By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
NIXA, MO – Saturday morning’s Class 5 District 2 cross country meet featured near-perfect, 50-degree conditions and a host of personal records as teams close in on next weekend’s state championship meet in Columbia.
Kickapoo rumbled to a dominant performance to capture the boys team overall title, while Webb City raced to a second-place finish behind state No. 1 St. Teresa’s Academy.
In the boys race, the Chiefs ran away from the field thanks to inspired finishes from Gavin Blaine (7th – 15:48.64), Henry Baker (9th – 15:53.54), Dawson Blaine (12th – 15:57.53), Evan Sansom (14th – 15:59.49) and Noah Cones (15th – 15:59.84).
Even more impressive?
Kickapoo’s top-five runners crossed the finish line with a microscopic 11-point spread from No. 1 to No. 5.
“They do every step together,” Kickapoo head coach Jeremy Goddard said. “They train together every afternoon, they train together every morning and they train together all summer long. So, they know who each other is, and I guess that’s how it works. When you get a good pack with equally talented guys – and they’re willing to work the way they work – it’s how that goes.”
Dawson Blaine, Sansom, Cones and Matthew Ellis all notched personal bests, and Gavin Blaine was within ten seconds of giving the Chiefs a sixth milestone finish.
Goddard praised his team for keeping focused and doing what was necessary to get the job done on Saturday.
“I would say all of them stepped up and ran the fastest they’ve ever run,” Goddard said. “This is not the fastest course they will run all year, but they ran their best times ever. So just step up and run what you’re supposed to run, and that’s the benefit – you just have to go do something outside of yourself – just go do what you can do.”
Rockhurst’s Jack McGovern won the individual title with a time of 14:51.93. He was followed by runner-up Gabriel Voelker of Raymore-Peculiar (14:59.73) and third-place finisher Cameron Martensen of Rolla (15:11.42).
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE BOYS RACE
Kickapoo posted 57 points to win the team competition, followed by state qualifiers Raymore-Peculiar (80), Rockhurst (86) and Nixa (90). All four schools move on to the overall team competition at Columbia’s Gans Creek next weekend.
In the girls race, St. Teresa’s Academy reminded the field why it’s been the No. 1 ranked team in Class 5 this season. The Stars posted a 44-point performance to capture the overall team title.
Webb City, behind impressive performances from Brooke Hedger (3rd – 18:08.46), Araceli Perez (5th – 18:42.81), Brooke Collard (11th – 19:17.27), Emma McKinzie (16th – 19:29.98) and Olivia Klotz (25th – 19:45.84) finished second with 60 points.
Nixa (120) and Ozark (128) finished third and fourth, respectively, to also qualify for the state meet.
Perez, Collard, McKinzie and Klotz all recorded personal best times, while Hedger’s time was a mere second off her own personal best set early in the season at the SWCCCA meet in Bolivar.
Webb City head coach Dustin Miller praised his squad for going head to head with St. Teresa’s runners, Hedger in particular.
“It’s hard to stay focused throughout the whole season when you get a fast time early,” Miller said. “But she was really motivated to come out and run with some of the top girls in the state, and she battled really hard and took a big step forward for where we need to be next week.
“I think St. Teresa’s is the best team in the state. They haven’t done anything to say that they’re not, and we closed the cap on them a little bit today. I’m really proud of the way our girls stepped up. It’s very easy to lose focus when you know you’re going to get through pretty easily. I challenged them to use this springboard into the state meet, and they rose to the occasion.”
The individual title was won by Joplin’s Ava Doll, who posted a personal best time of 17:46.01 to best St. Teresa’s Ella Messner (18.08.24), Hedger and St. Teresa’s Caroline Bowen (18:16.01).
After winning the Central Ozark Conference meet two weeks ago, Doll stated she was looking forward to competing alongside the St. Teresa’s runners and seeing if they could drag her to another PR in the process.
Somewhere along the way, that plan changed.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GIRLS RACE
Doll led from the start, opened up a huge gap midway through the race and never looked back en route to a dominant victory.
“I had a change of plans this morning,” Doll said. “I didn’t realize (Messner) hadn’t raced in the last couple races, and so I knew if she hadn’t been racing for a few weeks, that was going to take some off. So I was like, I need to go out, I need to lead this race and I need to set the pace myself.”
Doll’s time would have won at Gans Creek in four of the six years the Class 5 race has been held there and good enough for top four in the other two.
The area has not had a top three finisher in the biggest class since the move to Gans and none at all since Branson’s Brigitte Caruthers, who took third in 2011.
“I have so much more confidence this year,” Doll said. “I know that I can win the race. I know the girl running in front of me is a super strong runner, and she’s probably been running longer than I have, but I’m really not scared. I know that I can sit on her, or I can take the lead and it’ll be just fine. I love that course, so I’m ready to finish it.”
AREA BOYS TEAM STATE QUALIFIERS
1. Kickapoo – 57
(Gavin Blaine, Henry Barker, Dawson Blaine, Evan Sansom, Noah Cones, Preston Gegg, Matthew Ellis)
2. Raymore-Peculiar – 80
3. Rockhurst – 86
4. Nixa – 90
(Reyes Martinez, Nicholas Flannery, Gage Holmes, Zane Novinger, Dylan Mabe, Evan Brett, Maxwell Dodson)
AREA BOYS INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS
4. Lincoln Crews – Glendale
13. Noah Lankard – Webb City
16. Andre Dawson – Webb City
17. James Dalyrmple – Webb City
18. Maxwell Caroll – Glendale
19. Aaron Dawson – Webb City
22. Garrett Stafford – Ozark
24. Bowen Nelson – Glendale
29. Andrew Ashley – Ozark
30. John Kitchin – Ozark
AREA GIRLS TEAM STATE QUALIFIERS
1. St. Teresa’s Academy – 44
2. Webb City – 60
(Brooke Hedger, Araceli Perez, Brooke Collard, Emma McKinzie, Olivia Klotz, Tatym Buster)
3. Nixa – 120
(Brianna Bidinger, Emma Hurst, Meliah Copley, Mackinzie Harris, Karah Sackman, Molly Hill, Charlie Dunkel)
4. Ozark – 128
(Sydney Lister, Ellsie Estes, Hannah Smith, Allison Mills, Kira Cantrell, Kaylee Johnson, Iyla Garner)
AREA GIRLS INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS
1. Ava Doll – Joplin
8. Chloe Goddard – Kickapoo
9. Danaka Davenport – Glendale
10. Alexis Carter – Branson
14. Zei’lah Cifuentes – Carthage
15. Brooklynn Lercher – Waynesville
20. Brylie Harris – Republic
26. Abigail Tague – Lebanon
27. Braylee Breedlove – Lebanon
28. Genevieve Burton – Kickapoo
30. Zoey Johns – Republic
