JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Kearney made it the Bulldogs show again in 2011.
Only this time they did it with flair.
Kearney rolled to its third consecutive Class 3 girls cross country state title Saturday at the Oak Hills Golf Center course with 53 points, nearly half the total posted for the 2010 victory.
“About two or three years ago we just started to tell the kids to go run and nothing else,” Kearney coach Jeff Roberts said. “And we’ve done that the last three years, ‘Just go run your race,’ and that’s what they did.”
Not only were the Bulldogs running down the team title, a 48-point victory over runner-up Farmington (101 points), but Kearney added a 1-2 finish to sweeten the celebration. Freshman Olivia Franklin took control of the race early and won the individual title in 19:22.
“I was surprised; I thought my competitors would be up there pushing,” Franklin said. “Right before Firehouse Hill, I knew that if I could push it up these hills I would be doing pretty well.
“Everyone said it was a tough course but just go in there with a positive attitude. When I saw it, I knew it was going to be difficult, but I knew I could push up.”
Kearney senior Jasmine Edwards had some ground to make up over the final mile, and she improved four spots after climbing Firehouse Hill to grab the runner-up finish in 19:33.64. She edged out Cape Girardeau Notre Dame’s Elizabeth Kiblinger at the line (19:33.97).
“Any other race, I don’t know what I would have done, but I just told myself, ‘It’s my last race in high school. Just give it my all and see what happens,’” said Edwards, who led the Bulldogs in 2010 with a fifth-place finish. “(Olivia) gave me a lot of inspiration. I wanted to do well, too, just like she was doing.”
Roberts said Edwards changed her approach in the final weeks of the season, and he noticed the impact it had on her performances and the team’s.
“She’s the best leader I ever coached,” Roberts said. “She internalized it all this year, and really put a lot of pressure on herself for college and for the team, and it was almost destroying her. She basically two weeks ago said, ‘It’s over. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do,’ and became the runner she is.”
While Kearney was celebrating, Liberty North sophomore Sammy Laurenzo was seeking solace in the arms of her coaches and teammates. Laurenzo had come into the race as one of the contenders for an individual title. She was in second place as the leaders mounted Firehouse Hill, but her stride got shorter and shorter near the crest, and the chase pack caught her.
Laurenzo slipped to fifth place (19:46) and was frustrated with her performance despite battling an upper respiratory infection the last couple weeks of the season.
“I’ve been really sick the past two weeks, and today it hit me again,” Laurenzo said. “And I went the wrong way at the finish. I did the first turn to go back toward the first mile. It was just a tough race.
“I felt like I was half walking it. I was giving it everything I had, but I didn’t feel I was giving it what I could have if I hadn’t been sick. I’m not so upset that I’m going to quit or anything. It’s still better than last year.”
Clinton sophomore Nicole Lee wedged herself into a bubble between Kiblinger and Laurenzo over the final 400 meters to secure fourth place (19:41).
Festus senior Drew White erased any doubt about the outcome of the boys’ race when he broke free from the field about a half mile into the race. He started to extend the separation by the mile mark and worked to expand that gap over the last two miles.
White, who had run a 15:57 as a junior, was gunning for an even faster time to push his name up the list of the fastest state finishes, but the conditions would not allow it. White had to carve through a strong wind, and the footing was soft and even muddy in spots.
“The goal was to get a fast time, a lot faster than that, but I think I did my best. I can’t be mad,” White said. “I wanted to go out harder than I did. It was to get out hard and separate and see what I had left at the end. I didn’t get out as hard as I wanted to. It was just tough to run fast today.”
White’s early surge left Liberty North senior Max Jobson to battle for second place. He entered the race with that runner-up finish as his target.
Jobson had intended to sit behind the chase pack, especially in the windy conditions, and draft his way over most of the course. When White took off in the first mile, the rest of the field quickly got spread out, and Jobson found himself sitting all alone in second place as the second mile started.
“Everyone just spread out that first mile, and I was hoping to stay at the back of that front pack,” Jobson said. “But something clicked on that first downhill. I passed three or four guys, and I just tried to keep it going from there. I did all I could to stay in front. My actual goal was second place; I’m really excited.”
Festus entered the race as one of the top contenders for the team title but had to settle for second place with 96 points as Warrensburg put three runners in the top 15 -- J.P Espinoza was 10th, Alex Burson 11th and Max Burson 13th – as Warrensburg tallied 72 points.
