By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
NIXA – Despite hosting the Central Ozark Conference championship meet for the past several seasons, it had been nine years since either Nixa cross country team won a conference title.
Both those droughts ended on Tuesday afternoon.
Behind all-conference finishes from all 14 of their eligible runners, the Eagles swept the team titles at the COC’s annual championship meet at Inman Intermediate School.
Webb City senior Abigail Street and Joplin senior Hobbs Campbell won the conference’s individual titles, but Nixa’s overall depth allowed the team to dominate on its home course.
All seven Nixa girls finished in the top 19, lifting the Eagles to their first conference championship since 2012. The boys fared even better, as all seven placed in the top 14 to lead their team to its first COC title since 2013.
“Not to sound too cliche, but we knew the strength of our team was in the pack,” Nixa coach Lance Brumley said. “We had to stay together and move as fast as we could as a big group.”
With just one senior between them, both Nixa teams executed that plan to perfection.
The girls won despite having no runner finish better than 10th place. But junior Adelyn Janssen claimed that spot with a time of 20 minutes, 31.54 seconds, and six of the next nine finishers were her Nixa teammates. That gave Nixa a meet-low score of 63, 15 clear of runner-up Ozark.
The boys prevailed even though the Campbell-led Joplin team had three of the day’s top five times. But junior Mason Shank was second (15 minutes, 37.33 seconds) and his teammates helped make up the ground, with all six finishing ahead of Joplin’s No. 4 runner.
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The hosts finished with a team score of 39, nine points better than second-place Joplin.
“It is an amazing feeling,” Brumley said. “I’m so proud of these kids. They put in so much work and they’re starting to see the fruits of their labors. That’s why we do it as coaches, just so we can see these kids be successful.”
And there was plenty of individual success, too.
Janssen, Mackinzie Harris (11th), Erin Seale (12th) and Chloe McCormick (14th) all collected second team all-conference honors, while Brookelyn Bidinger (16th), Jenna Hefley (18th) and Meliah Copley (19th) all earned honorable mentions. Shank and Aaron Ashley (seventh) earned first-team honors for the Nixa boys, while Logan Richart (eighth), Reyes Martinez (10th), Caleb Gamble (12th), Devon Kemp (13th) and Zane Novinger (14th) were second-team finishers.
Gamble was the lone senior in that Nixa group, as the hosts ran a contingent that consisted of five freshmen, two sophomores and six juniors.
But with Tuesday’s strong finish behind them, the Eagles look to carry the momentum into the upcoming 17-team district meet, which will feature many of their fellow COC schools and new opponents like Ozark Conference power Kickapoo, whose boys won last year’s state title.
“The hope is it gives them confidence moving forward,” Brumley said. “We’ve got a huge meet coming up in a week at districts – and we’re still kind of an underdog. There are a lot of really quality programs and we’re going to need to put our best foot forward one more time.”
Street and Campbell carried a similar mentality into the final conference meet of their high school careers, with each of them winning their races by decisive margins.
Street, of Webb City, crossed the line in 18 minutes, 40.57 seconds – nearly 20 seconds faster than Republic’s Gracie Troester, who took second. Only two other runners finished within a minute of Street, who essentially duplicated the level of dominance she displayed in her season-opening win at the Southwest Cross Country Coaches Association all-class meet.
One key difference: Street now runs without a watch, as her coach instructed her to take it off prior to Webb City’s most recent race at Camdenton. He noticed Street was paying too much attention to her splits or paces, which was affecting how she would perform in the latter stages of the race.
“He took it away because sometimes I come through a mile too fast and I get in my head and think ‘Oh boy, I’m going to die,’” Street said. “I get too far in my head, or I go out too slow and I kind of disengage. I think it’s just no matter what the pace is, you have to compete the whole way through.”
Removing the accessory has also helped Street remove a mental block, which paid off when Troester raced out to an early lead during Tuesday’s race.
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“I got boxed in at first and I think earlier in this season, I would have freaked out a little bit,” Street said. “But I just said ‘Stay cool and pick people off.’”
Midway through the first lap, Street had surged to the front of the pack.
“I kind of sprinted a little bit to get in front of her, which probably wasn’t the most wise choice of me,” Street said, “But after I got in front I was like, ‘You can’t let anyone pass you know.’ I just kept pushing.”
Campbell waited a little longer to make his push.
The boys race amounted to a three-way battle between the Joplin senior, Webb City junior Evan Stevens and Nixa’s Shank. The trio was neck-and-neck at the start of the second lap.
