For any high school cross country runner, the one race you spend your season preparing for is your state championships meet. Last weekend on November 3rd and 4th, the Missouri State Meet was held at the Gans Creek 5k cross-country course in Columbia, Missouri. There were lots of great performances individually and team-wise, and I will be talking about all ten races across three parts (all are out now), boys and girls, classes one through five, and I will break down each race, also stay tuned for the final Kewpie Kooldown of the season, in this part. 

In this part I will be talking about class five and the first race I will talk about is the class five boy’s race.

Class Five

The class five boy's race was one for the ages as a sophomore won the race in a Gans Creek course record of 14:51.9. A very common theme across this whole meet has been a lot of the races have been dominated by a few runners and this one was no exception. Through the first four kilometers former state champion, and senior from Rock Bridge, Andrew Hauser led the race and drove home a hard pace, but he still had competition, following close behind him was Levi Rowan from Kirkwood High School, a senior, and Luke Sievers, from Rock Bridge High School, a sophomore. The last kilometer however was one to remember as Sievers made a move to pass both of them and he went on to win in that course record, Rowan was right behind as he finished in 14:52.1, and Hauser finished in third in 14:58. 

In the team race, Rock Bridge High School from Columbia, Missouri beat Rockhurst High School from Kansas City, Missouri by nine points with a score of 91.

But how did the Kewpies fare amongst the competition? At their districts, the Kewpies were unable to qualify as a team but they had some individual qualifiers. Those qualifiers were junior Max Hogan who placed 70th at state in a time of 16:24, behind Hogan was another junior Hank Cummings who placed 90th in a time of 16:40, and Hickman's last state runner was senior Sean Keys who placed 110th and ran 16:51. 

In the girl's race, it was a race decided by one runner, senior, Natalie Barnard of Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri. Over the whole race, Barnard ran from the front lengthening her lead kilometer by kilometer, until eventually she won by 25 seconds in a new course record of 17:12. 

In the team race, the reigning champion in class three and new addition to class five Father Tolton Catholic High School in Columbia, Missouri beat Blue Springs South High School from Blue Springs, Missouri by 14 points with a score of 103.

In this race, Hickman only had one runner competing, junior Ellie Eastman. Eastman ran well as she placed 117th and ran 20:21. 

Across all ten races, every athlete performed well and this whole season has been great to watch. It will be interesting to see how the top performers perform next year and in this upcoming track season. Stay tuned for more on that.