Park Hill senior Natalie Gerdes led the Lady Trojans at the Tim Nixon Invitational with a 34th-place finish in 20:19.4 at Capital Federal Sports Complex on Sept. 2.
LIBERTY – In the Tim Nixon Invitational, the Platte County, Park Hill and Park Hill South girl cross-country teams had mixed results at Capital Federal Sports Complex on Sept. 2.
Platte County finished in eighth place and Park Hill took 13th place. Park Hill South only had four players who ran, which isn’t enough to compete as a team.
Platte County was led by seniors Sisely Mitchell and Carmen Gentilia. This is the first time since 2020 that the Lady Pirates had any seniors in their starting lineup.
Mitchell was the best runner out of the three schools in the county that were in the Gold Varsity Race, placing fifth with a time of 19:11.4. Gentilia ran the 5K in 19:37, earning 15th place.
Alex Beeman, another Platte County senior, finished with a time of 21:46.3 in 73rd place. Madison Palmer finished in 77th place in 21:54 and Joanna Reil took 80th place in 21:57.8.
Brooklynne Jenni and Eleanor McCoy finished back-to-back with times of 23:23.7 and 23:34.6, respectively. Annabel Beeman crossed the finish line in 24:11.9 and Meredith Martinez finished in 25:05.5.
For Park Hill, senior Natalie Gerdes led the way, as expected. Gerdes earned 34th place with a time of 20:19.4.
Ava Sullivan was the next Lady Trojan who finished, earning 81st place in 21:59.7. Alice Keefe took 100th place with a time of 23:45.8.
Kate Hance, Jordan Umstattd and Stella Grothaus all ran under 25 minutes. Park Hill finished with 344 points.
Three of Park Hill South’s four runners were sophomores, all finishing ahead of junior Andrea Garcia who took 91st place with a time of 22:40.5. Madilynn Conklin and Melania Puszczak ran sub-20 minutes and were in the top-13 overall.
Conklin was the sixth runner to cross the finish line – doing so in 19:12.6 – and Puszczak took 13th place in 19:26.1. Zoe Flook ended with a time of 22:15.2 in 87th place.