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Rough day at the races
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By Tom Loeffler
sports@newstribune.com
If the Jefferson City Lady Jays keep knocking on the door, sooner or later it will open.
It didn't budge on Saturday.
There's a new chapter to their history of disappointments as the Lady Jays - one of the heavy favorites to win it all - struggled to a fifth-place finish at the Class 4 State Cross Country Championships at Oak Hills.
“It's tough,” said Jefferson City coach Jim Marshall. “They've been on the cusp of being state champions for four straight years now. That was their mission all year long, and they'd taken on all comers and beaten them.
“Teams that finished in front of us today were teams that we'd beaten earlier this year. So it's very disappointing.”
So what happened?
“We went out like were supposed to, we just kind of flattened out in the middle,” Marshall said. “The kids ran their hearts out. Maybe, I just need to reevaluate what we're doing. I think I let the kids down ... apparently I didn't have them properly prepared.
“I'll take this all on me, because I just feel like we're better than this. I don't think we achieved what we were capable of.”
The Lady Jays, who've run together and won together in a dominating fashion all season, weren't able to run together on Saturday. That may have spelled doom.
“We just weren't tight and we got separated,” Marshall said. “And I think sometimes when you have a pack team that's so used to having that comfort zone of being one second away from their buddies, then you get split up, I think they might overreact and panic a little bit.
“That's the only thing I can think of, that we got a little spread out and we didn't handle it very well.”
Lee's Summit West won the Class 4 girls title with 73 points, Eureka was second with 106, Rockwood Summit third with 127, Cape Central fourth with 144, and the Lady Jays were fifth with 159.
Alicia Anderson set the pace for the Lady Jays with her 18th-place finish in 19:58, which earned the junior all-state honors.
“Alicia had a great state meet,” Marshall said. “I figured our first girl would be right around 20th, so my hat's off to her. She ran awesome. I just wish we'd had three or four pretty close to her.”
Other finishers for the Lady Jays were: Elizabeth Collins (38th, 20:34), Marie Kiekhaefer (57th, 20:48), Elise Schreiber (61st, 20:54), Torie Even (62nd, 20:56), Madeleine Keenan (80th, 21:15) and Kelsey Coffman (150th, 23:11).
“We'll get away from it and realize we had a special season,” Marshall said. “But right now, it hurts ... I'd like to do it over again.
“But we'll just keep punching and keep pushing. We've got a good core of kids coming back, so we'll give it another good shot next year.”
For the first time since 1993, the Jays didn't qualify a team for the state meet. They did have three individuals compete, with Prince Nwokorie leading the way with his 34th-place finish in 16:54.
“Prince was a first-year senior out and he did a nice job today,” Marshall said. “I'm proud of him.”
Also running for the Jays were David McAdams (78th, 17:30) and Alloch Burton (106th, 17:49).
“We had four sophomores and two juniors who ran on the varsity this year, so we've got six of our top seven back,” Marshall said. “So we're pretty happy about what we have for the future.”
SLUH won the boys crown with 113 points.
It didn't budge on Saturday.
There's a new chapter to their history of disappointments as the Lady Jays - one of the heavy favorites to win it all - struggled to a fifth-place finish at the Class 4 State Cross Country Championships at Oak Hills.
“It's tough,” said Jefferson City coach Jim Marshall. “They've been on the cusp of being state champions for four straight years now. That was their mission all year long, and they'd taken on all comers and beaten them.
“Teams that finished in front of us today were teams that we'd beaten earlier this year. So it's very disappointing.”
So what happened?
“We went out like were supposed to, we just kind of flattened out in the middle,” Marshall said. “The kids ran their hearts out. Maybe, I just need to reevaluate what we're doing. I think I let the kids down ... apparently I didn't have them properly prepared.
“I'll take this all on me, because I just feel like we're better than this. I don't think we achieved what we were capable of.”
The Lady Jays, who've run together and won together in a dominating fashion all season, weren't able to run together on Saturday. That may have spelled doom.
“We just weren't tight and we got separated,” Marshall said. “And I think sometimes when you have a pack team that's so used to having that comfort zone of being one second away from their buddies, then you get split up, I think they might overreact and panic a little bit.
“That's the only thing I can think of, that we got a little spread out and we didn't handle it very well.”
Lee's Summit West won the Class 4 girls title with 73 points, Eureka was second with 106, Rockwood Summit third with 127, Cape Central fourth with 144, and the Lady Jays were fifth with 159.
Alicia Anderson set the pace for the Lady Jays with her 18th-place finish in 19:58, which earned the junior all-state honors.
“Alicia had a great state meet,” Marshall said. “I figured our first girl would be right around 20th, so my hat's off to her. She ran awesome. I just wish we'd had three or four pretty close to her.”
Other finishers for the Lady Jays were: Elizabeth Collins (38th, 20:34), Marie Kiekhaefer (57th, 20:48), Elise Schreiber (61st, 20:54), Torie Even (62nd, 20:56), Madeleine Keenan (80th, 21:15) and Kelsey Coffman (150th, 23:11).
“We'll get away from it and realize we had a special season,” Marshall said. “But right now, it hurts ... I'd like to do it over again.
“But we'll just keep punching and keep pushing. We've got a good core of kids coming back, so we'll give it another good shot next year.”
For the first time since 1993, the Jays didn't qualify a team for the state meet. They did have three individuals compete, with Prince Nwokorie leading the way with his 34th-place finish in 16:54.
“Prince was a first-year senior out and he did a nice job today,” Marshall said. “I'm proud of him.”
Also running for the Jays were David McAdams (78th, 17:30) and Alloch Burton (106th, 17:49).
“We had four sophomores and two juniors who ran on the varsity this year, so we've got six of our top seven back,” Marshall said. “So we're pretty happy about what we have for the future.”
SLUH won the boys crown with 113 points.
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