Max McDaniel is back. Not all the way, mind you, but the Festus senior appears to be ready to move back to the front of the pack in Class 3.
McDaniel ran the 3.1 mile course on Saturday at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 15:48.50, good for seventh place out of 649 runners at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival. Fayetteville senior Camren Fischer won the race in 15:20.30. After coming in 40th and 17th in his first two races, McDaniel didn’t compete at the Tigers’ own Bowles Invitational.
If the Tigers are to capture their fifth straight Class 3 state championship, they need McDaniel to recreate the success he’s had the last three years. Festus finished third out of 83 teams at Chile Pepper with 215 points. The Woodlands of Texas won the meet with 116 points.
Festus won the Chile Pepper in 2014. The course was muddy this year.
“The first couple of meets we weren’t where we wanted to be but now we’re closer on my way of thinking,” Festus head coach Bryant Wright said of the six-time state champions. “Max isn’t far from where he should be right now. We got a big race from Simon Ogle. The only two teams to beat us were pretty big schools.
“If it would have been really good conditions, it would have been interesting to see how close (McDaniel) could have come to 15-flat. He’s in the process of getting his lungs under him. I’m excited about what he did.”
After McDaniel, senior Alec Whitener was the next Festus runner across the finish line in 41st in 16:28.10. Ogle was 47th in 16:31. The rest of the Tigers to run in Arkansas were junior Jonah Krieg (54th, 16:33.50), junior Dominik Kayser (87th, 16:48.40), junior Garrett Rhine (103rd, 16:54.10) and senior Trenton Childress (156th, 17:15.90).
“Everybody improved somewhat, but Simon’s race was really impressive. He got after it the whole race,” Wright said. “Dominik didn’t have a great race, but he didn’t have a bad race. He’s been really impressive and I’ve been really pleased with his performances.”
The Festus girls came in 20th, with sophomore Emma Kettler leading the way in 93rd in 20:38.10. The rest of the Tigers were Melissa Wolk (99th, 20:43.20), Paige Treon (127th, 20:57.20), Erika McIntyre (145th, 21:10.40), Sophia Leftwich (170th, 21:30.80), Bailey Moore (175th, 21:32.10) and Maddie Welsh (215th, 21:50.20).
The 573 girls running on the course were forced into a choke point after the first 200 yards, where a narrow path is about 50 yards across.
“We ran below what our average race would be,” Wright said of the defending Class 3 champions. “We didn’t get off to a good start. We could have gotten after it a little harder and buckled down. We didn’t flop, we just didn’t perform as well as I thought we could. If you’re off by five to 10 seconds, that could be the difference between 20 and 30 places in a race this large.”
Jags show well in Arkansas
Seckman’s boys competed at the Chile Pepper and came in 22nd with 715 points. That’s a whopping team score, unless you compare it to the last-place finish of Buffalo which had 2,537 points.
Senior Zach Reed turned in a 23rd-place finish for the Jaguars in 16:11.70. Reed was followed by teammates Nathan Key (56th, 16:35.10), Justin Glastetter (174th, 17:21.80), Tim Maxwell (262nd, 17:52.70), Matthew Solovic (269th, 17:54.30), Jacob Duester (362nd, 18:36.30) and Jonny Key (426th, 18:55.70).
Seckman junior Stephanie Anthonies crossed the line first out of all the Jaguars and Tigers running in the girls race. She came in 35th in 19:55.50. Seckman junior Ashley McMahon was 195th in 21:41.80.