As the sun beat down on West City Park and the temperature started to rise, Kevin Koester sprinted out ahead of the field when the starter gun was fired.
Koester, a senior at Hillsboro, never looked back and cruised across the finish line in first place with a time of 16:26.05 to win the Festus Bowles Cross Country Invitational on Saturday. His time was 17 seconds faster than Festus junior Max McDaniel, who came in second.
Koester set a meet record with a time of 15:53.26 in winning the Stan Nelson Invitational on Sept. 9 and was never challenged on Saturday. Interestingly enough, neither Koester nor McDaniel competed in the Bowles race last year.
“Last week after the race, I felt dead, but today I felt pretty strong at the end,” Koester said. “It was much hotter today so I don’t know what the difference was.
“I’m running more miles and feel better during training. I’m doing core (training) every night and taking ice baths. All of the little things make a big thing.”
Koester and his teammate, senior Colton Vaughn (10th, 17:25.87), were the only two Hawks to win a medal – given to the top 25 finishers – and led the Hawks to a fourth-place finish among the boys teams. New Bowles entry Raymore-Peculiar, a Class 4 school south of Kansas City, swept the boys and girls team competition.
“I’ve seen (Raymore-Peculiar) race before and once I knew they were coming, I knew they would be front runners,” Hillsboro boys cross country coach Tom Gordon said. “Based on times from Stan Nelson, we were predicted to finish third but we didn’t complete the game plan and now we have to rebound for next week.”
McDaniel, a fourth-place finisher at state in Class 3 the past two seasons, knows he’ll have to run faster to keep up with Koester when the two meet again on Oct. 14 on the same course to decide the Jefferson County Activities Association championship. McDaniel is the defending JCAA champion. Koester was third last year.
“It hurts mentally,” McDaniel said moments after finishing second on Saturday. “It’s the beginning of the season and coach (Festus head coach Bryant Wright) is smart because he knows now’s not the time to set the pace, that comes later on. That’s where we’re going to be by the conference meet.
“I knew (Koester) was going to take off hard and not slow down. I just couldn’t catch him today.”
Wright invited Raymore-Peculiar to the Bowles meet last year after watching Panther boys head coach Jamin Swift speak at a distance clinic. In the boys competition, the out-of-towners scored 44 points and the Tigers were second with 61. All five of the Festus runners who were timed on Saturday finished among the top 19. Wright held sophomore Jonah Krieg out of the race because of a sore knee.
“We don’t like to lose our home meet but it was a special circumstance,” Wright said. “If you’re not on your game, you’re going to get beat.”
Wright said he was impressed with the way Koester is running.
“He looks pretty good right now,” Wright said. “He got away from Max and Max didn’t have what he needed to go get him. Max was a little flat but that happens sometimes this time of year.”
Seckman’s boys finished sixth on Saturday and juniors Nathan Key and Zachary Reed both won medals. Key finished sixth in 17:18.75 and Reed was ninth with a time of 17:23.90.
“I felt good today,” Key said. “I wanted to stay up with the top of the pack and let my training do the rest. There’s a lot of steep hills on this course and I like that.”
Key said Koester has his team’s attention.
“He’s one of the runners our whole team looks up to,” he said.
Three Herculaneum runners – sophomore Kyle Vinyard, junior Jacob Arnold and senior Loki Cortner – finished in the top 25. Vinyard led the way for the Blackcats by coming in 13th in 17:34.10. Arnold was 21st (17:53.91) and Cortner was 24th (17:56.51). Cortner is a two-time state medal winner in Class 2. The Blackcats moved up to Class 3 last season.
“We’re not very deep,” said Herculaneum head coach Kyle Davis. “Vinyard ran a heck of a race. They all ran awesome.”
Sophomore Jonathon Coffman is still a couple of weeks away from joining the Blackcats, Coffman said on Saturday. Coffman was second at last year’s Bowles meet and finished 15th in Class 3 last year. He’s missed all of this season so far because of a stress fracture in his sacrum, a triangular bone in the lower back between the two hipbones of the pelvis.
“I’m thankful I’ll be able to run this season,” Coffman said. “I’m pushing as hard as I can for me and the team so we can all go to state together.”
“Everyone who’s associated with Herky is aware when (Coffman) is on the team,” Davis said. “We’re a greater force.”
Sore back limiting Stricklin
Nautica Stricklin was a force to be reckoned with on courses across the state last year.
The Herculaneum junior is the defending JCAA champion and finished fifth in the state in Class 3. This season, Stricklin has been nursing injuries to her back and calf muscle. In the days leading up to Saturday’s race in Festus, Stricklin wasn’t sure if she could compete.
But she did and turned in the best girls’ time (20:35.87) and finish (fifth) among Jefferson County runners. Stricklin was fourth at Bowles last season.
“My back’s starting to hurt more but I’m pushing through the pain because I know I can do it,” Stricklin said. “I want to show the other girls how to race through the pain.”
Three of the top four runners in the girls competition were from Raymore-Peculiar.
“I dropped back a little because those girls were incredibly fast,” Stricklin said of the Panthers. “That’s OK. It was still a good day. The hills are harder than I remember, but that always seems to be the case.”
Freshman Laura Maddox (16th, 21:58.72) and sophomore Chloe Richardson (21st, 22:27.98) were the Blackcats’ other two medalists on Saturday.
“We had a lot of positives today but sometimes body language tells you a lot and it’s homecoming week so I’m trying to be empathetic of that,” said Davis after he met with his girls in an inspirational huddle speech. “Chloe and Keara (Pieper) were our Nos. 3-4 runners today and those were the races of the day for us. It’s a tough course and a hot day, but we sat (Emily) Enghauser today at No. 2. She’s tired and we felt like she needed a rest today.”
Fox boys and girls head coach Becky Alden knows all about the course at West City Park. The 1995 Festus graduate competed on it many times. She said runners have to be aware of the constantly shifting terrain, which could be grass one minute, then a rutted path the next.
“Today was a true cross country 5K race in my mind,” said Alden, whose girls finished eighth and boys ninth. “I showed (Fox runners) pictures of the park and there’s a lot of tradition and it’s my home course.”
Among both Warrior teams, junior Amie Martin was the solo medal winner. Martin finished behind Stricklin in sixth place with a time of 20:53.97.
“She’s on a streak this year and she has cut two minutes off her time from last season,” Alden said. “She’s got a lot of heart and put a lot of effort in this summer and she wants to make a difference.”
Fox hosts the Ed White Invitational on Friday at Arnold City Park. Fifteen schools will compete on both the boys and girls sides. It’s also Senior Night for the Warriors, who have 11 combined on both teams. The boys varsity races begin at 4 p.m. with the girls starting afterward.