By Chris Parker
Blue Eye junior Riley Arnold is now a three-time state champion on the cross country course. She ran a time of 18:45.2 to win the Class 1 State Meet by 10 seconds on Saturday.
Arnold ran wire-to-wire in the lead by opening with a blistering 3:22.5 in the first kilometer before settling in with kilometer times of 3:41.5, 3:58.4, 3:51.2 and 3:51.9.
College Heights senior Grace Bishop was the next area runner across the line in the girls’ race placing fourth in a time of 20:48.6. Teammate Klohe Burk also earned all-state honors in 22nd place. That duo helped lead College Heights to the team championship with 91 points. Jayli Johnson (32nd place), Madelynn Jordan (61st place) and Shelbi Post (62nd) rounded out the scoring for College Heights.
Blue Eye finished sixth as a team. Morrisville (10th), Fordland (12th) and Niangua (14th) also represented the area in the team race.
Chadwick’s Alexis Loveland (12th), Braylynn Siercks (14th), Ashtyn Callaway (16th), Destiny Bettis (20th), Dora’s Autumn Nold (21st) and Winona’s Christina Halferty (23rd) all earned all-state honors.
In the boys’ race, Plato’s David Held finished as the state runner-up. He was in 16th place after the first kilometer before moving up to fifth place entering the final 2,000 meters of the race. Going into the final 1k, Held was in seventh place.
That was when he turned it on.
The Plato junior dropped a 3:19.0 in the final 1,000 meters to move up five spots into second place. His time over that final stretch was the fastest closing 1,000 meters in the race.
Blue Eye’s Ryan Cardenzana finished fourth overall in a time of 17:04.8. Teammate Jadon Weaver finished 23rd to earn all-state honors as well. That duo combined with Houston Parker (37th), Roman Ray (46th) and Trenton Newman (66th) to finish runner-up as a team. Alex Labrier and Braeden Boyd were the Nos. 6 and 7 runners for Blue Eye.
Winona (6th place), Liberal (8th place), Fordland (10th place), Dadeville (11th place) and Fair Play (12th place).
Jasper’s Hunter Hinds (11th place), Greenwood’s Nathan Fletcher (12th place), Winona’s Kaiden Van Winkle (14th place) and Morrisville’s Gavin Duchscherer (24th place) all earned all-state honors.
