By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Clever, Mo. — Liberal tallied a clean sweep in Saturday’s Class 1 District 4 championships, winning both the boys and girls team titles.
With temperatures just above the freezing mark, the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs followed up last year’s sweep with an encore in the cross country program’s third year of existence.
Led by sophomore Cailee Lake’s third-place finish, the Liberal girls placed four runners in the top 15 to edge out School of the Ozarks 29-44.
The boys followed suit, placing all five runners in the top 15 for a 37-84 victory over Wheaton. Senior Jayden Dalby’s fourth-place finish paced the Bulldogs.
While Liberal was a heavy favorite in the boys race, the girls had some work to do leading up to the event. Replacing a senior class that included multi-sport standout Alexis Barton, who now runs for Kansas University, was an early project for boys and girls head coach Don Kentner.
“We’ve been coming on strong all season,” Kentner said. “We had a great recruiting effort from a bunch of parents to replace a great senior class that we lost last year. We came back as defending champions for both the boys and the girls, and that really made the difference.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE BOYS RACE
For the boys, Kentner attributes success to overall team chemistry from strong leadership and a completely unselfish attitude throughout the team.
“We’ve been running with the same crew for three years now,” Kentner said. “They started the program, that group of five, and then we’ve had four freshmen that have really pushed them, supported them and, sometimes, even scored in that top five. They didn’t do that today, because we had our football player back. He ran a really strong race, even though he got tackled a bunch of times last night.”
That football player is senior Tyler Stebbins, a two-way player for Liberal’s football squad who played in Friday night’s district semifinal oss to Adrian. Stebbins, the school record-holder, has gone from being the Bulldogs’ top runner to a supporting role in the back of the lineup due to his multi-sport interests.
“He’s been a great leader for us,” Kentner said. “He was our school record-holder and our No. 1 all through the previous two years, and this year, the other kids have been catching and passing him, but his attitude has never changed. It was his run in sixth place that won us the conference championship last Tuesday, and he was just as happy with that as he was being our No. 1 runner.”
Liberal finished ahead of second-place Wheaton in the overall competition, 37-84.
The boys race was largely uneventful at the front of the pack.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GIRLS RACE
From the gun, Chadwick junior Evan Smith raced away from the pack, led wire-to-wire and finished in 16:38. Jasper freshman Hunter Hinds finished second in 17:19, and Wheaton senior Sean Lowry was third in 17:22.
“I just wanted to treat it like a state race,” Smith said. “Just go out hard and give it everything I’ve got. I felt like my time could have been a little better, but I’m happy with it … a district win is a district win.”
In the girls race, School of the Ozarks junior Autumn Alden held off a hard-charging sprint in the final 50 meters from Blue Eye sophomore Olivia Labrier to take the victory.
Alden posted a winning time of 21:26 and maintained a sizeable lead for most of the race; however, Labrier closed quickly in the last mile.
With only a couple steps separating the two with 20 meters to go in the race, Alden managed to navigate the sharp, 90-degree right turn to the chute just a bit better with an inside line on the corner.
After the race, Alden talked about getting caught off guard by Labrier’s desperation move.
“It was kind of surprising, because at the end, I didn’t realize she was that close, but I kicked into gear, so it was all good,” Alden said. “I tried to pick up the pace on the curves and hills and just keep it as long as possible.”
Labrier finished in 21:27, while Liberal’s Lake rounded out the top three with a 21:45.
The top two schools and top 15 individual finishers qualify for next weekend’s state championship meet in Jefferson City. The Class 2 boys run at 9:35am, with the girls taking the start at 10:45am.
Girls state qualifiers – Individual
1. 21:26 Autumn Alden, School of the Ozarks
2. 21:27 Olivia Labrier, Blue Eye
3. 21:45 Cailee Lake, Liberal
4. 22:00 Courtney Bates, McAuley Catholic
5. 22:18 Mary Bean, Liberal
6. 22:29 Austin Flake, Thomas Jefferson
7. 22:33 Taylor Ray, Liberal
8. 22:34 Yesenia Rivera, Jasper
9. 22:47 Brittany King, Wheaton
10. 22:55 Gardenia Rivera, Jasper
11. 23:18 Karyn Porter, School of the Ozarks
12. 23:26 Skylie Neal, Liberal
13. 23:39 Annika Anzjon, Jasper
14. 23:43 Jaden Moore, Thomas Jefferson
15. 24:02 Julianna Long, Blue Eye
Girls state qualifiers – Team
1. 29 Liberal
2. 44 School of the Ozarks
Boys state qualifiers – Individual
1. 16:38 Evan Smith, Chadwick
2. 17:19 Hunter Hinds, Jasper
3. 17:22 Sean Lowry, Wheaton
4. 17:40 Jayden Dalby, Liberal
5. 17:41 Adin Hiebsch, School of the Ozarks
6. 17:43 Colton Stacy, Liberal
7. 17:43.9 Marek Smith, Wheaton
8. 17:46 Chris Lemp, Blue Eye
9. 18:06 Dalton Hendrix, Liberal
10. 18:15 Toby Dingman, Liberal
11. 18:18 River VerWeire, Galena
12. 18:19 Connor Ramsey, McAuley Catholic
13. 18:20 Tyler Stebbins, Liberal
14. 18:25 Ethan Webb, Blue Eye
15. 18:44 Ricky Miller, Wheaton
Boys state qualifiers – Team
1. 37 Liberal
2. 84 Wheaton
