This summer, Bryant Wright took a fishing trip to the Boundary Waters in northeastern Minnesota.
When the head coach of the Festus boys cross country team returned home, the leaders on his squad had taken charge.
So much for “the end” of the Tiger dynasty in this sport.
After seeing its eight-consecutive-year run as state champs halted last year in finishing second to – of all schools – upstart Hillsboro, Festus won its 11th state championship Saturday at the state meet in Columbia, edging out runner-up Platte County for the Class 4 crown by eight points, 91 to 99. It was the Tigers’ second-smallest margin of victory at state; they beat Warrensburg in Class 3 by seven points in 2012.
“They had to take the reins without me being there,” Wright said. “(Late summer) is one of the most important times of the year to run because at the end of the summer you don’t have anything to show for it like a big race. So those boys took it upon themselves to be the leaders they needed to. That impressed me the most and it was fun to watch them run today.”
Lincoln College Prep took third in Class 4 with 110 points and Webster Groves was fourth with 134.
Wright said it was unspoken, but some of the leaders who emerged this year knew they hadn’t run their best race in 2022. Tiger sophomore Carson Driemeier, 13th at state last year as a freshman, moved up to third this time, clocking 15:14.1 on the five-kilometer (3.1 mile) Gans Creek course. He was nearly 20 seconds behind individual champ Isaac Rivera, a senior from Lincoln College Prep.
Festus junior Tate Uding improved from 35th a year ago to 13th Saturday in 15:50.1. Junior Jimmy Wacker claimed the final individual medal in 30th in 16:08.2. The other Tiger finishers were senior Bryson Rhine (38th, 16:20.6), junior Lucas Campbell (40th, 16:22.3), junior Aidan Cole (56th, 16:30.7) and junior Lucas Kavanaugh (98th, 17:13.3).
Platte County senior Andrew Johnson dueled with Driemeier for much of the race and finished second in 15:11.4.
“The boys ran a super race and it was a great day today,” Driemeier said. “We’ve always been up there and I think we’ll continue to stay there.
“Me and (Smithville junior Liam Adair) were pushing each other out there and when he started falling off, I had to pick up the next person and I had to chase Andrew. Isaac had a great race so he was pretty far away and Andrew had a great race, too. It was the final race, so I knew I had to do something special.”
Driemeier placed seventh in the 3,200-meter run at the Class 4 state track and field championships in May and contributed to the Tigers’ first state-championship team in that sport.
“Three weeks into the (cross country) season, I said, ‘What do you think about winning this race (state)?’” Wright said. “And he said, ‘That sounds like a good idea.’ We knew Rivera was a special runner, so we tried to do the best we could each week to get closer to him, if we could. Stranger things have happened. The dilemma was (that) if it blows up, that could cost the team. But I gave him the green light if he wanted to win it.
“He does things the right way all the time. He does the extra stuff.”
“We’ve trained so hard since that day,” Uding said of last year’s race. “It really hurt a lot of us. We had to go into the race (this year) thinking with a positive mentality. Race not to beat a team, but to give 100 percent.
“My run was good. I didn’t look at the (kilometer) boards until the second one. I was like, I’m moving, but I need to keep going for my team. I need to catch the kids in front of me. I think if my teammates are hurting, I’ve got to pick up the slack and keep going for them. If I’m hurting, I know they’ll do the same for me.”
Three other Jefferson County runners earned medals in the boys’ race. Hillsboro junior Landon Pogue clocked 15:47 in 10th place, while teammate Clayton Schneider, a senior, came in 25th in 16:02.1. De Soto sophomore Carson Koerber finished 14th in 15:52.
Festus girls take third
The Tigers ended a four-year absence from the medal stand by scoring 137 points to finish third in the girls Class 4 race Saturday. St. Joseph’s Academy won with 110 points and West Plains earned its 27th state trophy in second with 133. Nerinx Hall was fourth with 144. Harrisonville junior Kayleigh Norris was the individual champion in 18:07.7.
“The coolest part about it is we believe we can compete on this stage again,” said Festus head coach Wes Armbruster, who took over for Wright on the girls side this fall. “I’ll take the blame for last week (a barely-state-qualifying fourth place at districts) and we looked past it assuming we were going to be here. (Sophomore) Katelyn Thurman has been on a bike the last two weeks and she’s been our No. 1 all year. She’s been struggling and fighting it and that means a lot to the girls who picked it up for her.”
Thurman got off the bike and on the course, where she was 61st in 20:32.9, a few seconds ahead of junior teammate Camrynn Gildea (62nd, 20:36). Senior Jeannie Thornborrow was the first Tiger to finish, placing 21st in 19:24.5. Freshman Lucy Boyer missed a medal by one second in 31st in 19:45.9, and freshman Kendall Counts, the JCAA champion, was 48th in 20:10.8. Also competing for the Tigers were junior Alyssa Collins (51st, 20:17) and freshman Kayla Rousseau (86th, 21:10.7).
Thornborrow was 54th at state as a sophomore in 2021, but missed last year’s state meet with an illness.
“It’s really unreal,” Thornborrow said. “The last few years it’s been our goal to get on the stand and this year felt different. Going into the race, we thought some people didn’t think it was going to happen, but I know the girls, and (our) team is amazing.
“Run for your team – that’s the only thing I could think of. Trust in the process and the training, and if you do, amazing things can happen. We’ve watched the boys do incredible things and we have supported them, and today we were able to (get on the podium), too.”
Armbruster said Thornborrow executed her race perfectly.
“Jeannie’s been on the big stage before and she got it taken away from her last year,” he said.
Pigg medals in final race
It took four tries, but Jailey Pigg got her medal.
The De Soto senior ran at state the last three years, never placing higher than 52nd. Saturday she dug deep and won her first state medal, finishing 19th in Class 4 in 19:22.9.
Earlier in the season, Pigg ran on the same course at the Gans Creek Classic and clocked 20:14. She’s the Dragons’ first state medalist since Kayla Vogelsang in 2021.
“I pushed through,” Pigg said. “It was definitely really painful. I have a cold, so that did not help. (But) my splits got faster as the race went on.”
Pigg plans on running for coach Steve Davis at Mineral Area College.
“I love this sport and I’m so glad I chose to run instead of play basketball,” she said. “I don’t think I would have been good at basketball. I have learned so much these last six years. We get good runners here.”