West Platte junior Julia Pattison has been the runner-up in state the last two years.
Following a season that saw only one runner make the trip to the state meet, the West Platte girls’ cross-country team is putting a team berth to state as its top goal.
After finishing in fourth place at the 2020 Class 2 State Meet, Julia Pattison was the only qualifier last season. The incoming junior has finished in second place at state in two consecutive seasons, shedding off 16 seconds in the race from her freshman to sophomore years and will step up into a leadership role as there are no seniors this fall.
“We figure she is going to be typical Julia; she may not finish second this year, but she will be dominant in the area and will have some talented time,” West Platte head cross-country coach Mike Lowe said. “We expect her to lead an unexperienced girls’ team and we have a chance of going to state, we’re aiming for fourth at districts to sneak in.”
Pattison has been one of the top girl runners in the state in the last couple of seasons but has been unable to come out as a state champion. Last fall, she improved her times from the year prior but came up less than half a second from finishing the Class 2 State Race as the victor.
“Julia’s excited to be out there, she has always been a cross-country girl first. She just needs to get herself loosened up and once the first race rolls around, as long as she does well in that, we can get that self-confidence up,” Lowe said.
Kaitlyn Reinke is the next girl up, as the junior was four places away from joining Pattison at state last year. In the Class 2 District 4 Meet, the top-30 advance, and the Lady Blue Jay ended in 34th place.
“Kaitlyn really wants to get there this year and we will see how hard she works. It’s kind of ‘the ball is in her court’ type of thing,” Lowe said.
The Lady Blue Jays also have some new blood with the addition of some freshman runners. Addison Bailey, Blair McHerny and Payton Reber are looking to help West Platte compete as a team.
“We have two or three freshmen girls who will be contributors, maybe not someone who we will talk about on a week-by-week basis, but they will be solid. We’re excited about them, and we anticipate putting together five or six runners to go at districts,” Lowe said.