The weight of expectations can turn some runners’ shoes into concrete.
Max McDaniel of Festus and Herculaneum’s Nautica Stricklin were having none of it. The two best cross country athletes in Jefferson County flew with determination over a muddy course to win individual championships Saturday in the Jefferson County Activities Association meet at West City Park in Festus.
While McDaniel ran for redemption of sorts, Stricklin was chasing history. She became the first runner ever, male or female, to win four league titles.
“There was a lot of pressure; I knew there (were) a lot of people who wanted to beat me just because nobody had done it before,” Stricklin said after her record run. “I did what I was supposed to do. It makes me feel really good. It’s been a really big goal, ever since I won it freshman year.”
Most of the spectators didn’t know that Stricklin only recently recovered from a case of strep throat that slowed her down in September. Blackcats head coach Kyle Davis, who has seen his share of mentally tough harriers, didn’t hesitate to add her to the list.
“She looked good,” Davis said. “(The streak) was obviously the big thing she was aiming for today. She had a little bit in there where a couple of girls were giving her a scare, but she ran tough.
“It’s not really her mindset to sit back and see how the race is going. She did it.”
So did McDaniel, like Stricklin a senior and the boys’ pre-race favorite. He won this meet two years ago as a sophomore but lost by three-tenths of a second last year to Kevin Koester of Hillsboro, now running for Missouri Southern State University.
This time McDaniel seized the lead early, with Herculaneum’s Jonathon Coffman hanging a few strides behind, then pulled away on the woodsy backside of the course and cruised to a comfortable 13-second margin of victory. Like Stricklin, McDaniel battled illness last month and wanted to show renewed strength in the lead-up to the Class 3 District 1 meet Oct. 27 in Cape Girardeau.
“I felt good; it was a good race,” he said. “I took out pretty strong. I didn’t really feel like we were going too hard. It’s been a little bit cooler outside, and the warmer races kind of get (to) me a little bit and I don’t really run as well. Since it was so cold out today, Jonathon and I could really pick it up, especially on (a) hilly and muddy course. I race better on those types of courses.”
Festus head coach Bryant Wright liked what he saw from his senior leader.
“This is the best he’s looked all year; we corrected a few things,” Wright said. “He’s had three or four solid races now, so we’re hoping we can carry it on through to the district and state.”
Wright’s Tigers won the boys team championship for the 12th straight year, and their 19-point score was their lowest since the juggernaut 2014 squad posted 17, two shy of a perfect score.
“I was very pleased,” Wright said. “(The boys) had a plan, they went with the plan as well as they could and they looked good today – after a hard week of work, too.”
It’s hard to imagine that a program carrying a four-year winning streak in state meets could fly under anybody’s radar, but Wright said his current boys squad “doesn’t get enough credit” for its quality and depth.
“The newspapers in St. Louis and other places, they’re (about) the other teams; we go out and beat them and they still don’t recognize us,” he said. “This is one of my top teams ever. People just don’t realize it because they just think, ‘Well, they’ll win another one.’ I’m really proud of these boys with the way they work and the way they’re being leaders to the younger kids.”
Festus also won the girls’ title – for the third consecutive year and fifth time in the last six seasons – with a more pedestrian 42 points, nine better than runner-up De Soto. The Tigers’ top four of junior Erika McIntyre, freshman Allison Faerber, junior Sophia Leftwich and sophomore Emma Kettler ran 6-7-8-9 and finished in a span of less than 25 seconds.
“I was pleased the girls won,” Wright said. “They didn’t win by much, but they did win. We had a tough week because of homecoming this week. We’ve got a couple of girls who’ve been a little bit nicked and hurt.
“We’ve got a lot to do if we want to be state champs again. But everything that happened today is correctible.”