Domination was the word of the day in the Class 2 races at the MSHSAA State Cross Country Championships. In the boys race, Wyatt Klaiber's meteoric rise up the all-time leaderboards continued and in the girls race, Lexington scored the lowest point total at the State meet since since 2004.
El Dorado Springs junior Wyatt Klaiber has been the name on everyone's mind all season. His stranglehold on the Class 2 rankings started as soon as the updated enrollment numbers and breaks dropped and showed that the Bulldogs had moved into the lower class. His season kicked off with a 15:11.24 personal best en route to the win at the SWCCCA Richard Clark Invitational. His only loss of the season came a week later to Kansas superstar Daniel Enriquez at the Missouri Southern Stampede, but he still posted a lightning quick 15:03.72 mark. The undefeated season against Missourians included wins over Class 3 champion Sinry Mendoza and featured an average 5K time of 15:28. On Saturday, he capped off his junior season with a 14:51.00 Class 2 meet record and 52-second victory.
Klaiber was afforded interviews with both Michael Smith and Chris Auckley after his fantastic race. Click the links to hear more from him.
Lexington's Chael Lichte was the next one to the line, leading the chase pack across nearly a minute after the leader. Lichte's runner-up finish in 2025 was significantly faster than last year's gold medal run, but the course was in much better condition this year, of course. It was his seventh top 3 finish of the year and the time of 15:43.50 was a 1-second improvement on his time from the Gans Creek Classic Blue division race. In third was Paris senior Landen Chapman with his first career sub-16:00 time of 15:46.40. The 2025 Class 2 800 and 1600 meter champion jumped up from Class 1 this fall and, though he may have finished 1 place worse, was 39 seconds better in similar conditions. Butler's Brandon Hammett was 4th after back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2023 and 2024. Saturday's 15:54.50 was 42 seconds better than he had ever run in his four tries at the State meet. Clark County's Mason McDaniel made it five under 16:00 with his 15:59.40 personal best.
Photo: SK Slaughter
Though we haven't mentioned any of the Cardinals in the top 5, the team race, once again, went to Woodland, but this time by a much thinner margin than the last two years. Their 102 points were just 3 ahead of Class 2 newcomer Thomas Jefferson Independent, but were enough to pull in their third straight team championship. Freshman Max Layton led the way this year with a 13th place finish, just one spot ahead of brother and senior Calvin Layton. Max was the only underclassman in the group of 7, but was a key to the crew's success with his 16:25.30 clocking. He ends the regular season as the third fastest freshman in the entire state. Calvin's senior year ends with his fourth all-state medal, third team podium finish, and a 16:29.70 mark at the State meet.
Head Coach Ryan Layton, who has been at the helm since the program launched in 2006, talked about winning team title number 3 in a row.
Michael Smith also caught up with the Layton brothers to get their thoughts on the day.
Thomas Jefferson Independent picked up their second consecutive runner-up finish, though this time in Class 2. It was an impressive performance as over the span of the race, the Cavaliers went from 11th place with 273 points all the way to 2nd with 105. Will Twiss was the mainstay in the top 15 overall throughout the race, moving up to his 7th place finishing spot in the final kilometer. The 16:08.00 clocking was 51 seconds faster than last year's time in the Class 1 race and was the boost the team needed to break away from the rest of the field. Jefferson also saw all-State performances from juniors Jack Twiss and Spencer Long, in 24th and 27th respectively, and return their top 6 for the 2026 season.
McAuley Catholic also made the move up to Class 2 and secured their second straight team trophy. The 2024 Class 1 champions lost a couple of key seniors, but pulled in the third place finish led by Franklin Veer in 8th overall. Fatima, led by Michael Gabelsberger in 21st and Wyatt Dake in 29th, rejoined the podium after a 4 year hiatus. The fourth place finish was their 11th in the last 15 years. --
The Lexington Minutewomen made history this weekend, scoring the fewest points at the Girls State Championships in any class since West Plains's historic perfect score in the 2004 Class 3 race. Their score of 25 on Saturday, though not entirely surprising, was still well ahead of their projection heading into the meet showing that they peaked at exactly the right time.
The dominant performance was led by the 1-2 finish of Addison Smith and Ellie Lichte. Smith's victory was only apparent in the final kilometer when she overtook her teammate Lichte who had led since just after the 1K mark. The 2024 champion picked up the repeat victory in her junior campaign, a first for a Lexington cross country runner on either side. Lichte's 18:35.80 was just under 2 seconds behind her teammate and capped off a stellar freshman season. Sophomore Phoebe Engelbrecht made it 3 Minutewomen in the top 5 with her 5th place finish in 19:25.30 and senior Tessa Lovell made it 4 in the top 10 with a 9th place finish in 19:42.90. Freshman Natalie Adkins rounded out the scoring with a 22nd place finish in 20:25.80, a 56-second personal best. The scoring line was 1-2-4-5-13.
West Platte overcame their adversity to finish 2nd overall with 116 points and an all-State performance from freshman Charlotte Gillis in 23rd, their 2nd straight runner-up performance and 8th team trophy. Lafayette County held strong in 3rd place throughout the race, finishing with 147 points for their 2nd team trophy in school history. Freshman Tenley Pessetto led the way in 27th. El Dorado Springs made the biggest jump from start to finish, going from 9th to 5th in the first 4 kilometers and jumping into 4th in the final 1000 meters. Senior Braylie Steward led the way with a strong 12th place performance.
Head Coach Brad Young had this to say about his team's performance:
Michael Smith also caught up with Smith and Lichte to get their thoughts on their team's banner day:
The non-Lexington runners in the top 5 were Brentwood's Kensington Curd and North Platte's Chloe Heckman. Curd, the 2023 Class 2 champion, finished out her dubious career with 4 top 9 medals and her fastest mark of the 4: a 19:05.20 clocking. Heckman's 4th place medal comes after back-to-back third place finishes in 2023 and 2024. She finished in the top 7 in Class 2 all four years in high school and closed out her cross country career with a 19:09.80 personal best.
