For the third time in the past five years and the second straight year, the Platte County boys won the team championship at the Platte County Invitational.
On Thursday, Sept 13, the Pirates had little issue winning the team title with all seven runners placing in the top 20 in a race held at Platte Ridge Park.
The Pirates had 41 points, easily beating second-place Pembroke Hill, which had 99 points.
“It’s always nice to win at home,” Platte County coach Chris Stubbs said. “We like to make sure our seniors get a chance to run at their home course one last time. The Platte County Parks Department does an amazing job of making the course one of the best in the state. In recent years teams have decided to travel to the Missouri Southern and run on the flat downhill course at the Stampede. Our course is challenging so we aren’t getting some of the larger schools varsity teams. Still a great meet and good competition on the boys side.”
Jackson Letcher took third place for the second straight year and became his fourth top-10 finish at his home race. As a sophomore, he was the runner-up and was 10th as a freshman.
Letcher ran 17:59.40 to come in behind West Platte’s Max Davies (17:06.30) and Excelsior Springs’ Michael Rebello, who won the race in 16:59.70.
Blake Bjustrom was sixth, while Keegan Cordova and Peter Doole was ninth and 10th, respectively. The rest of the pack was not far behind with Dakota Simmons in 13th, Jace Trimble in 14th and Sam Smith in 17th.
“We feel it gave our team a sense of pride,” Cordova said. “We had a decent number of teams, 19 complete teams that ran on the boys varsity side and representation from 29 different teams. There was a lot of different people there we had to compete against. It felt good to have a really good pack time and pull away for the win.”
Doole said, “We had two varsity runners not run and people from JV step up and they both ran really well. I was impressed with that. The atmosphere and it is the home course helped us do well compared to other teams.”
Phillip Pattison was 11th for West Platte, which was fifth in the 19-team field. Tyler Meadows and Zach Lee, both seniors, finished 18th and 19th to lead the way for North Platte’s sixth-place showing overall and second among small schools.
St. Teresa’s Academy dominated the girls race with a perfect score of 15 and had the top seven finishers. Lilly Hupke won in 21:11.40, posting a nearly 40-second gap ahead of teammate Delany Hupke. Sophia Rush of West Platte took eighth place, followed by Platte County’s Ryanne Rhude in 10th place.
Mara Gullett (13th), Haley Brunner (15th) and Kaylee Major (20th) helped the Pirates take second place.
North Platte was led by Jenna Cassity (16th) and Savannah Lingle (19th).
West Platte had only three runners in the girls race due to injury and various other activities.
“I was impressed with our ability to race on one day of rest,” North Platte coach Brendan Cary said.
The highest finisher in the JV race, locally, was Platte County’s Andrew Early (third) and Norah Aagesen (10th).
Southern Stampede
The Park Hill teams headed south to take part in the Missouri Southern Stampede on Saturday, Sept. 15 in Joplin, Mo.
The Trojans had a pair of top 100 runners in the girls race, with juniors Avery Blakeley was 76th and Brooklyn Niebaum finished 83rd on a course that once hosted the Division II championships.
Isaiah Philips was 50th for Park Hill, running 17:00.20 to lead his team, while Daniel Foster was second on the team with his 81st place finish.
Bentonville won the boys title with Park Hill taking 27th place out of the 42 teams competing.
Park Hill finished 20th overall, 10th among Missouri teams, in the girls standings.
Cameron Invitational
North Platte took part in a race at the Cameron Veterans Memorial Golf on Tuesday, Sept. 11, finishing third in the boys standings with 99 points.
Tyler Meadows came in sixth to headline the finishers for the Panthers, while Zachary Lee was 15th.
Freshman Jenna Cassity was fourth and Savannah Lingle took fifth on the girls side.
“I felt like we really showed that we can compete,” North Platte coach Brendan Cary said. “We had a number of younger guys start to look comfortable and confident in their races and roles. On the girls side, Jenna and Savannah went out in the top five and held their position the whole race. They continue to spur each other on to great things.”