“I wasn’t super confident going into (the race) because I lost to one of the kids earlier in the season,” Campbell said, referencing a recent loss to Stevens at Gans Creek. “But I knew if I just sat on him and waited to make a move, it would all be good.”
Campbell waited until the two-mile mark – essentially 60 percent of the way through the race – to attempt to create some distance between him and Stevens.
“My strategy was basically just to sit right behind him up until two miles and just make a big move at two miles that he couldn’t go with,” Campbell said. “That’s exactly what happened.”
Campbell blazed through the final lap and finished in a personal-record time of 15 minutes, 21.23 seconds – about three seconds faster than his old mark. That was 16 seconds ahead of Shank and 19 seconds better than Stevens, who took third.
For Campbell, the result more than avenged the loss he suffered at Gans Creek.
“I was pretty angry after that race,” Campbell said. “That really did motivate me to just want to go pretty hard for this race.”
Now Campbell – and the other Joplin runners – will shift their focus to the upcoming district meet, where the 2021 COC champions will look to avenge this narrow loss to Nixa. Campbell will also look to hang with Kickapoo senior Tyler Harris, who beat him by 14 seconds in the SWCCCA meet.
“I’m going to try to stay with him and see if I can stay with him,” Campbell said. “I know I’m going to have to go really fast (at the state meet), so just see how long I can hold on to him. Try to at least get second. I just want the team to qualify for state.”
GIRLS RESULTS
FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
1. Abigail Street, Webb City, 18:40.57
2. Gracie Troester, Republic, 19:00.63
3. Kopelyn Delong, Ozark, 19:06.47
4. Chloe Wood, Neosho, 19:31.38
5. Cylee Gilreath, Joplin, 20:00.14
6. Maggie Boyd, Carthage, 20:05.98
7. Kristin Probst, Republic, 20:15.85
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
8. Laine Garner, Ozark, 20:25.68
9. Riley Kemna, Neosho, 20:30.69
10. Adelyn Janssen, Nixa, 20:31.54
11. Mackinzie Harris, Nixa, 20:33.63
12. Erin Seale, Nixa, 20:39.75
13. Misora Nambara, Republic, 20:43.59
14. Chloe McCormick, Nixa, 20:44.13
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-CONFERENCE
15. Brooke Hedger, Webb City, 20:48.45
16. Brookelyn Bidinger, Nixa, 20:52.96
17. Kimberlee Surface, Ozark, 20:57.73
18. Jenna Hefley, Nixa, 20:59.27
19. Meliah Copley, Nixa, 20:59.47
20. Rachel Miller, Webb City, 21:05.06
21. Averi Burks, Joplin, 21:12.15
TEAM RESULTS
1. Nixa, 63
2. Ozark, 78
3. Republic, 83
4. Webb City, 99
5. Carl Junction, 143
T-6. Joplin, 147
T-6. Neosho, 147
8. Carthage, 163
9. Branson, 200
BOYS RESULTS
FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
1. Hobbs Campbell, Joplin, 15:21.23
2. Mason Shank, Nixa, 15:37.33
3. Evan Stevens, Webb City, 15:40.55
4. Ian Horton, Joplin, 15:45.73
5. Chance Tindall, Joplin, 15:56.83
6. Nolan Hansen, Willard, 15:58.62
7. Aaron Ashley, Nixa, 16:23.51
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
8. Logan Richart, Nixa, 16:25.24
9. Brady Purcell, Republic, 16:27.32
10. Reyes Martinez, Nixa, 16:29.99
11. Tristen Bough, Branson, 16:32.76
12. Caleb Gamble, Nixa, 16:34.17
13. Devon Kemp, Nixa, 16:36.57
14. Zane Novinger, Nixa, 16:47.56
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-CONFERENCE
15. Garry Adams, Willard, 16:50.19
16. Devin Smith, Carthage, 16:52.32
17. Grey Edwards, Joplin, 16:53.60
18. Cooper Davis, Republic, 16:53.62
19. Alex Keeling, Willard, 16:56.01
20. Mason Hedger, Webb City, 16:57.42
21. Parker Durham, Joplin, 16:59.26
TEAM RESULTS
1. Nixa, 39
2. Joplin, 48
3. Willard, 110
4. Carthage, 111
5. Republic, 133
6. Webb City, 154
7. Branson, 156
8. Ozark, 192
9. Carl Junction, 231
10. Neosho, 269
