Park Hill South sophomore Thomas Garrett became an all-state runner at the Class 5 State Meet at Gans Creek on Nov. 4.
COLUMBIA – Park Hill South had one sophomore boy and one sophomore girl earn all-state honors, while Park Hill senior Natalie Gerdes just missed out, at the Class 5 State Cross-Country Meet at Gans Creek on Nov. 4.
Gerdes was the only state qualifier for Park Hill and ended her prolific running career two days after announcing on social media that she will be committing to Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO, to continue her athletic and academic career. With the top-30 runners being all-state, Gerdes just missed out in 35th place.
Gerdes crossed the finish line in 19:12.8, which was 20.6 seconds behind 30th place. There were five more runners within five seconds behind Gerdes.
As for Park Hill South, two of its five runners who qualified earned all-state and every girl ended with a PR. Sophomores Madilynn Conklin and Thomas Garrett both completed the feat.
Conklin improved her time at state by more than 40 seconds but fell back two spots from what she took in her freshman campaign. The sophomore ended in 12th place with a time of 18:23.6, which is a program best at state.
Garrett also improved his time – doing so by almost a minute – and went from 49th place as a freshman to 20th place as a sophomore. He ended the year with an impressive time of 15:40.1.
Melania Puszczak took 72nd place with a time of 19:45.2 and Andrea Garcia ended her junior campaign with a 116th place finish in 20:17.5. Tanner Clippard was the only other Park Hill South state qualifier, and he ended his career in the top-100 runners with a time of 16:42.7.