By Cody Thorn (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Hermitage added another state cross country trophy to the collection and perhaps a little bit of history could be in the works.
The boys easily claimed the Class 1 title on Saturday at the MSHSAA Cross Country Championships held at Gans Creek Cross Country Course.
The Hornets won the state title with 61 points as Oak Ridge was distant second with 132 points.
“We haven’t been state champs for a while so it was important and really special for our seniors,” said Hermitage sophomore Bennett Mantooth, who was third overall in the field in 16:34. “We were confident and we knew we had a good chance. We just needed to perform.”
Mantooth, who was 84th in Class 2 last year, was in third place from the 1K marker and stayed in that spot for the entire race.
Junior Justin Horn took seventh (17:46.1) and freshman DeJuan Chambers ran what coach Mark Sabala called ‘the race of his life’ to take 20th place. Sophomore Justin Yates missed all-state honors – top 25 – by placing 29th.
Hermitage won three straight titles in Class 1 from 2014-16 when the races were held at the Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City.
“It’s a different location but it is great to be back at state,” Sabala said. “We had a three year run (after the last state title) when we had tough draws in district and were unable to get a team to state. That was frustrating because if we’d made it, we’d have top-10 teams. It is great to be back and with a young group of kids we should be back in the next couple of years too.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE RACES
Plato’s David Held was the state runner-up for the second straight year. The senior battled Nodaway Valley’s Riley Blay but came in 24 seconds behind him. In an oddity of sorts, last year Held was the runner-up behind Tyler Blay, Riley’s older brother.
Marion C. Early had a pair of runners in the top 10, which helped it take ninth place in the standings. Senior David Duchscherer was ninth and sophomore Landon Duchscherer took 10th – separated by four-tenths of a second.
Thomas Jefferson’s Kip Atteberry became only the school’s second all-state runner and his fourth-place showing is believed to be the best in the program’s history. Winona’s Kaiden VanWinkle moved up on the podium to sixth place, after taking 14th last year.
Stoutland’s Bradley Shaw (11th) and Mack Creek’s Caleb Phillips (22nd) both earned all-state medals after qualifying last year and placing 45th and 56th, respectively.
Other all-staters were School of the Osage’s Titus Thompson (14th), Crane’s Calen Faucett (19th) and Dora’s Cade Nold. (21st).
Facuett was 42nd place after the first lap but passed 10 runners on each of the next two kilometers to put himself in connection for a medal.
Marion C. Early freshman Miya Bess took ninth place, followed by Summersville’s Lacey Wuertley in 13th and Chadwick’s Raeleigh Little earned all state in her first trip to state by placing 15th. Another Nold from Dora added a medal as junior Autumn Nold was 20th in the field. The final all-state runner was Weaubleau freshman Addison Ratliff, who took 24th.
Chadwick’s Gretchen House and Liberal’s Abby Barton both ran 21:48.4 but Barton won the tiebreaker for the final medal.
The Fordland girls finished seventh as a team, falling behind in the final laps after being in fourth and fifth throughout the race. Sophomore Emma Trotter paced the way for Eagles by placing 30th.
