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At the coaches meeting, it was announced that there were nearly 2000 competitors. A large majority of those competitors were Class 4 teams from Missouri and Class 5 and 6 teams from Kansas. Today's meet offered eight races with six start times beginning with the combined 9th and 10th grade girls race followed by the boys of the same grades. After those would be Varsity girls, then boys, followed by Junior Varsity girls and boys.
Sophomore Autumn Summers ran alone in the 9th/10th grade girls race and set a personal record, her second of the season. She met one of her goals set early in the season, to get under 30 minutes and she did so by more than 30 seconds. There were 100 girls in her race, the fastest of which ran 20:04.7.
There were two Freshman and one Sophomore to run for the boys from Excelsior Springs. Jacob Scott and Arthur Meehan ran as 9th graders, while Alex Argyle represented 10th grade for the Tigers. Scott set a personal record by about 52 seconds, his second of the season, also. Argyle came close to beating his best time of the season, too. There were 180 Freshmen and 143 Sophomores running together, or 323 total.
The varsity girls would not have a full team for their race. April Stodgel is out indefinitely due to inflamed muscles and Katey Moerschel was running a fever. Dani Pair recorded another season best time as she inched closer to her personal record set at the District meet last season. Halley Parkin set her sixth personal record of the season by 26 seconds as she continues to improve. Although Katelen Patterson didn't run her best time of the season, she is showing consistency by staying close to her best time to date. There were a total of 176 girls running in the varsity race.
The varsity boys did have a full squad in a field of 215 competitors. Brent Shelor recorded his best finish ever with a personal record time beating his previous best by a little more than 24 seconds. Ben Hartwig probably would have finished alongside him if he had been knocked down during the race. Despite the fall, he still managed to stay under 20 minutes. Logan Stock continues to improve following his ankle injury and is nearly back to top form. Lane Rogers and Seth Edwards didn't have their best races, but remain close to where they normally are.
Finally, Jordan Meehan raced alone for the JV boys. Although he didn't set a personal record today, he was a only a few seconds away from doing so. He ran in a field of ??? boys.
Even though no medals were earned at the KC Metro meet, there were four personal records and one season best time which shows that the team is improving. They care about improving their own times more than they care about medals for their letter jackets. That speaks volumes about their character.