Festus and Hillsboro turned the Class 4 District 1 boys cross country meet at Arnold City Park on Saturday into their own backyard grudge match.
All season, the Hawks have geared up to end the Tigers’ record streak of eight consecutive state championships. The runners on both teams have raced against each other since middle school, so it’s more of a friendly rivalry, but the competition intensifies at the crack of the starter’s gun.
Two weeks ago, Hillsboro took the first step toward its goal by unseating the Tigers as Jefferson County Activities Association champions. Saturday, the Hawks executed Phase 2 of their master plan, winning the District 1 title on the 3.1-mile (five kilometer) course with 25 points. Festus was second with 39 and Webster Groves finished a distant third with 118, just ahead of fourth-place Farmington (121). Those four schools and the top 30 individuals advance to the Class 4 meet Friday at the Gans Creek Course in Columbia.
The Class 5 boys and girls teams also competed in Arnold on Saturday, with Jackson, St. Louis University High, Parkway South and Kirkwood moving on to the state final Friday. Classes 1-3 are being held on Saturday.
“We talked about it at the beginning of the season; we wanted to do great things,” Hillsboro head coach Thomas Gordon said. “We came into today fresh and I knew my guys were ready and I’m so proud of them. This is a special group. They do everything together and that’s what makes them a great team.”
To indicate just how strong the Jefferson County Activities Association is in this sport, the conference posted the top eight boys runners in Class 4 District 1, and almost half (14) of the district’s state qualifiers.
At the JCAA meet Oct. 15, Festus senior Ian Schram beat Hillsboro senior Josh Allison by 10 seconds to win the conference crown. Allison turned the tables on Schram at districts with a first-place finish of 15:28.3. Schram was second in 15:39. Both have won two state medals with finishes in the top 10 both times.
“Coming into districts, my whole goal was to get redemption on my old friend, Ian Schram,” Allison said. “I’m thrilled to be the individual champion and as a team. Our whole goal was to keep this momentum going and have the same mentality at state.
“We’ve all been talking about this since seventh grade. It’s nerve-wracking competing against Festus because they’ve been the best in the state eight years in a row. We love those guys, but we want to end it.”
Seniors Jonah Allison (third, 15:43.1), Jimmy Mann (fourth, 15:54.3) and Gavin Vaughn (seventh, 16:25.5) and sophomore Landon Pogue (10th, 16:37.8) gave the Hawks five of the top 10 district finishers. Junior Gregory Mann (14th, 16:46.2) and junior Clayton Schneider (23rd, 17:05.1) also fit into the top 30 for Hillsboro, which has a legitimate chance at winning the school’s first state title in any sport.
Jonah, Josh’s twin brother, was 20th at state a year ago and figures to move up in Columbia.
“There is some brotherly competition, but that lead pack with Jimmy (Mann) makes the team,” Gordon said.
Of course, it’s not just Hillsboro that Festus will have to contend with in Columbia. West Plains (sixth in the state last year), Lutheran-St. Charles (third) and Platte County (ninth) were the other Class 4 boys district winners Saturday. Josh Allison, Schram and Festus senior Cullen Krieg are the highest-placing returning state medalists. The Tigers got a huge boost last month when Krieg returned from an injury in time for the JCAA race. He is a three-time state medalist, all in the top 10, and finished fifth Saturday in 16:14.2.
“He’s on track where we want him to be,” Festus boys and girls head coach Bryant Wright said. “The big thing is he ran what I consider a very good race. He looked under control. When you get down to it, that’s who you want in there when you consider the top 12 guys in (this) district have potential to be all-state.”
Senior Tate Riney (sixth, 16:22.8), freshman Carson Driemeier (eighth, 16:26.9), sophomore Lucas Campbell (19th, 16:55.7) and sophomore Tate
Uding (20th, 16:57.2) all ran in the top 20 for the Tigers. Sophomore Jimmy Wacker was 34th in 17:37.8.
If Festus is to continue its run of state history, it will have to conquer from the top down.
“I tell my boys if you were in the top 12 (at districts), you have a shot at being all-state,” said Wright, who also guided the Tigers to state titles in 2009 and 2012 before the current streak began in 2014.
Then he sounded like a gunfighter out of an old western.
“We run at high noon. So throw that in there. These guys are very determined. You can only do so much with what you have, and I hope people haven’t seen our best yet. I hope I’m sensitive to what my athletes need so they can run at 100 percent.”
De Soto (10th, 274 points) and Windsor (14th, 377) also competed in the boys District 1 meet but didn’t qualify anyone to state.
Festus girls make it to state
Led by senior Ava Leftwich’s ninth-place finish of 19:54.6, the Tiger girls team finished third in District 1 Saturday at Arnold with 111 points. Clayton won with 50 points. Rockwood Summit (second, 85) and Farmington (134) also qualified for state.
“She’s our leader,” Wright said of Leftwich, a state qualifier last year. “She got after it and stepped it up. She’s been part of some other state teams. It’s fun watching her make it back.”
When the Tigers got to Arnold, they were shaken by what happened to junior Jeannie Thornborrow, who had to ride to the meet separately after a road emergency delayed her.
Thornborrow was driving on Route A when her Buick caught on fire. She pulled over, grabbed her gear and dialed 911 as flames poured out from under the hood. She said a man pulled over and assisted her. The car is a total loss, but Thornborrow put her nerves aside to finish 28th in 20:48.1. She ran her personal record of 20:21 last year at state.
“I was very scared, surprised and frustrated,” Thornborrow said. “I had a lot of people remind me to change my mindset and set my feelings aside until after the meet. I was more scared of not competing than what happened to the car.
“By the end of the day, we were laughing about it.”
Also headed to Columbia for Festus are senior Dari White (18th, 20:20.3), junior Abigail Schnable (31st, 20:50.4), senior Kaylea Holmes (34th, 21.08.4), junior Riley Vogel (39th, 21:26.3) and junior Madison Caskanett (42nd, 21:36.4).
White ran a PR. “That was a great race for her,” Wright said.
Hillsboro finished ninth with 201 points and had three runners qualify for state: Senior Anna Crosby (13th, 20:04.7), sophomore Emily Wright (20th, 20:24.9) and freshman Katelyn Wiethop (25th, 20:37.4). Crosby and Wright were both state qualifiers last season.
“Just go for a PR,” Crosby said of her plan to run at state. “We all need to run together.”
“You have to use the little hills (at Gans),” Emily Wright said. “It’s a fast course. Stay on the inside because if you run on the outside, you gain mileage.”
The only other local JCAA athlete to qualify for state was De Soto junior Jailey Pigg, 24th in 20:33.9. It’s Pigg’s second straight trip to Columbia.
Class 1 District 1
Crystal City senior Lauren Hartman qualified for the Class 1 state championships after placing third in 20:33.38 at the District 1 meet at Arcadia Valley on Oct. 29. Hartman finished sixth at the state championships in 2021.