The Fatima girls cross country team is a pretty tight-knit group. That was pretty evident at last year's Class 2 state cross country championships.
Not only did the Lady Comets win their fourth straight state team championship, but all seven runners placed in the top 25 to receive individual all-state honors.
Fatima coach Marc Bridges hopes to see the Lady Comets running together again near the front of the pack at today's state championships at Oak Hills Golf Center, with six of those all-state runners returning.
"They're willing to do more for their teammates than they are for themselves," Bridges said. "They work hard in practice together, they train together.
"We pack run very well. They push each other in practice. In a meet, they tend to find the other girls and use each other to have good races."
The Fatima girls have won every meet this season, including the Forest Park Cross Country Festival, which featured 19 Class 4 programs in the Green Division.
"I just wanted to run against some good competition and see what we could do," Bridges said. "I was a little surprised we were able to win that meet. That wasn't really something I thought was particularly conceivable at the time."
Fatima is also looking to keep the individual state championship in its possession.
Senior Brianna Haller will attempt to become the third person in Missouri cross country history to win four consecutive individual titles. Stoutland's Jamie Vest won the girls Class 1 title from 2001-04 and Ste. Genevieve's Taylor Werner won the girls Class 3 title from 2012-15.
"She's had a few setbacks this season, but heading into this state meet, she's ready to go," Bridges said of Haller. "She's ready to defend her state title."
Haller has yet to win a race this season, but she has three runner-up finishes, including last Saturday in districts. Her toughest opposition today is expected to be Steelville junior Allie Gibbs, who finished runner-up at state to Haller last season and beat her by 27 seconds last weekend in districts.
Bridges, however, isn't too concerned by the district results.
"Districts is a qualifying event for us," he said. "We don't necessarily go out to have our best race. It's more of a game plan to go out and have a safe race."
All seven Lady Comets received all-district honors last weekend by placing in the top 15. Sophomore Kendall Haller - Brianna's younger sister - and juniors Alyssa Struemph and Katelyn Vanderfeltz also have high expectations for a high finish at state. Struemph won the Show-Me Conference title earlier this season.
"Kendall's a tremendous No. 2 runner for us, and when Brianna graduates, Kendall's going to be a tremendous No. 1 for us," Bridges said. "Brianna's going to be the only girl we're going to graduate this season off the team we're going to run at state."
The Fatima boys intend to keep a streak of their own alive this weekend as well.
The Comets finished third in the Class 2 team standings last year, their sixth consecutive season of coming home with a top-4 state trophy.
"The boys tend to get overshadowed a little bit," Bridges said. "We're on track to hopefully get our seventh straight Final Four finish.
"The boys team has just been outstanding this season. They've won five meets this year, we have four freshmen running in the varsity this weekend. The boys program looks to be pretty strong to finish out the year."
Fatima will look to dethrone Lamar as the Class 2 champion. The two went head-to-head earlier this season at the Capital City Challenge, with Lamar finishing 14 points ahead of Fatima in the team standings.
"We're going to try to push them," Bridges said.
The Fatima boys are led by the senior duo of Dalton Luebbert and Logan Borland. Luebbert won last week's district title and finished runner-up in the Show-Me meet. Borland is the Comets' only returning all-stater from 2016, finishing 16th.
"They've been fantastic," Bridges said. "They've really stepped up as leaders. They've come in and started putting in the work that it would take to bring the team back to another Final Four."
The freshmen running today for Fatima are Lucas Laux, Jake Boyce, Caden Haslag and Dawson Woehr.
"Without that freshman group, our run wouldn't look as positive as it does right now," Bridges said.
The Class 2 girls race - the first of eight state races today - will begin at 9 a.m., while the boys race is scheduled to start at 10:10 a.m.
III
The California boys finished second last Saturday in the District 6 standings to qualify as a team for the Class 2 state championships.
Five Pintos claimed all-district honors, led by sophomore Jordan Bondurant in sixth place. Sophomore Trevor Porter (ninth), freshman Jason Crow (11th), junior Isaac Ash (12th) and sophomore Caden Kirksey (14th) also placed in the top 15.
Porter and Bondurant finished 52nd and 54th, respectively, at state last season.
Tipton junior Isaac Ashton finished fifth in that district to qualify for state. He's a three-time state qualifier, placing eighth in Class 2 last season.
Linn junior Cole Stephens is a two-time returning all-state medalist, finishing ninth in 2016. Junior Logan Klouzek also qualified for state for the Wildcats.
Other area Class 2 boys state qualifiers include Russellville senior Harrison Frank, New Bloomfield freshman Caleb Distler, South Callaway junior Daniel McDonald and Versailles senior Kendall Reger.
Joining the Lady Comets for the Class 2 girls race are South Callaway senior Elizabeth Luebbert, Linn junior Audrey Froning and Tipton junior Aubree Schuster. Last year at state, Schuster finished 77th and Froning came in 103rd place.