Once again, varsity girls started off the day. Four girls represented Excelsior Springs in a field of 107 runners, mostly from Class 4 school districts. Dani Pair had her best time of the season and earned a medal with a 26th place finish. Katey Moerschel also earned a medal with her 46th place finish. Neither are happy with their times knowing the importance of finishing the season strong enough to go to State. Katelen Patterson was the third Tiger to cross the finish. She did so with her sixth personal record of the season. Halley Parkin was right behind Patterson as she crossed, though not quite fast enough for another personal record. She missed it by a mere four seconds.
Not to take anything from any of the other races, but the varsity boys put on an incredible display of determination. For the first time this season and in their career, all five Tigers finished with times under 20 minutes. Brent Shelor led the way with a personal record of 18:44.3, his first under 19 minutes! He earned a medal for his efforts. Although not his best time of the season, Ben Hartwig came in next at 19:27.4. It is his best time on the Kearney course, though. Lane Rogers was close on his heels with his personal record time of 19:28.8, his first sub-20 minute time. Logan Stock seems to be fully recovered from his ankle injury as he crossed the finish line with a time of 19:36.1, a personal record. Finally, Seth Edwards ensured the team milestone would happen when he ended his race with a personal record time of 19:42.8. Hopefully, this will be a huge confidence boost for the team as they head into Conference. Shelor and Rogers shed the monkeys off their backs by breaking through elusive time barriers and Stock realizes that his ankle is not holding him back anymore.
As a team, the boys placed 11th out of 23 complete teams. While that may not sound too great, consider that there were several larger schools in the competition. They know they still have work to do in a short amount of time. Finishing ahead of them were Conference opponents Grain Valley in 3rd and Odessa in 9th. District opponents finishing ahead of them include Smithville at 4th place, Chillicothe in 8th, and St. Pius X in 10th (ahead by only 19 points). District teams behind ES were Maryville in 12th (by only one point), and St. Joseph-Benton in 19th.
Three junior varsity boys ran in the next race for Excelsior. Alex Argyle set another personal record, his fifth for the season which is much more important than his 133rd place finish of the 194 runners in the race. He has consistently shown improvement and if he continues, he will turn into a decent varsity runner in the future. The Meehan brothers, Arthur and Jordan, didn't have breakout performances in this meet, though they continue to learn how to pace themselves. Autumn Summers was the sole Tigers representative for the junior varsity girls racing against 116 others. For her second straight meet, she set a personal record with a time of 29:06.7.
In conclusion, there were 13 Tiger runners earning three medals and setting seven personal records, one course best time, and one season best time. All in all, it was a good day!