The Northwest High School boys cross country team had five of the top 12 finishers in the Frank Schultz Invitational on the 3.1-mile (5K) course in Hillsboro on Oct. 4.
The Lions scored 40 points and won the meet for the first time. That was 47 points ahead of second-place Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience.
It was Northwest’s second meet victory this season. The Lions scored 26 points and won the St. Vincent High School Invitational in Perryville on Sept. 4. Ken Campbell, who has been NW head coach for 28 years, said it’s the first time in “years” the Lions have won any meet in a season.
“We’ve been talking to the guys a lot about how to learn how to race and tap into our real potential,” Campbell said. “Too many times we train but never learn how to race. What’s been going on is I plan workouts based on our race times, mile repeats and guys are killing the workout and they’re asking, ‘Why do we have to do this pace?’ So I say, ‘If you think this pace is too slow, you need to race faster.’ Hillsboro’s a tough course. The whole team ran close to their PRs.”
Over the last few weeks, freshman Jacob Judge has supplanted himself as the team’s No. 1 runner. His brother, senior Jackson Judge, is one of the Lions other than Jacob to be the lead Lion in a meet this year.
John Burroughs senior Chris Tao won the boys race with a time of 16:39.22. Collegiate School senior Evan Russell Moll was second in 17:10.52, and the Judges, Jacob (third, 17:45.38) and Jackson (fourth, 17:54.08) were the first NW runners across the finish line. The other scoring Lions were sophomore Jeremiah Brown (10th, 18:19.90), senior Tyler Brown (11th, 18:20.44) and junior Max Thomas-Perkins (12th, 18:21.52). The Browns are brothers.
It was a busy day for the NW seniors. Jackson had a 6:30 a.m. wakeup call, ran his race and stuck around to watch the JV race. Afterwards, he went home to prep for a homecoming party. He went to the dance at the high school in Cedar Hill that night and was a candidate for homecoming king.
“I think we have one of the greatest teams (at NW) maybe in the last 10 or 20 years,” Jackson said. “We have five to seven guys who will really put it out there. We have seven or eight great runners. Winning this meet was in part because we had that depth.”
Jackson said the competition among the team’s two sets of brothers is healthy for everyone. Campbell said Jacob is the best freshmen racer he’s ever seen. Jackson said he sees his brother become a different person when a race starts.
“Right now, he’s on his dominant streak,” Jackson said. “He’s had the longest streak of winning this season. We’ve had four different winners and we have guys all pushing to be number one. I would say (Jacob’s) got the race talent. If you compare us, I practice harder, but he puts it all out there in races. I can’t compete with his race ethic. He’s more of an angry kid. He was an aggressive soccer player.”
Campbell said during Jacob’s ascension through middle school, it was obvious to him and other coaches they were watching someone with immense potential in the sport.
“The guys were inspired and they talked about winning and they were ready to race,” Campbell said. “We had a tough week of training. I wasn’t backing off of this race. I was sitting with Jacob Judge at the NW football game, and he said he was exhausted. I said, ‘You’ve got to fight through that.’ He’s a freshman and I have to be conscious of that. He’s not your typical freshman because he’s run three years in middle school. If you’re not conscious of the fact they need more rest, you can burn them out.”
Like any competitor, Jackson wants to beat Jacob, but Campbell said he’s starting to accept the succession.
“And Jackson had maybe the best race I’ve seen him run because he didn’t let it down,” Campbell said. “Jackson has tons of talent and is my hardest worker. Over the summer he worked harder than Jacob but sometimes people have natural gifts.”
Jackson ran a personal-best time of 17:21.86 at the Orchard Farm Invitational in St. Charles in 2024. The Lions are back in the meet today (Oct. 9). The host Eagles are coached by Brad Yount, who played football and was a thrower for NW. Campbell considers the course there flat and fast.
“I’m hoping to crush my PR and get under 17:00,” Jackson said. “I believe our team is ready to pass that threshold into the 16s.”
Campbell said Thomas-Perkins ran 500 miles over the summer and came back a completely different runner.
“He was middling JV runner and now he’s cemented in the top five.”
The Class 5 District 1 meet is Nov. 1 at the Osage Center in Cape Girardeau. NW will have two solid months of meets to their credit by that time.
“It’s time to start pulling back on the training to see what they can do with fresh legs for districts,” Campbell said. “Our district is so incredibly hard that at some point we have to enjoy the ride. If we do something special, that’s fantastic.”
“We have big things coming and I don’t think this will be our last victory of the year. We have a chance at districts,” Jackson said.
Fox High School freshman Siena Harger won the girls race at Frank Schultz in 19:52.40 and Seckman High School sophomore Grace Andrews was second in 20:18.62.
The St. Louis Blue Knights won with 38 points. The Jaguars were second (78) and the Warriors ran third (100).
“She’s (Harger) been our best runner across the board, boys or girls,” Fox head coach Levi Varney said. “She’s gotten second two or three times. She was third at Ed White against 100 runners. Great work ethic and attitude and everything you could ask for.”
Sophomore Shaylynn Mills (15th, 22:47.09) and freshman Gracie Watkins (16th, 22:56.67) have been 20 seconds within each other in every race. Varney said the young runners present a solid future.
“It’s the first time since I’ve been here we have a solid core of girls,” Varney said.
The Fox girls are at the Border War at Principia High School on Saturday.