West Platte junior Jonah McGivern crossed the finish line in 17:48 to take 13th place at the Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 23.
COLUMBIA – Runners from the West Platte and Platte County cross-country teams got a preview of the state course at the Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 23.
Since so many schools made the trek to Columbia, MO, the varsity races were broken into three groups: Blue, White and Gold. West Platte was in the Varsity White Division and Platte County was in the Varsity Gold Division.
The West Platte boys earned 12th place out of 35 schools and Platte County finished in 15th place out of 43 schools. In the girls’ races, West Platte didn’t have enough runners to compete as a team and Platte County ended in 27th place out of 35 teams.
West Platte junior Jonah McGivern continued an impressive season, finishing in the top-13 out of 265 runners. He crossed the finish line in 17:48.
Noah Rees was next up for the Blue Jays, earning 32nd place with a time of 18:31.7. Thomas Deffet and Wyatt Larsen both ran under 20:40 and freshman Collin Jones ended in 21:35.5.
West Platte only had four girl runners, led by 12th place finisher Julia Pattison. The senior ended with a time of 20:45.8, which was 3.5 seconds shy of a top-10 finish.
Payton Reber was the 38th runner to cross the finish line, doing so in 23:00.4 and Maggie Howard took 91st place with a time of 25:39.8. Ana Lupion-Pelegrina was the final West Platte runner, crossing the finish line in 32:36.7.
In the Gold Division, Platte County senior Andrew Johnson was just under five seconds shy of another first-place finish. Johnson crossed the finish line in 15:19.9, which was 4.9 seconds behind Lincoln College Prep senior Isaac Rivera.
There was a bit of a gap before the next Pirate finished as Kade Meinke took 44th place with a time of 16:40.7. Blake Herron and Tanner Jenks ran sub-18 minutes with times of 17:26.2 and 17:38.8, respectively.
Sisely Mitchell was towards the front of the pack in the girls’ race, taking seventh place with a time of 19:01.3. Carmen Gentilia was the next Lady Pirate to cross the finish line, doing so in 20:28.1 in 49th place.
Alex Beeman finished in 22:50.4 and the rest of her teammates finished outside the top-200 as there were 275 eligible runners in their division. Joanna Reil, Eleanor McCoy, Maddie Stewart and Annabel Beeman all ran close together under 24 minutes.