After a full week off our squad traveled to Grain Valley to compete on a well-kept but hilly course. Our training and preparation the past week and a half has been geared toward performing well at this meet while still getting ready for the championship season which is quickly approaching.
Going into the meet we knew that the main competition in our division would be our former district rivals from Pembroke Hill. After the first mile it was evident that our varsity boys meant business. Both Landon Fatino and Tobin Wise made big moves to establish their position in the lead pack. Desmond Ewing and Will Pryor both latched on to a pack of Pembroke Hill runners with Kolton Kincaid trailing slightly behind while leading a pack of Rooster runners. At the conclusion of the race Landon Fatino and Tobin Wise provided a powerful 1-2 punch in the small school division with both runners at or ahead of their personal best times. Desmond Ewing and Will Pryor had solid season best performances matching up well against Pembroke. Kolton was our number five runner followed closely by Keagon Madison. The Rooster Varsity squad placed 1st out of 12 teams in the small school division beating Pembroke Hill 32-60. Knob Noster placed 3rd with 123 points. This was a big meet for our boys in terms of boosting confidence with 4 guys running sub 19 on a hilly course. Joel Conway was not available due to a band competition but he puts five of our top 7 below the 19 minute mark. I think this squad will continue to improve and make a run at a district championship come end of November. The JV boys kept things rolling with all 5 athletes setting personal records in their race. Morgan Carlile and Caden Walker led the JV boys through the mile at 6:20. They will certainly be knocking on the door of the all-important seventh man position on the varsity squad. In the JV girls race, both Tanner Reffitt and Bethany Larkins pushed each other through the mile. Tanner made up a lot of ground on opponents on the downhill portion of the race flying to a one and a half minute PR! Bethany finished the race strong and set a season best, missing her personal record by just 11 seconds. Results: Individual Places are Small School Division Only *Denotes Medalist Varsity Boys *1 Landon Fatino 16:59 *2 Tobin Wise 17:35 *6 Desmond Ewing 18:10 9* Will Pryor 18:31 *14 Kolton Kincaid 19:15 16 Keagon Madison 19:35 23 Dakota Middleton 19:47 26 Parker Snow 19:58 73 Parker Elkins 22:48 JV Boys 13 Morgan Carlile 20:26 18 Caden Walker 20:45 25 Jackson Hunt 21:33 31 Mazen Jackson 22:52 48 Johnathan Rivera 21:59 JV Girls 16 Tanner Reffitt 27:00 26 Bethany Larkins 29:00
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On Tuesday, September 18th, our athletes competed at the Lone Jack Invitational. This smaller meet gives several of our JV and newcomer athletes the opportunity to compete in a varsity setting against some tough small schools in our area. Temperatures at race time were in the mid to upper 80s with extreme humidity pushing the heat index well into the 90s. MSHSAA rules regarding heat required that course distances be shortened to protect the health and safety of our athletes. The varsity race was shortened to a 2.3 mile course and the JV athletes ran a 1.55 mile loop. In addition to the heat, the course contained difficult and dangerous terrain with long sections ran in a newly mowed field.
Athletes were given the cue to use the shorter distances as an opportunity to practice running at a goal PR pace for 5k. The girls struggled in the second half due to the conditions and early pace. On the guys side, several boys ran paces that if held through 5k would have been massive PRs. Parker Snow was the top varsity finisher of the day placing 3rd overall. Dakota Middleton helped the Roosters team score with a top 10 finish. The athletes competing learned a valuable lesson in cross country that every place matters. At the end of the day, team scores had Knob Noster commandingly in 1st with 64 points. Conference competitors Holden placed 2nd with 71 points just ahead of Pleasant Hill with 72 points. I was extremely pleased with the boy’s performance placing 3rd out of 10 teams in the varsity competition. It reinforces for everyone the importance of giving it your all and doing what you can to pass just one more person. Mazen Jackson and Johnathan Rivera ran impressive races in the JV section of the meet. In his XC debut, Mazen driven by his competitive nature ran up front and made a bid to take the lead with just over a quarter mile to go. In the end, Knob Noster’s Nathan McDonald had another gear pulling away from Mazen but I was very excited to see him finish second overall. Shortly behind, Johnathan Rivera powered through the final half mile to earn 4th place. Drake Beaman continued to improve his pacing placing 11th in the race. This Saturday our squad takes on a large field at the Grain Valley Invitational. The course features long and challenging hills that will separate tough and disciplined runners from their competitors. The meet will serve as a good tune up for our conference meet which is run on similar hilly conditions. Results Varsity Girls (2.3 miles) 12 Megan Swinney 19:40 18 Tanner Reffitt 21:02 21 Zoe Crockett 22:37 24 Sydney Johnson 26:25 Varsity Boys (2.3 miles) 3 Parker Snow 14:06 8 Dakota Middleton 14:22 16 Carson Case 15:17 21 Parker Elkins 15:28 25 Morgan Carlile 15:37 44 Caden Walker 17:36 49 Jackson Hunt 18:16 JV Boys (1.55 miles) 2 Mazen Jackson 10:02 4 Johnathan Rivera 10:28 11 Drake Beaman 12:52 This past weekend our girls and boys squads traveled up north to compete in the Heartland Classic. This year’s event featured 31 boys teams and 25 girls teams from Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota. The meet was held at Central College’s cross country course located in Pella, Iowa. The footing was great but the course challenged runners with over 138 feet of elevation gain over 3 miles.
