With 11 state championships to his credit as the head coach of boys cross country at Festus, Bryant Wright understands the trajectory of a championship season isn’t always “up” from start to finish. Sometimes you lose and you learn along the way.
The Tigers have hosted the mid-September Bowles-Wright Invitational for years as a key benchmark in preparation to challenge for state titles. They have won it many times, but it was not to be Saturday as Kirkwood, led by individual champ Graham Stevener, a senior, edged the host school 37 points to 55 at Larry G. Crites Memorial Park.
The good news is Kirkwood, with an enrollment almost 50 percent higher than Festus (1,284 to 828), is in Class 5 for the postseason whereas the Tigers will run in their usual slot, Class 4. The bad news is, “we didn’t look very sharp,” Wright said. “I have to be patient with the process to get to that end result (state crown No. 12).”
Interestingly, Wright doesn’t always enter his top runners in this meet; Festus hasn’t won the team title since 2020, when they packed five finishers in the top 10. But he had the “A” team out there Saturday, led by junior Carson Driemeier in second place, clocking 16:14.42, eight seconds behind Stevener on the winding five-kilometer (3.1-mile) course.
Temperatures in the upper 80s and high humidity led to slower times.
“It really takes your breath away,” Driemeier said about the humidity. “It makes you sweat quite a bit. I think my first race at Forest Park (the week before) was pretty good. This was so bad. It was humid, muggy, hot. It was definitely tough. The plan was to go out a little slower (and) try to get Tate (Uding) up there. Some of the boys had a phenomenal race, others didn’t really get it done today.”
Uding, a senior, fulfilled his role as the No. 2 Tiger runner with a seventh-place time of 17:01.54. Uding’s personal best is 15:50.1, set at the state meet last year when he was 13th.
“I don’t think I noticed (the humidity) much while I was running, but it played a role,” Uding said. “It’s hard to breathe; you’re covered in sweat. It gets in your eyes. It’s tough.
“I’d love to beat Carson. I just really want our team to do well.”
Festus is still sorting out its running order behind Driemeier and Uding, and as Wright has said, those follower positions are just as important as the top two in their postseason plans. The other Tiger finishers Sept. 21 were junior Lucas Campbell (11th, 17:29.57), senior Trevor Bayless (13th, 17:31.22), freshman Lucas DeClue (27th, 18:15.90), freshman Hudson Bates (30th, 18:20.02), junior Zachary Spindler (34th, 18:25.64) and senior Aidan Cole (43rd, 18:58.25).
“We wanted to try and win this against a strong Kirkwood team,” Wright said. “We wanted to set our guys up to run successful races and give 100 percent. We worked hard. We looked a little tired. But you’ve got to race on every occasion.”
As the No. 1, Driemeier runs in the footsteps of many outstanding Tigers of the past, including state champions Drew White, Tyler Gillam, Michael Karls and Max McDaniel, and state runners-up Jacob Meyers and Ian Schram.
Wright is hoping his standout junior can put it all together for the big upcoming meets – the Jefferson County Activities Association Oct. 19 at Crites Park, Class 4 District 1 Nov. 2 at Cape Girardeau and the state meet in Columbia Nov. 9.
“Carson’s races haven’t been what we wanted at this point,” Wright said. “He seems to be struggling a little bit. We’re not concerned about that, but we’re hoping he makes that next jump. Sometimes you have to stay down in that valley a little before you make that hill again. At some point real soon, we need to see a good race out of him.
“The same way with Tate – I really haven’t seen that he’s been ‘on.’ Not that he didn’t give us everything he had.
“We’ve got plenty of time and you have to be patient and follow the process.”
Festus was the lone JCAA school at the Bowles-Wright meet. The other teams from the county were Northwest (seventh, 217) and Fox (12th, 285). Lion senior Michael Kershaw, a Class 5 state qualifier in 2023, finished ninth Saturday in 17:24.07.
Heat and humidity were factors in the girls race at Bowles-Wright; none of the 58 finishers clocked under 20 minutes. Lutheran-St. Charles senior Madalyn Mahoney won in 20:20.33. Class 5 power Lafayette, with two runners in the top nine, won with 61 points, holding off Festus (63), despite the Tigers packing in all seven runners in the top 26 spots.
The Festus girls finished third in the state last year. That was Lucy Boyer’s freshman season, and she missed winning a state medal (top 30) by one second. Boyer was the Tigers’ top runner at Bowles-Wright with an eighth-place time of 21:21.47. She ran her PR of 19:20 last year.
“It was very humid and I felt the sweat dripping off me the whole time,” Boyer said. “The hills are pretty bad, but everybody had to go through the same thing. The nerves get to you and it feels like you can’t even move. You have to stay positive and focus on the race because if you let the negative get into your head, you’ll let yourself drop down.”
Finishing behind Boyer for the Tigers were junior Olivia Cole (11th, 21:36.46), sophomore Bailee Tolbert (12th, 21:55.99), senior Alyssa Collins (17th, 22:59.55), freshman Elsie Nelson (21st, 22:54.28), sophomore Kayla Rousseau (22nd, 22:56.13), sophomore Marisa Peter (26th, 23:24.66), senior Camrynn Gildea (32nd, 23:57.72), sophomore Kendall Counts (38th, 24:50.25) and senior Katelyn Reece (44th, 25:21.95).
The Hillsboro girls finished seventh with 182 points. The Hawks were led by senior Jillian Meyer (25th, 24:28.04) and sophomore Ava Pingel (36th, 24:39.89).