West Plains girls’ track and cross country has a strong tradition of winning.
This season a pair of seniors, and twins, are living up to those expectations and writing their own history.
When watching a West Plains track meet you might notice a familiar sight. Meet twins Brayden and Jordan Kantola.
“They are the work leader. They’re always at practice, they never miss,” West Plains track, and cross country coach Alicia Gunter said.
The Kantola’s are two of the Zizzers’ top distance runners, but it hasn’t always been that way.
“Distance was not my thing to begin with, I was slow,” Brayden said.
The two got serious about running in middle school, before entering high school with big goals.
“We wanted to be like the seniors that we saw our freshman year, we wanted to just be them. We were thinking whatever we could do for the team,” said Jordan.
That team-first mentality helped them lead West Plains to a cross country title in the fall.
Brayden finished second, only behind her sister Jordan.
“They are toughminded. They are super tough-minded, if one of them was hurting out there during that race you would have never known it,” Gunter said.
Last year, Jordan earned all-state in the mile, while Brayden was all-state in the 800.
Of course, it helps when your strongest competitor is also your training partner.
“Usually, we both know what type of encouragement the other one needs to hear, so we’re good about building off each other,” Jordan said.
Their hard work together has helped them reach a goal of theirs, building on the great Zizzer running tradition.
“They’ve continued the Zizzer tradition with their team, and with their individual stats in track,” Gunter said.
