Running in her first Eastern Missouri Conference cross country meet, Wright City sophomore Victoria Riggs knew it wouldn’t be easy, she said.
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Running in her first Eastern Missouri Conference cross country meet, Wright City sophomore Victoria Riggs knew it wouldn’t be easy, she said.
Running against the conference’s best at Bowling Green, Riggs ran through her competition, winning the EMO girls’ title by completing the course in 20 minutes, 10.50 seconds. She won the race by 19 seconds over Elsberry senior Falyn Davidson.
“I’m really excited about how I placed in my race,” Riggs said. “The race was really mentally hard but I’m grateful for my coaches and family cheering me on.”
Although Wright City didn't have enough runners to field a full team, junior Madison Goodman (24:39.55), junior Meadow Jones (27:07.36), and sophomore Melissa Garcia (28:53.02) ran the course.
Wright City Coach David Schnell praised each team member for their performance on Saturday.
“Victoria ran a great race,” Schnell said. “She took the lead from the gun and held it the entire way. Falyn made her work for it; she was just a few seconds back of her for most of the race before Tori really opened the gap up at the end. Melissa, Meadow, and Madison PR'd by over a minute each, which made the race even more exciting. We may not have been able to run as a team as much as I would've liked this year, but the girls are showing some really strong growth. It was definitely a breakout type of race for those three.”
On the boys’ side, the Wildcats placed third out of the seven teams who earned team scores.
Three Wright City runners – sophomore Frankie Zykan, sophomore Clayton Kennon and freshman Nolan Laughary – each earned all-conference honors.
Zykan (18:29.93) finished ninth, Kennon (18:35.53) was 10th and Laughary (18:45.81) 13th.
“The boys worked really well together once again,” Schnell said. “Frankie set the tone early on by taking the race out up front. He, Clayton and Nolan ran a large part of the race together, which played a big role in helping them all earn second-team all-conference. Wilder (Hall) finished just outside the top 15, but went under 19 minutes for the first time. I'm very happy with how he ran. We were missing our normal fifth runner, so we needed someone to step up. Luckily, Greg Hansen was up to the challenge and picked up a new PR and a 30th-place finish, which helped us secure a third-place finish overall.”
The coach talked about the growth the boys’ team has shown over the last year.
“We were last place here last year, no one earned All-Conference and we didn't have a single boy under 21 minutes,” Schnell said. “This year, we had four under 19 minutes, three earning second-team All-Conference and brought home third place against some great competition. These guys get better every week and it's great to be a part of it.”
