|
Coach Dickson says:
Amazing Saturday morning on the fast Gans Creek in
Columbia, MO for the State Cross Country Meet. We were excited for
the opportunity to compete on a fast course, with great conditions,
& the best of the field. Out of the 16 teams that made it through
Districts, boys finished 5th, just 1 spot from a team podium finish,
and the best in school history!! 6 of the 7 boys set new career PRs
& I'm so proud of their dedication throughout the summer and season.
They are the exact definition of, "I wanted to be good so I worked
to be good!" and I'm beyond blessed to get to coach them!! Our top 5
boys each average between 330 to 450 miles/summer. Most of the
remainder of the boys team averages 250-300 miles over the summer as
well. Their success in entirely because they wanted it & worked for
it... and consistently!
- Individually: Luke Thompson, Laik Gaham, & Cain Evans
brought home hardware!
- Sophomore Luke Thompson finished 5th, running the
first sub-16 ever in school history, with a time of 15:57, & setting
a new school record! That's a 5:08 average mile pace (on grass w/
rolling hills)! This now makes him the fastest Sophomore in Class 3
& 12th fastest Sophomore in the entire state of MO!
- Senior Laik Graham finished 10th with a time of 16:11, ending his
last race of his high school cross country career with the best km
of his life! He ran a 3:06 split for the last 1000m (his fastest of
the race & likely XC Career), passing 8 runners, going from 18th to
10th! I can't think of a better way to go out & we will truly miss
this kid next year (not just on the course).
- Junior Cain Evans finished 17th with a time of 16:21,
which was a 25 sec Career Personal Record for him to earn a podium
spot for the second year in a row! After the first 1k split he was
in 58th place & then did was his does best. We are excited to still
have him for another season and I already know he has some huge
goals for it !
-Junior Alton Keller finished in 101st with a PR time of 17:44. His
fastest time last year season was 18:58 & his freshman year was
21:08! This dedicated kid decided he wanted to be fast & put in the
work on his own time in the off season. He has earned every ounce of
it all and I couldn't ask for a better teammate or harder worker!
-Senior Austin Lyford ran a 20 sec Personal Record with
a time of 18:13! He ended his freshman year with a 21:00 PR & has
racked up quite a bit of off season miles to get a lot faster!
Austin is also beyond dedicated and has had a few 500 mile summers
over his career. We will miss him greatly, but are so happy he ended
his career with a huge PR!
- Sophomore Trace Akers & Freshman Lake Englert were
our #6 & 7 runners on the day and I was very pleased with their
season! Trace Akers finished in 18:50 which was a 37 second PR &
Lake Englert in 19:17, which was right his PR. This was their first
state meet experience and both show great potential for future
seasons to come!
- Junior and 3-time state qualifier Yoo Jung Lee was
our lone girl runner and finished with a time of 22:40. It was close
to a PR for her! YJ had an opportunity to attend FFA Convention in
Indianapolis throughout the week & we all agreed she should take
advantage of that. Her 22:40 was a great time considering she didn't
get to practice all week & spent a majority of the week in a hotel
and on a bus! I am super excited to see what she does next year, as
I know she also has some big goals for her senior year!
- Lastly, our Alternates Carter
Shipers, Landyn Peterson, & Zeph O'berry were outstanding and the
best teammates I could've asked for. They helped the team in so many
ways from helping design state t-shirts, to helping pin on bibs, and
being the best, most positive and motivating boys out there. A team
definitely takes all members to function at it's best and it isn't
always about the time one runs on the course that determines whether
they're a positive asset to the team.
Additional fun fact -- The previous known fastest 5k
time was 16:42.9 set in 2016 by Layne Worman. All 3 boys broke that!
|
