On Saturday, September 17, 2022, the Smithville Warrior Cross Country team travelled to Joplin, MO to compete in the Missouri Southern Stampede at Missouri Southern State University.
The day began with JUCO, NAIA, and NCAA races followed by high school races. When the time came for Smithville to step up to the starting line, sunny skies brought temperatures into the upper 80’s.
The varsity girls “green” division race had 320 racers. As a whole, the Smithville Lady Warriors ran their fastest average time as a team with lots of lifetime PR’s for the season. Sophomore Naomi Hunter led the charge with a 28 second personal record time of 19:06.69 finishing 12th overall. Here are the individual results for the Lady Warriors…
- Naomi Hunter (SO)
- 19:06.69
- Bailey Cutler (SR)
- 21:21.62
- Lilly Richardson( FR)
- 22:28.87
- Jessica Baker (SR)
- 22:54.48
- Genevieve Kochanowicz (SR)
- 23:03.63
- Danica Ballard (FR)
- 23:13.17
- McKinley Massie (FR)
- 23:46.87
The boys “green” division race had 350 racers. After having the race recalled two times due to athletes falling down in the first 50 meters…and a third reset due to the official running out of blank cartridges…the athletes finally had a clean start on their fourth attempt.
Despite the unusual and frustrating start, the Smithville Warriors got out fast and raced well on the fast course. Liam Adair, Asa Kellner, Nolan Pestano, Quentin Zimmer, and Braxton Hays averaged 16:57.33. The team surprised themselves by breaking the previous school team record set in 2021 by a full 6 seconds!
Sophomore Liam Adair broke his individual school record by 3 seconds. And senior, Asa Kellner, broke the previous 2021 individaul school record by 7 seconds. The biggest PR of the day went to senior Nolan Pestano who dropped 43 seconds!!!
Here are the individual results for the Warriors...the fastest boys team in school history…
- Liam Adair (SO)
- 15:50.91
- Asa Kellner (SR)
- 16:11.74
- Nolan Pestano (SR)
- 17:12.44
- Quentin Zimmer (JR)
- 17:38.76
- Braxton Hays (SR)
- 17:52.82
- John Malter (SO)
- 18:19.69
- Colin Miller (SR)
- 18:23.90
- Trent Hallett (JR)
- 18:52.94
- Logan Throm (FR)
- 19:17.31
- Merik Wilson (SO)
- 19:51.94
Full results of the meet including junior varsity 3K results can be found at: https://mo.milesplit.com/meets/494542-missouri-southern-stampede-2022/results#.YyyOBy2cZTY
The Smithville Warriors will travel to Rim Rock Farms this Friday and Saturday, September 23-24, 2022.