The junior varsity boys, Alex Argyle and Jordan Meehan, ran first with their race starting at 4:00 p.m. At the start of their race, it was partly cloudy with temperatures in the low 80's. Rain was in the forecast, but not until later in the evening. Because of the long hills on this course, Coach Smarker had never witnessed a personal record by any of his athetes. Today would be different, though, as Meehan surpassed his previous personal record by over two minutes as he finished in 18th place of 27 runners. Though Argyle didn't set a PR, he did manage to earn a medal by finishing 12th.
The five varsity girls - Katey Moerschel, Dani Pair, April Stodgel, Katelen Patterson, and Halley Parkin - were registered in a field of 35 girls. Of those 35, there were four schools with teams of five to seven. Besides Excelsior, the other three teams were District opponents. While four of the tigers earned medals by finishing in the top 20, only one - Pair - finished in the top 10 by placing eighth. The three who ran this course last year seemed to struggle a little this time around, whereas Parkin set a personal record by about one second. That would be the second (and final) PR of the day for Excelsior.
With four of the girls finishing in the top 20, they managed to earn second place as a team behind Savannah. Savannah had five runners finish in the top 10 and all seven placed in the top 20. Maryville and Cameron were the other two District opponents.
After the varsity girls' race was the varsity boys. Excelsior Springs was represented by Logan Stock, Seth Edwards, Ben Hartwig, Brent Shelor, and Lane Rogers. Only two - Hartwig and Shelor - earned medals by placing in the top 20 of 62 runners. There were a total of nine teams from the 17 schools competing. Five of those teams were District opponents including Benton, Cameron, Chillicothe, Maryville, and Savannah. Even though four of the five Tigers had their best races ever on this course, it wasn't enough to place higher than seventh of the nine teams. Chillicothe has been flexing their muscles with a second place team finish followed by Benton, Maryville, and Cameron. Savannah finished 30 points behind Excelsior Springs.
The JV girls and Freshman boys ran the last race together. It was only 4 km in length. Autumn Summers ran for the girls and finished 17th of 20. Two boys ran for Excelsior. Arthur Meehan finished ninth and Jacob Scott finished 10th. Both earned medals for their finishes.
In summary, all 15 Tigers ran in a total of five races against several District opponents. Of the 15, nine earned medals, two had personal record times neither of whom had ever raced on this course, and four of the eight who had raced in past seasons recorded their best times on this course.