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The area continued its strong run in Class 2 boys state cross country on Saturday with Lamar winning its second team title in program history.
Previously, the Tigers won in 2012. That team helped set the foundation for this team.
“That group that won in 2012 laid the groundwork,” Coach Rodney Baldridge said. “Most of this group was in middle school or even fifth and sixth graders when they won. It means a whole lot.”
Baldridge’s top runner was junior Mark Venable. Venable improved from 31st last year to 3rd this year; dropping 71 seconds off of his time in the process.
“He (Venable) got 31st last year at state, and he was hurt during track. At the beginning of the summer the light came on he just started really running well,” Baldridge said. “I think he decided he knew that he was good enough, and he decided to put the work in to improve the way he did.”
Lamar is helped by the strength of the area week in and week out to get better.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE MEET
One of those strong teams is Stockton that finished second as a team.
“I couldn’t be happier for (Stockton) coach Sanderson and how they finished. Stockton packs really well, so we know if we pack our fourth and fifth runners in their pack then we are going to be doing pretty well as a team,” Baldridge said.
Sanderson couldn’t be happier with his team’s performance.
“Ideally we thought we want to be podium and No. 2 was almost going to be a max spot, but we didn’t want to rule out that top spot,” Sanderson said. “Over the last week I told the boys, really, depending on how you guys run we could be anywhere from two to seven realistically. I said if you guys show up and do what you’re supposed to do, we could be up in that two spot, but if you don’t, we could be anywhere off the podium. For them to show up and do it and show what we could do is awesome.”
Strafford’s Shane Burns finished second in a time of 16:30.15. The runner-up finish is his second in as many years, but the SBU commit has no regrets about his race.
“I don’t think I could have changed anything,” Burns said. “Simon (Gelber) killed it. He is always really good at flying under the radar and kicking it in at state. I think he did awesome.”
Burns’ team finished just off the podium in fifth place just four points behind fourth place Woodland.
El Dorado Springs’ Tyler Goatley placed fourth to give Southwest Missouri three of the top four finishers. Goatley improved his time by 42 seconds this year.
“I think my attitude and mind and being able to push through were a lot better this year than they were last year,” Goatley said.
Kolin Overstreet (Lamar – 7th), Dallas Larsen (Warsaw – 12th), Conner Jackson (MV-BT/Liberty – 13th), Jesse Compton (Lamar – 14th), Alex Leitner (Plato – 19th) and Tristan Williams (Crane – 23rd) rounded out the all-state finishers for the area.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL RESULTS OF THE BOYS RACE
Plato (6th) and Alton (13th) were the area’s other team qualifiers.
On the girls’ side, Warsaw senior Ashlee Kuykendall carried the banner for the area by finishing fourth in a time of 19:58.65. Ash Grove’s Erin Hall had a strong finish in 11th with a time of20:40.57. El Dorado Springs’ Ashley Knoll was just behind her in 12th at 20:44.08.
Lauren Sisco (Alton – 23rd) and Amanda Mantel (MV-BT/Liberty – 24th) also earned all-state honors.
Alton (5th), El Dorado Springs (11th), Sarcoxie (13th), Spokane (14th) and Sparta (15th) also sent teams to the state meet.
