Seniors sweep top honors at SWCCCA meet

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By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

BOLIVAR – The Southwest Cross Country Coaches Association’s annual season kickoff meet had been dominated by underclassmen over the past three years, with seniors winning just one of the six races.

Not this time.

Kickapoo senior Tyler Harris and Webb City senior Abigail Street cruised to victories in their respective events at the SWCCA’s Richard Clark Invitational on Saturday at Bolivar Golf Course.

Harris won the boys race with a time of 15 minutes, 33.06 seconds – a full 14 seconds ahead of any other competitor. Street’s victory in the girls race was even more decisive, as her time of 19 minutes, 7.3 seconds was more than 20 seconds clear of the runner-up – and only two other runners broke the 20-minute mark.

It was the first career SWCCCA meet victory for either runner, as they each set the tone for senior seasons that could very well end with returns to the state podium.

As a junior, Harris finished as the SWCCCA runner-up behind Notre Dame commit Daelen Ackley, who won the race in each of his final three years at El Dorado Springs.

Harris went on to win an individual conference and district title, and his eighth-place finish at the state meet helped the Chiefs take home their first team title since 1995.

“He’s one of the top dogs anywhere you go in the state,” Kickapoo coach Jeremy Goddard said. “He works his tail off. Put in a great summer. He’s earned the right to go out there and compete with anyone. He’s got some confidence right now that he feels like he can race with anyone. He ran a very confident race.”

Harris’ winning time on Saturday was a full 20 seconds faster than the one he posted in this race last year, although the 2021 event featured universally slow times after heavy rains turned the course into a quagmire. But Harris led this one wire-to-wire and pulled away from Joplin’s Hobbs Campbell, who crossed the line in 15 minutes, 47.45 seconds to take second place.

“Hobbs Campbell is a stud and we know that and he knows that,” Goddard said. “(Harris) just went out and led the whole way and said ‘If you can run with me, come do it.’ And that’s pretty gutsy.”

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE BOYS RACE

Goddard said the Chiefs didn’t discuss any strategy ahead of the season-opening race, in which virtually every regional school with a cross-country program descends on Bolivar to see where their runners stack up against the best of the best – regardless of class size or conference.

“It’s just ‘Go run,’” Goddard said. “Let the worry and all of the crap that comes with expectations out and just go race and go compete. And then we’ll talk about what we can do different and better.”

Few of the schools in attendance have higher expectations than Kickapoo, which returns six of the seven boys from last season’s state championship team and is looking to be the first Springfield school to win back-to-back titles.

“They just have to learn to run with that expectation,” Goddard said. “And that expectation is heavier than a lot of people realize. So we’re trying to make sure we manage. All we can do is what we can do and fix what we can fix and then we’ll see how it goes.”

So far, Harris is handling the weight of those expectations well.

“Sophomore year, I did a lot better than I thought I would,” Harris said. “Junior and senior year, I’ve kind of had to feel like I have to keep that up. It kind of ruins your mental before a race to think ‘I have to do these things,’ but this season my goal is really just to have fun with races. I’m here to support my team and do what I can and that makes it a lot better and easier to run than just trying to hit a certain time or place.”

The Chiefs had a legitimate chance to sweep the individual SWCCCA titles, as senior Klarie Brown won the race as a freshman and junior and was a runner-up as a sophomore.

But Brown twisted her ankle last week and was held out of the race as a precaution.

“We’ve been nursing her through that and just didn’t feel like running today was a very good idea,” Goddard said. “She’ll be back hopefully next week, but we just have to get her healed up.”

With Brown out, the girls race started without a consensus favorite – although Street quickly established herself as the frontrunner. After finishing sixth in the SWCCA meet one year ago, Street cut her time by 37 seconds and pulled away from Rolla’s Isabella Frost to win handily.

Frost (19 minutes, 27.41 seconds) and Spokane’s Lily Hunsucker (19 minutes, 58.25 seconds) were the only other athletes who finished in less than 20 minutes – or within one minute of Street.

“I’m really proud of her,” Webb City coach Dustin Miller said. “She has some really big goals this season. Her training, we’re really fit. We have some specific things we’re working on towards the end of a race to help her achieve her goals and we’ll just see how the season progresses. But if she keeps putting in consistent training sessions, I know she’ll have an opportunity to achieve those goals and do some really big things.”

Street spent her freshman year at McAuley Catholic, where her personal-record was around 23 minutes and 30 seconds, but has blossomed into one of the state’s elite at Webb City. She finished fifth with a personal-record time of 18 minutes, 44 seconds last year’s state meet.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GIRLS RACE

The Cardinals are hoping Street can cut another 45 seconds off that time in her senior year.

“My workouts are set for 18:10, but if we’re that close we might as well go break 18,” Street said. “We’ll see.”

“I think she’ll have a chance to break 18 minutes,” Miller added. “So, that’s pretty special. She keeps our boys on their toes in workouts, that’s for sure.”

While Saturday’s time was a step back from her record time, part of that can be attributed to the fact that no other competitor was close to her.

“I honestly think I fell asleep a little bit in the middle of the race and got a little zoned out,” Street said. “If I had someone to race against, I think it would have helped me push a little more to go faster. I think it was just more of a mental thing than the actual course.”

That’s something the Cardinals are focusing on, Miller added.

“We’re working on closing harder,” the coach continued. “It’s not her strength, but we’re working from driving from a long ways out. She hasn’t had an opportunity to do that yet. Last week, we held her back to run with some teammates and she ran hard for part of the last mile, but then was alone again. And today, just alone is hard. She did what we were supposed to. We expected Klarie and Klarie wasn’t there, so we just did what we had to do and raced some quality girls and got a win. And I’m proud of her.”

The SWCCCA meet was the second consecutive cross-country meet that Brown missed. She was unable to compete in the state meet after contracting an illness that was determined to be COVID-19.

“We didn’t know it was COVID,” Goddard said. “We just knew she was sick and she came and tried to warm up and give it a go, but it just wasn’t going to happen. That’s obviously a disgusting feeling when she was 11th the year before that and sixth the year before that. So there’s all kinds of awful with that. This one, it just is what it is. It’s a season meet. We’d love to run it and see what kind of shape she’s in and help the team, but there’s these meets that you have to sit out to help your season and this is just one of them for her. Not a big deal on this one.”

BOYS TOP 10

1. Tyler Harris, Kickapoo — 15:33.06
2. Hobbs Campbell, Joplin – 15:47.45
3. Evan Stevens, Webb City – 15:54.52
4. Sean Walker, Buffalo – 16:00.48
5. Chase Sorrell, East Newton – 16:03.58
6. Grant Musick, Kickapoo – 16:06.85
7. Aaron Ashley, Nixa – 16:10.18
8. Ian Horton, Joplin – 16:11.22
9. Kyle Keltner, Kickapoo – 16:11.79
10. Sam Rinehart, Glendale – 16:16.91

GIRLS TOP 10

1. Abigail Street, Webb City – 19:07.30
2. Isabella Frost, Rolla – 19:27.41
3. Lily Hunsucker, Spokane – 19:58.25
4. Kopelyn Delong, Ozark – 20:11.99
5. Ayden Spotila, Bolivar – 20:15.55
6. Ellie Webb, Camdenton – 20:18.99
7. Kiersten Potter, Lamar – 20:30.60
8. Kristin Probst, Republic – 20:37.86
9. Cera Eckenroth, NCA – 20:44.55
10. Charlotte Cones, Kickapoo – 20:45.39

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