Jays finish seventh in Class 4 cross country

Jefferson City's Tommy Roehl runs during Saturday's Class 4 state cross country championships at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.
Jefferson City's Tommy Roehl runs during Saturday's Class 4 state cross country championships at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.

COLUMBIA - There isn't a much room for error at the Class 4 state cross country championships.

Jefferson City sophomore Tommy Roehl found that out the hard way.

Roehl was initially listed in 25th place when he crossed the finish line Saturday at Gans Creek Cross Country Course, but it was determined he finished two spots from being all-state in 27th.

His time of 15:58.8 was one-tenth of a second off Raymore-Peculiar's Marlon Williams and St. Joseph Central's Corbin Cera. Williams claimed the final all-state position.

"It is what it is," Jefferson City coach Brett Phillips said. "There's always 40 guys who feel like they should be in the state medals and they're going to fight tooth and nail for it."

Roehl started the race strong, running in 14th 1,000 meters in and 24th with 2,000 meter remaining. He was 23rd before the final 1,000 meters.

"He was right there on the bubble the whole time and couldn't quite sneak in there," Phillips said. "He's got two years, that ought to make him hungry."

The Jays were hungry to win their first team trophy since a fourth-place finish in 1998, but ended up seventh with 205 points.

Raymore-Peculiar won the team title with 104 points with St. Louis University High taking second with 119 points. Rounding out the team trophies were Rock Bridge in third and Kirkwood in fourth.

"We just had guys that were a few places off their goal," Phillips said. "That's the difference between being about third and being about seventh."

Dawson Schulte, competing in the state meet for the fourth time, crossed the finish line in 47th with a time of 16:20.3. Deaken Walker (61st, 16:26.0), Blake Conrad (68th, 16:30.6) and Pat Malone (113th, 16:51.5) completed the team score for the Jays.

Rounding out the Jays were Blaine Smallwood in 140th (17:12.6) and Will Roehl in 164th (18:00.6).

All of them are seniors except Tommy Roehl.

"We had a good season and I had some great senior boys who did a great job of leading us," Phillips said. "We had the right mindset, we approached this the right way. I couldn't quite get them onto that podium this time."