 70. They put all five scorers under seventeen minutes and all were within one minute of race winner Ben Brammeier of Parkway South. That doesn't happen often.
#9) SLUH, 2009- The Junior Bills won two State titles this decade and they've won four all-time but the 2009 squad tops them all. Led by number one man Caleb Ford their unadjusted scores were 2-8-10-30-42 for an adjusted scored of 65. Putting three runners in the top ten in Class 4 was a special feat, accomplished by only two other teams on this list.
#8) FORT ZUMWALT SOUTH, 2006- The 2006 Bulldogs successfully defended their 2005 State title in fine fashion with another dominating performance. Their top four runners; Kyle Rood, Pat Cole, Brandon Funderburk and Ryan Moore went 1-4-7-16, the best score through four of any Class 4 team this decade. They ended up with 65 points adjusted and averaged a scintillating 16:17 on the tough Jeff City course.
#7) WEST PLAINS, 2004- The 2004 Zizzers are the first of three West Plains' squads you will see on this list. That year they went from Class 4 where they had won the 2000, 2001 and 2002 State titles to Class 3. They introduced themselves to their new competitors with a 44 point performance at State, a 40 second spread and a top five that went 4-7-10-13-15 unadjusted. They also averaged 17:11 on a tough day when only six runners in the race broke 17 minutes.
#6) LIBERTY, 2003- In 2003 Liberty finally got the best of their rivals from West Plains. Both teams were among the best in the country for a period of time in the early part of the decade and had some great battles in the 4 x 800 on the track as well. Interestingly enough it was the year after they lost individual State champ Adam Perkins to graduation that they got the victory and they did it with an incredibly tight pack. Their 1-5 split was just 18 seconds, the best of any team on this list. Their top five, led by senior Brian Graybill, went 10-15-16-22-24 in an almost unparalleled exhibit of pack running. It was only the second time in the decade that a Class 4 squad had five all-staters.
#5) LEE'S SUMMIT WEST, 2008 – We mentioned peaking at the right time and these guys, who had already been great during the season, seemed to really be clicking on all cylinders at the 2008 State meet. They tied the 2006 FZS squad for the honor of having the lowest scoring four man (16) of any Class 4 team of the decade. It also helps when your number one man only scores one point and that is what junior Kevin Colon did with a come-from-behind victory over Chaminade's Matt Estlund. They scored 53 points which tied the 2002 Liberty squad for the second-lowest Class 4 score of the decade.
#4) LIBERTY, 2002 – Deciding where to rank the 2002 and 2003 Liberty squads was one of the toughest things to do when putting this list together. The 2003 squad won a State title but when you look at the numbers the 2002 squad was probably just a touch better. A big reason for that is that their number one man, Adam Perkins, was the State Champ and in a hypothetical race of all these top teams it really helps to have a strong number one. This Liberty team had much more than Perkins though. They went 1-3-19-27-29 unadjusted for an adjusted score of 53 in what would be hard to argue was the best team championship race of the decade as they were bested by a West Plains group that scored just 47.
#3) WEST PLAINS, 2001 – The next two teams are the back-to-back Zizzers squads. The 2001 team put five in the top 25 at the Class 4 State Meet with a 36 second spread. Their 56 point total gave them a 20 point win over Liberty.
#2) WEST PLAINS 2002 – This is the third Zizzers squad on the list and in our opinion, the best. Don't just take our word for it though...Harrier Magazine ranked them second in the nation in their 2002 end-of-year super 25. First of all they showed their mettle at the State Meet where they scored just 47 points to beat a nationally-ranked Liberty squad by six points. Their number one man, Josh Harper, was a Foot Locker finalist so they definitely had firepower up front and even with Harper leading the way their spread was only 53 seconds.
#1) POTOSI, 2006 –Picking this list was painstakingly difficult at almost every single spot except this one. No matter how you slice it these guys were the best team of the decade in Missouri. They had not one but two national elite runners in Josh Mathis and Josh Thebeau. Their number three man was sophomore Jacob Swearingen who ran the fastest time ever by a sophomore on the Missouri State course and finished 17th at the Nike Team National Meet. Potosi as a team was eighth at the meet but would have certainly been much higher had number one man Josh Thebeau not been coming off a serious flu bug. Check out the following stats from the State Meet. They went 1-2-3-6-8 to crush the Class 3 field with an adjusted score of 16. They put three runners under 16 minutes which had never been done and has not been done since. Their fifth man ran 16:24 which is absolutely unheard of even on a year when the course runs fast. That meant their spread was 47 seconds even with their one man posting one of the top times ever run on the State course. Bottom line is that if you lined up all these teams as they were in the year from which they made the list the 2006 Potosi Trojans would win hands down.
............................................................. ..........TOP 10 GIRLS TEAMS COMING SOON....
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