After making the 165-mile trek from West Platte High School to Gans Creek in Columbia, Missouri, the Lady Blue Jay cross-country team made the most of their trip to the Class 2 State Meet as they finished in 10th place on Nov. 5.
West Platte had multiple runners finish with career or season best times as it ended the state event with average finishes of 23:00.66 and 242 points out of 16 teams. West Platte was close to taking ninth place with Hillsboro edging out the Lady Blue Jays by one point to finish ahead of them.
West Platte junior Julia Pattison finished in 17th place overall to help lead the Lady Blue Jays take 10th place as a team in the Class 2 State Race at Gans Creek on Nov. 5.
“The day could probably be best described as heartening for the girls as they finished 10th as a team with a very young squad who maybe now realize what is possible with a little practice and hard work,” West Platte head cross-country coach Mike Lowe said. “They overachieved a bit from what was predicted.”
Junior Julia Pattison led the Lady Blue Jays, as expected, to finish in 17th place when she ran her best time of the season. Pattison became an all-stater for the third time in her career – which is the top-25 individuals to finish – crossing the finish line in 20:45.8 in what was less than ideal running weather.
“The conditions were not good for either squad, but the girls probably had the worst of it. There was basically snow pellets coming down in the middle of their race,” Lowe said.
Addison Bailey wrapped up her very impressive freshman campaign with a 68th place finish out of 163 runners, setting a new PR of 22:44.1. Kaitlyn Reinke ran her second-best time ever in 23:26 to finish 99th overall and she was followed closely by Blair McHenry who took 1:10 off of her previous best time, running in 23:43.3 to finish 109th overall.
“Addie (Bailey) is going to be fun to watch over the new three years. Maybe now Blair (McHenry) will believe me when I tell her that she can be a pretty solid cross-country runner,” Lowe said about their performances.
Payton Reber ran fifth for the Lady Blue Jays in 24:24.1, followed closely by Maggie Howard and Brie Elmore with times of 24:49.1 and 24:55.2, respectively. Howard took over two minutes off of her previous PR, which was set the week prior in districts at Platte Ridge.
“The thing that many will remember the most about the post-race events was the life-sized poster of me, which the team brought along as I couldn’t be with them while recovering from surgery. It brought a huge smile to my face to see Charlie (Kinslow) and Julia (Pattison) accepting their medals with the cutout standing next to them,” Lowe said.
Coach Lowe has been a part of the cross-country program for a long time, helping to build it into one of the top ones in the KCI Conference and Northwest Missouri, and he finished his career on a high note as he’s retiring after this school year. The Lady Blue Jays will look to continue the success under a new coach next fall with aspirations of an even better finish than this season.