Historic Day For The Dogs

The girls came to run, and they made history. It was a rush of firsts for the Kearney girls cross country team today at the Missouri Class 3 State Cross Country Championships in Jefferson City.

The girls scored just 53 points to win their third consecutive state title. Farmington finished second with 101 points.

This win makes the girls the first Kearney team to win three consecutive state titles. This is the fourth team trophy in a row. To recap: the Bulldogs finished second in 2008, first in 2009, first in 2010, and first in 2011.

This was the girls largest margin of victory in the run of state titles, and a 1-2 finish helped the cause.

Freshman Olivia Franklin became the first Kearney girl to win an individual cross country state championship. Franklin took control just after the mile mark and pulled away to win with a time of 19 minutes, 22.75 seconds.

Senior Jasmine Edwards stayed back in the pack and sat around 8th place at the mile. She continued to work her way towards the front and was in fifth with 400 meters to go.

Edwards then put on a rush down the final 100 and took second place in 19:33.64. That was just ahead of Cape Notre Dame's Elizabeth Kiblinger's 19:33.97.

This finish made Edwards a four-time all-State cross country athlete. She is one of three Kearney girl runners to accomplish that feat in cross country. She is the only Kearney cross country runner to come home with four team trophies.

Joining Franklin and Edwards as all-State runners was junior Jessica Breyfogle. She sprinted in at 24th, 20:34.4. Rounding out the scoring were sophomores Maiya Wolpert and Jessi Allen. Wolpert took 28th in 20:43.47. Allen was 31st in 20:49.1.

Freshman Holli Adams placed 41st in 21:05.15. Senior Michaela Altvater placed 49th in 21:11.81.

The Bulldogs were able to place four runners in front of Farmington's number three runner. All seven runners finished before the Knight's fourth runner.

The boys went into the week before state with high hopes of bringing home a state trophy. Unfortunately, some bad luck hit the team.

Still, it didn't stop senior Adam Lappe. He earned all-State honors with a 14th place finish in 17:29.57.

The Bulldogs' other finishers were:
51. sophomore Sam Oxandale - 18:09.21
58. senior Max Bowers - 18:14.38
103. junior Aaron Stephens - 18:51.53
112. senior Louis Hill - 18:57.39

The five boys totaled 195 points for a seventh place finish. They were 53 points from fourth place.

The Bulldogs started seven runners. Senior Connor Stark, who ran number 1 for the Dogs all season, was unable to finish the race. He stepped off the course at about the 1.5-mile mark. Stark had battled a fever most of the week.

Senior Chris Leo was also unable to finish the race. He was in the top 25 when he went down around the 2.5-mile mark.