With April Stodgel out to heal her sore leg muscles, the other four Varsity girls made good headway. Dani Pair and Katey Moerschel both finished with their best times of the season as Moerschel closed in on her personal record. If she can knock off another 14 seconds, she'd be there. Meanwhile, the two rookies, Katelen Patterson and Halley Parkin, had pretty good races, too. Patterson beat her personal record by about 52 seconds, while Parkin was only 3.5 seconds away from hers set at Platte County a few days ago. Because there were only four girls, they were unable to participate as a team.
The Varsity boys couldn't compete as a team either since Logan Stock was out with an ankle injury that was aggravated at Platte County. That didn't stop the other boys from pushing themselves harder, though. Ben Hartwig crossed the finish line with his best time of the season and finished less than 10 seconds from a personal record. Brent was finally able to get under 20 minutes for the first time this season and he did it with a personal record. His grandmother promised him a pumpkin pie if he did! Seth Edwards also sped past the 20 minute barrier. This was his first venture into 19 minute territory with his personal record time. Lane Rogers, unfortunately, ran into a wall after his second mile, so he wasn't able to get a personal record, although he did register his best time ever on the Smithville course.
Autumn Summers was the only Junior Varsity girl to run for Excelsior Springs. She didn't record a personal record, but did manage to beat her best time on the course. Of the four boys who ran JV, Alex Argyle and Jacob Scott set personal records while Arthur and Jordan Meehan completed their first 5k races and set their benchmark times. Argyle's PR was about 69 seconds faster than his Platte County time. Scott's shaved a whopping 4 minutes and 18 seconds off of his previous best time from Chillicothe.
All in all, even though no medals were won, it was a good day for the athletes to improve on their own times. Of the 13 who ran, five had personal records, three had season best times, two had course best times, and two ran their first career 5k races. Continuous self-improvement equals success.