The hills, combined with warm temperatures and extreme humidity, made this meet the biggest challenge thus far this season. Our girls have been battling through some minor injuries and showed great perseverance to push themselves through the second and third miles. Each of them managed to find another gear and finish strong in the final straight. The boys toed the line against some of the best squads in the midwest. Athletes from Akeny, IA and Edina, MN set the tone of the race by flying through the mile under 5 minutes. Landon Fatino and Tobin Wise continued to lead the Rooster squad by passing through the mile between 5:30 and 5:40. The rest of the boys executed pack running to push each other through the difficult sections of the race. The boys team showed room for improvements but Joel Conway highlighted the race as the number 3 runner with a huge PR breaking 19 minutes for the first time. Will Pryor came through as the number four man with a season best time. The Roosters placed 26th out of 31 teams in the highly competitive field. I am glad that our kids had this opportunity to test their limits and see how they run in less than ideal conditions. Looking forward to Lone Jack next week and hopefully some cooler races later this season! Results: Varsity Boys 74 Landon Fatino 17:46 135 Tobin Wise 18:37 164 Joel Conway 18:54 187 Will Pryor 19:24 198 Desmond Ewing 19:41 199 Kolton Kincaid 19:42 200 Keagon Madison 19:43 JV Girls 243 Tanner Reffitt 29:35 254 Zoe Crockett 29:50 293 Bethany Larkins 32:02 Varsity Girls 196 Megan Swinney 27:39 Rain and mud did not stop our athletes from competing at the Ray-Pec Invite this past Saturday. Cooler temperatures, large puddles, and sections of mud made for an entertaining and memorable race, especially for our newcomers.
Leading up to the varsity boys’ race we knew that Smithville would be the team to beat. Our race plan was to have our top 3 athletes outperform the firepower that Smithville had up front and hope that our 4-7 runners would be able to mix it up with Smithville’s pack near their number five runner. Through one mile, our top 3 had a lead on Smithville’s top 3 with our 4-6 trailing Smithville’s “pack” by 10 seconds. Muddy conditions in the second half of the course made it difficult for our boys to make up ground with Smithville’s pack pulling 35 seconds ahead of ours by the final straight. Smithville won the meet with 38 points and solidified their #6 ranking in the state. Our boys looked good and earned 2nd place scoring 54 points. The next closest team was Lawson in 3rd scoring 126 points. I believe that our four-seven athletes will continue to improve and gain confidence making us serious contenders for another state meet run in November. Our girl’s squad competed as a team for the first time this season. The varsity boys tore the course up making times and conditions more difficult for the girls but they rose to the occasion and paced themselves well. Megan Swinney had the standout race from the group by beating her personal best time from last year by 1 minute and 11 seconds. Bethany Larkins opened her season off 56 seconds faster than last year’s first 5k. Overall, the girls placed 8th out of 9 schools. Course conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the day but our JV boys were up for the challenge. They placed 2nd overall out of 6 teams led by top 10 finishes from Keagon Madison, Dakota Middleton, and Carson Case. Parker Elkins and Morgan Carlile had strong finishes wrapping up the top 5. Our newcomers Jackson Hunt, Johnathan Rivera, and Drake Beaman each ran faster splits for two miles in their 5k than they did at our opening meets this season! This group of boys will continue to challenge and push for varsity spots as the season progresses. Next week, we take our varsity squads to Iowa for the Heartland Classic. Our athletes will be tested against some of the top teams from our neighbors to the north. Results: *Denotes Medalist Varsity Girls *16 Aubrey Scott 22:53.2 7:23/M 48 Megan Swinney 26:00.0 8:23/M 59 Tanner Reffitt 28:30.0 9:12/M 62 Bethany Larkins 29:08.5 9:24/M 63 Zoe Crockett 29:17.3 9:27/M 1 Smithville 23 2 Paola 82 3 KC East 82 4 Lawson 110 5 West Platte 121 6 St. Pius X 129 7 Cameron 157 8 Pleasant 208 9 Lathrop 244 Varsity Boys *3 Landon Fatino 17:24.8 5:37/M *6 Tobin Wise 18:07.6 5:51/M *7 Desmond Ewing 18:11.8 5:52/M 22 Kolton Kincaid 19:16.8 6:13/M 23 Joel Conway 19:24.7 6:15/M 24 Will Pryor 19:29.6 6:17/M 35 Parker Snow 20:05.0 6:29/M 1 Smithville 38 2 Pleasant Hill 54 3 Lawson 126 4 Clinton 131 5 KC East 148 6 West Platte 165 7 Hermitage 181 8 Cameron 214 JV Boys: *4 Keagon Madison 19:39.4 6:20/M *6 Dakota Middleton 20:12.0 6:31/M *9 Carson Case 20:45.5 6:42/M 22 Parker Elkins 21:52.1 7:03/M 26 Morgan Carlile 22:44.6 7:20/M 31 Jackson Hunt 23:08.8 7:28/M 36 Johnathan Rivera 23:24.7 7:33/M 60 Drake Beaman 28:44.6 9:16/M Since we last visited Belton, floods washed out several bridges in the wooded area and overgrowth of vegetation necessitated the need to redesign the course. This year's event featured a similar first half mile with a new cut out heading south to a field with two scenic ponds and a large dam for the athletes to run across. Changes to the course left it slightly longer than the advertised 2-mile distance which added anywhere between 20 and 45 seconds to athletes times. In addition to the added length, muddy and wet conditions combined with heat and humidity made it a difficult course for the athletes.
