Fatima boys look to add to their trophy case

Anthony Bertucci of Russellville (1418) takes a look to his right as Dalton Luebbert of Fatima (950) runs alongside during last month's Capital City Cross Country Challenge at the Oak Hills Golf Center.
Anthony Bertucci of Russellville (1418) takes a look to his right as Dalton Luebbert of Fatima (950) runs alongside during last month's Capital City Cross Country Challenge at the Oak Hills Golf Center.

Qualifying for state was no walk in the park for the Fatima Comets, but they're back.

Fatima is looking to bring home its sixth trophy in as many years when it competes in today's Class 2 boys state cross country championships at the Oak Hills Golf Center. The race is scheduled to start at 12:25 p.m.

"Our boys have finished in the top four the last five years," Fatima coach Marc Bridges said. " The expectations are certainly there within the team to achieve at a pretty high level."

Fatima won last Saturday's District 4 meet at Linn, posting 56 points and finishing one point ahead of second-place Russellville to claim the district title.

Leading the way this season for the Comets is senior Alex Krieg, who will be making his third straight appearance at the state meet. Krieg finished 37th last season in a time of 18:00.81 and took 32nd as a sophomore two years ago.

Krieg, who won the Show-Me Conference individual title earlier this season, is looking to take all-state honors after finishing second at districts.

"Alex has been a leader," Bridges said. "He's the leader on the team in practice every day."

Logan Borland, Dalton Luebbert and Zach Even are also returning to state for Fatima. Borland finished fourth at districts and Luebbert placed ninth to earn all-district honors, while Even took 33rd.

Like Krieg, both Borland and Luebbert have aspirations to achieve all-state status by placing in the top 25 today.

"We've got a pretty solid top three runners," Bridges said. "I think all three of our top runners have an opportunity to slip into that all-state position."

Bridges said both Borland and Even are looking to avenge last year's finish at state. Borland finished 110th, while Even was right behind at 111th.

"They just didn't really have a particularly good showing at state last year," Bridges said. "They didn't run up to their potential last year and they're very eager to get out this year and prove that they do belong there."

Also competing for Fatima are Maxson Muenks, Jordan Kremer and Kagan Froning.

The Comets have finished fourth at state the past two seasons after winning the Class 2 state championship in 2013. Defending state champion Springfield Catholic moved to Class 3 this season, as did runner-up Herculaneum. Teams like Strafford and Lamar, which finished third and fifth, respectively, at state last year will join Fatima as contenders to become the new state champion.

"We just have to run like we're capable of running," Bridges said. "We just have to be able to do what we can do. We don't have to do anything extraordinary, we just have to be able to go out and execute what we've worked on all season.

"If we can do that, I think we're going to put ourselves in a pretty good position to possibly get back into that top four."

Running in one of the toughest districts in Class 2 has helped prepare Fatima for today's meet. Fatima and Russellville combined to have nine of the top 20 runners at districts. Linn, which finished third, also had four runners finish in the top 20.

"You can't take anything for granted, that's for sure," Bridges said. "Our district is deeper than most other districts. There's really no room for too many mistakes in our district. Unfortunately, every year in our district, some quality team get left back."

Russellville, which finished sixth at state last year, qualified as a team for state. Anthony Bertucci (fifth), Austin Roe (eighth) and Harrison Frank (11th) all received all-district honors last week.

Linn qualified three individuals for state. District champion Cole Stephens finished 17th at state last year, the top time by a freshman. Noah Voss and Logan Klouzek, who finished 10th and 13th, respectively, at districts, also qualified for the Wildcats.

Other state qualifiers from District 4 include Robert Morningstar of New Bloomfield, who finished 12th, and Daniel McDonald of South Callaway, who placed 15th at districts.

The California boys qualified as a team after taking second place in District 7 last Saturday at Hermitage. Hunter Carpenter (fifth), Trevor Porter (sixth) and Jordan Bondurant (15th) received all-district honors.

Isaac Ashton of Tipton and Kendall Reger of Versailles will also compete in today's state meet. Ashton finished second in District 7 and Reger placed seventh.

In Class 1, Cal Kolzow of Calvary Lutheran finished seventh in last Saturday's District 2 race at Bowling Green to become a two-time state qualifier. The Class 1 boys state cross country championships race will begin at 11:50 a.m.