By Cody Thorn (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Riley Arnold made history in her final race for Blue Eye, while Stockton won the school’s first ever boys state championship in any sport by claiming the Class 2 boys MSHSAA State Cross Country Championship crown on Saturday at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.
Arnold, a senior, won her fourth state championship and her first in Class 2. The Blue Eye standout literally won a race to the finish against West Platte’s Julia Pattison.
Arnold never led in the race until the final 100 meters, pulling away from Pattison – who was the runner-up in Class 2 last year.
The two came down the straight away nearly neck-and-neck but Arnold pulled off a win by four-tenths of a second – 19:23 to 19.23.4.
“I usually try to lead a lot of the race, definitely using a different strategy. There was a point I was doubting I could do it and kept pushing along,” Arnold said. “Catching her in the straight was probably the hardest finish I have had so far. I’m grateful to be up there and have the strength to finish when it mattered.”
She was no lower than fourth at any of the kilometer markers, always with the top group. There were four different leaders over the 5K, the only one to lead for more than one was Pattison, who led after the 2K and 3K checkpoints.
She went with a strategy to stay back at first and run at a slower pace to save what she had at the end. Instead of setting the pace as she had in the past, she let the others lead.
Arnold’s previous three titles came in Class 1 and they hadn’t been as down-to-the-wire as this win. Last fall she had a 13-second margin of victory, 24 over her sister, Avery, in 2019 and 10 over Avery in 2018.
She is the fourth four-time champion in MSHSAA history.
“It is a great feeling,” said the Southwest Baptist commit. “If you told me my freshman year I’d win, I don’t think I would’ve believed you it was something I could do. I’m so thankful for my team, my coaches, my friends and family that supported me these four years. It made all the difference. I’m so thankful for the people I have around me.
“There was a lot of pressure (to win No. 4) but I think over the years, I have adapted to a lot of pressure and I kind of like it. The goal in mind was to do it again to try my hardest to do it. It was a good race and a lot of good competition.”
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On the boys side of the Class 2 race, Stockton had been building toward a state championship and achieved it by securing state trophy No. 7.
Stockton coach Ryan Pate, a 2014 graduate of the school, was part of a runner-up finish in 2013 when he ran for the Tigers. That was one of three second-place finishes, the most recent coming in 2018.
“It’s been nice and it’s been a goal for a while,” Pate said. “I was part of the program when it first started and to see it grow it is nice … this is sure something. It’s been on the radar for the last few years and the boys have been wanting it and worked hard for it.”
Over the previous five years, Stockton had brought home four trophies – two seconds, a third and a fourth.
Stockton won the title with 87 points, 20 points better than Principia, a Class 1 trophy winner last year that got bumped up a class. Steeleville (110) and Blue Eye (111) rounded out the top four.
What made title No. 1 more improbable was the fact the Tigers’ No. 1 runner and returning all-stater Braden Postlewait – went from 16th at the 4K to 52nd by the end of the race.
But Stockton also had a surprise going the opposite direction. Senior Aaron Bradshaw, who led the team by placing 19th and moving up eight spots over the final kilometer.
Bradshaw finished in 17:09.5 and his 3:15.8 split on the final 1,000 kilometers was his fastest of any part of the race.
It also showed how far he came in a year. Last fall, Bradshaw took 153rd place and only 15 runners were behind him in the standings. He finished with a time of just less than 21 minutes (20:50.5).
“I don’t know where it came from,” Bradshaw said of the meteoric rise. “Summer training started in June and we were working hard and putting in more than we had and coach pushed us hard and it really paid off. It is a little mind blowing knowing my pr (personal record) was in the 20s last year and even during summer workouts I was breaking that just training. I didn’t have a good race last year here and I felt bad about it and I talked to my family and they said ‘you got it next year’ and I got it … it feels good.”
Joining Bradshaw on the medal stand was junior Colby Adams, who took 25th to get the final all-state medal.
New Covenant Academy’s Tanner Talley won the Class 2 individual title.
The senior took fourth place in the race last year.
He ran no slower than 3:13 in any of the kilometer splits, twice getting times of 3:01 and 3:08. His 3:01 split from the 3K-4K marker made the difference in the win, pulling away from runner-up Nathan Hinrichs of New Bloomfield.
“I tried to put the hurt on at the 3K with the big down hill,” Talley said. “I tried to surge a little to get separation if I could make it and if he goes with me, then great, we will have a great last K. I tried to really push between the 3 and 4K and after that, I noticed I had a gap so I just tried to cruise it in.”
Talley finished in 15:32.5 and easily won the state championship as Hinrichs finished in 16:01. That meant Talley was pretty much running alone for what seemed like minutes going down the straightaway to the finish line.
“I just tried to cherish the moment and take the crowd in,” Talley said. “It was my last high school cross country meet and that is the kind of moment that I am here for.”
Blue Eye’s Ryan Cardenzana took fourth place for the second year in a row – albeit in a different class – while junior Jadon Weaver was back on the medal stand as well with a 17th-place finish after taking 23rd last year.
Pleasant Hope’s Zane Hull (13th) and Alton’s Tucker Combs (20th) were all-staters.