With all that being said, 9 of our 15 athletes actually ran faster at Belton than they did on the shorter Warrensburg course! Aubrey Scott and Megan Swinney started the competition off with the Varsity Girls race. Up front, the race was stacked with athletes from the #1 ranked team, Ray-Pec, leading the way. Aubrey pushed hard and maintained contact with their pack for the first 1.5 miles before fading to 11th place. Megan Swinney continued to show improvement cross the mile mark faster than any other opening mile in her career and held on to her pace to finish within 15 seconds of last week's time. Her consistent improvement will be exciting to watch next week during our 5k season opener. The varsity boys had the opportunity to compete in a scored event against our new conference rivals, Warrensburg. Before the mile mark, Warrensburg had a significant lead in team points but a strong finish from the team helped secure 2nd place 9 points ahead of Warrensburg. At the front, Landon Fatino battled in a relentless pack against Ray-Pec's talented group with the addition of Colton Palmer, 4th at last year's state meet. At one point in the last half mile, Landon pushed within arms reach of Palmer but did not have the closing speed to deal with the top 3 athletes. Tobin Wise has shown consistent improvement since last track season and will be another one to watch at the longer 5k distance. Desmond Ewing overcome a fall early race and got back up to finish third on the team. Joel Conway and Will Pryor were the unsung heroes of the team score race as they trailed Warrensburg's number 5 by a considerable margin at the mile mark. Both showed guts and determination to move up and pass their #5 runner in the final strides of the race. Keagon Madison and Dakota Middleton gave a strong showing and will certainly challenge for the valuable 7th varsity man position. In the JV girls race, Tanner Reffitt and Bethany Larkins both put together a strong first mile improving their first split from last week's meet. Each girl fought hard and pushed their limits in the final half mile of the race. They will soon move up against varsity competition having gained valuable race experience and tactics at the JV level. The JV boys put on a clinic in running fast and improving times from last week. All seven athletes improved upon last week's times with them combining for a total sum of 5:41 of improvement! Carson Case was the sole medalist of the group putting together a huge last quarter mile to move into the 10th position. Caden Walker and Parker Elkins both went through the first mile faster than their first 1600m time trial at Purple and Gold night. They took off 1:06 and 0:39, respectively. Jackson Hunt, Morgan Carlile, and Johnathan Rivera all looked comfortable and in control as they each raced to a sub-16 minute finish. One of the highlights of the meet was Drake Beaman who PRed through the one mile mark and then obliterated his course goal by taking 2 minutes and 17 seconds off last week's time! If these boys continue to improve like they have in the first few weeks then they will be a force to reckon with in the coming weeks. I am pleased with the positive attitude, work ethic, and dedication shown by this team early on. We will need to maintain our focus as we move on to the 5k distance and continue to challenge our goals and exceed expectations. Results *Denotes Medalist Varsity Girls 11 Aubrey Scott 14:35 22 Megan Swinney 16:56 JV Girls 21 Tanner Reffitt 18:28 26 Bethany Larkins 19:10 JV Boys *10 Carson Case 13:20 18 Caden Walker 13:53 21 Parker Elkins 13:59 28 Jackson Hunt 14:45 30 Morgan Carlile 15:02 42 Johnathan Rivera 15:57 55 Drake Beaman 18:14 Varsity Boys *4 Landon Fatino 11:11 *9 Tobin Wise 11:44 11 Desmond Ewing 11:56 21 Joel Conway 12:29 22 Will Pryor 12:32 31 Dakota Middleton 13:18 32 Keagon Madison 13:26 Varsity Boys Team Scores 1st Ray-Pec 25 2nd Pleasant Hill 61 3rd Warrensburg 70 4th Grandview 94 5th Van Horn 126 6th Center 156 |
Coach Paul StahlHead Cross Country and Assistant Track Coach at Pleasant Hill High School Archives
November 2019
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