There were 62 Varsity Girls running at this meet. It was good to see both of Excelsior's runners in the top 20 finishes receiving medals. Micaela Lynch finished strong in 12th place and continues to close in on her personal record which was set late last season. Katelen Moerschel did reach her best time of her career for her personal record as she finished 19th.
There was only one thing on Christian Carter's mind while preparing for the Smithville Invitational. That was to win his first race in first place. He crossed the one mile mark at five minutes flat and looked like he was on a mission. At one mile, nobody was even close and the gap continued to widen as the race continued. At two miles, he was running a 5:20 per mile pace. The hills on the last 1.1 miles slowed him down a bit, but he still managed to finish the race 16 seconds ahead of the second place finisher. There were 86 runners in all.
Behind Christian running for the ESHS Varsity Boys was Ben Hartwig, Bailey Dolata, Seth Edwards, Brent Shelor, and Logan Stock. Hartwig recorded his second meet under 20 minutes for the season and it was his first time on this course. Dolata and Shelor each recorded their best times on the Smithville course. Edwards recorded his best time of his career to date by beating his previous personal record by about 18 seconds. He also improved his course time by 41 seconds. Like Hartwig, Stock also ran his first race at Smithville and continues to hang with the more experienced runners on the team.
Even with Carter's first place finish, the Varsity Boys team finished 9th of 12 behind District rival, Smithville and Liberty North, and Conference rivals, Odessa, Richmond, and Pleasant Hill. The sophomores on the team are gaining experience and it is believed that they will be a force to be reckoned with down the road.
This was the first meet where every runner on the team was able to compete. There were six girls running for Excelsior in the JV race and for two of them, sophomore Theresa Clariday and freshman Kimberlyn Parkin, it was their first official career 5k. Leading the pack as she has been doing all season was Dani Pair. It was neck-and-neck between her and a senior from Plattsburg. Dani was doing fine up until she rolled her ankle before the second mile. The pain slowed her down, but she would not quit. Despite a sore and swollen ankle, Pair finished 2nd against 103 other girls with a personal record topping her previous best by 56 seconds.
She wasn't the only JV girl experiencing pain during the race. April Stodgel was in 11th place at the one mile mark, but finished 49th overall due to leg pains. Kim Parkin, Ali Stodgel, Theresa Clariday, and Autumn Summers rounded out the team. For the first time in three seasons, the girls had a team score in which they placed 6th of 9 teams. District rivals, Liberty North and St. Pius X finished ahead of them, but they edged out Conference rivals, Richmond and Oak Grove.
Last but not least was the JV Boys race. Even though Lane Rogers can keep up with the other Excelsior boys, he's been running JV to reinforce his self-confidence. He will get a few chances to experience Varsity races this season soon. At Smithville, though, he had to prove himself in a field of 169 runners. He did so with a personal record about 12 seconds faster than his first race of the season at Chillicothe.
To summarize the day, the Tigers had one 1st place Varsity finish, one 2nd place JV finish, four medalists, four personal records, two inaugural 5k races (also personal records), one season best time, and 14 course best times. The team will return to this course for the District meet in early November.
For local results, please visit http://esxc.weebly.com/smithville.html. For all results, please visit http://www.morgansports.net/results/smithville.php.