Before the races started, research indicated that Dani Pair was ranked 8th in the conference and Micaela Lynch was ranked 9th. These rankings were based on season best times. For the boys, only Christian Carter was ranked in the top 10. He was ranked at the top... #1.
So, how did they fare? Well, first, it must be noted that Pleasant Hill did not make it to the meet. There must have been a miscommunication about the change of the date the meet would be held. Although that wouldn't effect Christian's finish, it would greatly change the outcome of the girl's race, and it did. Dani and Micaela finished 5th and 6th, respectively. Following them were Katelen Moerschel in 14th, April Stodgel in 16th, Kim Parkin at 22nd, Ali Stodgel in 37th, and Autumn Summers in 38th. When the points were tallied for all the teams, Grain Valley came out on top, but in second place was our ES Tigers! Not bad for their first Varsity Girls team race! For their 2nd place finish, they received a plaque. Dani, April, and Kim ran their best 5k races ever, too. Although, Micaela and Katelen did not reach personal bests, both did run their best race on the course at Richmond.
Then it was the boys' turn. After the race started, Christian Carter could be seen off in the distance after the first mile in second place. At the two mile mark, however, he was clearly in first with a tremendous lead over the next closest runner. Not only that, but he was on pace at that spot to beat his personal record. The same went for most of the other boys, too. They were all looking good. Christian was all alone when he crossed the finish line as the MRVC Champion. He did manage to beat his PR by about 10 seconds and he scored his second 1st place finish of the season. The remaining Tigers crossed the finish line starting with Ben Hartwig in 24th, Bailey Dolata in 28th, Logan Stock in 31st, Seth Edwards in 33rd, Brent Shelor in 35th, and Lane Rogers in 36th. Besides Christian, Ben, Bailey, Logan, Seth, and Lane recorded personal records. Brent was close, but did managed to have his best time on this course. Despite Christian's fantastic finish, the team ranked 5th out of the six teams that competed.
When the dust had settled, Excelsior Springs walked away with a Missouri River Valley Conference Champion (Christian), three All-Conference runners (Christian, Micaela, and Dani), a 2nd place Girls' team, nine personal records, and four course best times. The good news is that all of the team members continue to improve. With the young team we have, who knows how good they'll be next year or the year after when most of them are seniors.