By Amanda Perkins & Chris Parker
When Andy Youngworth took over the McAuley Catholic cross country program, it was an afterthought in the school.
“None of them had really trained hard for cross country. Running cross country was kind of an afterthought,” Youngworth said. “I was able to convince these kids that with hard work they could be competitive.”
Part of convincing the kids to be competitive required a trip to the gym where McAuley Catholic hangs banners for sports achievements.
“We have banners on the wall for all the sports. Conference championships, districts and all that. There were no banners for cross country. I told them we have not even done enough to earn our sport up there,” Youngworth said.
Now, the cross country banner in that gym will have words no other banner does: state champion.
The Warriors took the lead in the team race at the 2,000-meter mark and never looked back on the way to a dominant team score of 50 to beat area rival Thomas Jefferson by 26 points.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE RACE
“For the kids, I told them you are going to be able to come back some day and I want you to be able to look at the wall and say, ‘we did that’. Nobody can take that away,” Youngworth said.
Senior Michael Parrigon and junior Trae Veer led the charge for the Warriors placing third and fourth in times of 16:25.8 and 16:32.0. Parrigon had a tough turnaround playing a district soccer game last night in Springfield. He did not arrive at the hotel until 11:30 last night.
Will Mollnow (10th – 17:11.6), Gavin Anderson (19th – 17:44.0) and Thomas Perrin (22nd – 17:50.5) rounded out the scoring for McAuley Catholic giving the Warriors five all-state finishers.
Rowen Veer (79th) and Connor Taffner (85th) were the Nos. 6 and 7 runners for McAuley Catholic.
McAuley Catholic is slated to return six of its top seven runners, but graduate Parrigon who was a three-time all-state finisher for the Warriors.
“I tell the seniors the goal is to have the program be better than when you got here,” Youngworth said. “He (Parrigon) has been a great mentor. One guy can’t replace Michael, but all seven can improve enough to continue. If all seven are willing to do the work, then you don’t have to worry about one kid leaving. You have seven who are willing to step in.”
School of the Ozarks placed third and Hermitage was fourth to make in a Class 1 District 2 sweep of the top four spots. Dora also qualified as a team and placed seventh.
Individually, Mansfield’s Nolyn Corder brought home the individual state championship with a time of 16:14.8.
He was in third at the three-kilometer mark, but moved into first at the four-kilometer.
“I was running trying to stay with them (the leaders). They started going faster at the beginning of the third kilometer,” Corder said. “Parrigon started falling back a little bit. At that point I (thought) I just have to keep the pace. Once I looked back a little bit and saw they were falling off I knew I had to take it right then or they were going to catch up to me.”
He went to work in the final kilometer to open up a sizable gap and an 11-second victory in a time of 16:14.8.
“It was unbelievable. Coming through the finish line I couldn’t believe it. I kind of yelled a little bit,” Corder said. “It was a lot of emotion.”
Corder’s final kilometer was his second-fastest of the race at 3:08.9 and it was the fastest closing kilometer of the meet.
In addition to Corder and McAuley Catholic’s trio, Thomas Jefferson’s Will Twiss (5th – 16:59.3) and School of the Ozarks duo Kellen Robertson (7th – 17:07.5) and Ethan Howard (8th – 17:09.1) also finished in the top 10 giving the area 70% of the top 10 in the class.
Other area all-state finishers include Dora’s Daniel Tomlinson (11th – 17:29.0), Thomas Jefferson’s Braden Honeywell-Lynch (12th – 17:31.8), Thomas Jefferson’s Spencer Long (14th – 17:33.8), Hermitage’s Jaxon Wheeler (15th – 17:35.6), Dora’s Cade Nold (18th – 17:43.4), Thomas Jefferson’s Liam Cook (17:50.4) and Hermitage’s DeJuan Chambers (24th – 17:52.9).
In all, 16 of the 25 all-state finishers in the Class 1 boys race were from the area.
