Platte County senior Andrew Johnson was the individual runner-up and helped lead the Pirates to a second-place finish at the Class 5 State Meet at Gans Creek on Nov. 4.
COLUMBIA – Four Platte County boys completed the Class 4 State Meet in under 16 minutes to cap off the best season in program history with a second-place trophy at Gans Creek on Nov. 4.
Since taking third place in 2002 and 2003 in Class 2, the Platte County boys have never finished with a state trophy until this year. The Pirates had just clinched their fourth consecutive district title and ended eight points shy of Class 5 State Champion Festus in the final race of the fall.
“We’ve been working for this for awhile since my freshman year,” Platte County senior Andrew Johnson said. “Every year since, we’ve been trying to build up to do whatever we can to do so it’s great.”
Platte County ended with 99 points with its average 1-5 split being 15:59. Johnson led the way with a second-place finish in 15:11.4, falling behind first-place finisher Isaac Rivera by 16.8 seconds.
“We’ve always kind of gone back and forth, I had him earlier this year. I had some complications earlier in the year with my hip and I made a recovery, but I wasn’t fully prepared for today. I’m happy that I came across second and that we had a team trophy,” Johnson said.
The next three Pirates who ran across the finish line were all-state individuals, meaning they finished in the top-30 of the 157 total runners. Senior Kade Meinke ended his high school career with an 11th place finish in 15:47.3, beating Webster Groves junior Dominic Buckman by 0.3 seconds.
Tanner Jenks and Blake Herron finished back-to-back to close out the top-23 and were the final two sub-16-minute runners. Jenks crossed the finish line in 15:57.7 and Herron ended in 15:58.4.
There was a bit of a gap for the remaining Platte County runners, next up being Donavin Ness. The sophomore ended in 84th place in 17:01.1.
Benjamin Letcher finished in 17:59.4 and Elijah Jackson crossed the finish line 2.1 seconds later, capturing a top-2 finish as a team. With only two seniors on the all-state lineup, Platte County has potential to have another promising season in 2024.
“It was such a fun season. We got to do a ton of traveling meets as a team and grew a lot. I’m excited to see what these boys can do next year,” Johnson said.
Competing at state for the second straight season, the Lady Pirates took 10th place. Platte County ended with 212 points, having two of the top-8 runners.
Sisely Mitchell ended her remarkable Platte County career with a third all-state outing. She earned third place in 18:28.6, hardly losing to runner-up Emery Mayfield from Fulton.
Carmen Gentilia was the third senior to cross the finish line and eighth overall to do so. The senior ran in less than 19 minutes, with an official time of 18:55.6.
Madison Palmer was the third Platte County runner to complete the 5K. The junior ended with a time of 20:56.
Brooklynne Jenni, Joanna Reil and Eleanor McCoy finished within four spots of each other right under 22 minutes. Alex Beeman was the final Platte County finisher, ending in 22:29.8.