Wright City sophomore Victoria Riggs finished third at the Class 3 District 3 meet last weekend in Owensville. The result qualified her for the MSHSAA Class 3 championship race at Gans Creek.
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Victoria Riggs continues her strong cross country season and, because of that, will run on the last day of the season.
Riggs will compete Friday in the Class 3 state meet at Gans Creek in Columbia after finishing third overall at the Class 3 District 3 meet at Owensville, qualifying her for the state championship race.
She ran the Hannibal LaGrange course in a time of 20 minutes, 19.6 seconds, which was just under a minute behind the race winner. More importantly to Riggs, she ranked fifth in the class and improved her ranking.
“The race went pretty well overall,” Riggs said. “Although I didn’t PR (hit a personal record), I was happy that I beat a couple of girls that were ranked higher than me. I was ranked fifth but finished third.”
Wright City Coach David Schnell said Riggs was not only in top physical form, but also ran a smart technical race to put herself in the finishing position she found herself in.
“Victoria ran a really smart race,” Schnell said. “The energy that districts brings about, combined with a big downhill in the first mile of the race, caused the race to take off really quickly. Tori did a great job of finding her pace early and not getting in over her head. She used a long hill climb in the back and some flat sections to move into third and never looked back. She was seeded fifth overall going in, so she did some excellent running to beat an already high seed in a really strong district.”
The coach added that her finish puts Riggs in some select company.
“The last time Wright City had someone place this high at the District level was when her sister, Zoe placed 4th (and) Trent Bruning placed third in 2020,” said Schnell of Riggs.
For the state race, which Riggs will run at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Friday), her goal is simple.
“My goal for State is to PR,” Riggs said. “Gans Creek is one of my favorite courses, and I’m excited to run it again.”
Schnell said he feels really good about how Riggs is running heading into the final race.
That, along with the event’s conditions, should benefit her.
“Friday should be really exciting,” Schnell said. “She's had several races lately where she's kind of wound up on an island for the last half of the race. She does a really great job of closing gaps and running people down, but she should have the benefit of a pack of girls to work with at state.
“She has run really well at Gans Creek so far,” Schnell continued. “She's raced there twice and has gone under 20 each time. This will be her first time running state. She placed 30th at HXN Nationals last year, so she knows how to run in a big race, but State brings a special energy, and I'm excited to see how she performs. It is going to be an incredibly talented field out there on Friday.”
