Anyone running a race against the Wright City girls’ cross country team is going to face a scary reality.
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Anyone running a race against the Wright City girls’ cross country team is going to face a scary reality.
Sophomore Victoria Riggs is running as well as ever – but now she’s got backup.
Riggs finished with her customary top-notch result, seventh in the field of 230, in a time of 19 minutes, 54 seconds at the Gans Creek Classic in Columbia.
It was a personal best for her, she said, thanks to a fast field.
“The faster race allowed me to catch the person in front of me and push harder. I love that the course gives you kilometer splits so I can know where I'm at with my pacing and if I need to go faster. My goal was getting a PR and I got it, so I'm really excited about that.”
Her time was less than a minute off the championship time of Savannah’s Raedyn Phillips.
Riggs’ backup at the race came in the form of nearly having an entire team running with her.
Senior Liliana Wiedemeier (28:42), junior Meadow Jones (29:27) and sophomore Melissa Garcia (30:06) all ran on Saturday.
Wright City Coach David Schnell said the team's continued progress was noticeable.
“We were one girl short of a full team this week, but it was great to see some more Wright City runners in the girls’ race,” Schnell said. “Victoria showed again how tough a runner she is by going under 20 minutes. Her last kilometer was her second-fastest of the five, which is really impressive because the finish at Gans is a long, steady incline. She's such a strong runner and really shines in these big race atmospheres.”
On the boys’ side, all five Wildcats had an impressive run at Gans Creek, which is the site of the annual MSHSAA state cross country championships.
Sophomore Clayton Kennon (18:18) finished 32nd in the race. Freshman Nolan Loughary (18:26) was right on his heels, where he placed 45th.
“The race was way bigger than I could've thought,” Kennon said. “It helped because it was a bigger race and there were more runners to help pull me along. My goal was to beat all of my teammates, so having Nolan right there helped push me to go faster.”
Other finishers in the race were: sophomore Frankie Zykan (18:41), freshman Wilder Hall (19:11) and sophomore Zane Webster (19:14). The boys finished sixth out of 37 teams, scoring 269.
“The boys ran as well as I could have hoped for,” Schnell said. “Our top five all set personal records. They also managed to tighten their 1-5 split to under one minute, and in a big race like this, it helped us beat a lot of teams.
“Nolan and Frankie really set the tone early in the race and Clayton was able to hang right behind them for the first mile before he made his own move,” the coach continued. “My goal was to have our top five under twenty minutes by the end of the year, so we're ahead of schedule, which is awesome. We've got some fast races coming up and it was great to see that even with the great runs, the boys were still talking about how to improve for next week.”
Wright City’s teams will both race again on Friday at the Mike Spoede Invitational in Warrenton.
The other local team to run at the meet was Warrenton. The Warriors’ boys were led, as a team, by freshman Thomas Schoonover (20:44). The girls' team was led by freshman Reese Keith (23:38).
