Webb City athletic director John Roderique reports that it was exciting to see the Cardinals girls cross country team take second place Friday at the state championships at Gans Creek in Columbia.
The team was led by Brooke Hedger, who placed fifth with a time of 18:33.5. She was 27.1 seconds behind the Ava Doll, of Joplin, in first-place.
Hedger, a senior, also placed fifth a year ago, when the team placed 10th with 247 points.
In 2023, when Hedger was a sophomore placing 47th, coach Dustin Miller saw a lot of potential for her and the team, which placed 16th with 308 points. “The sky’s the limit for this group,” he predicted.
This year, Webb City scored 133 points to place second behind Blue Springs South and their 87 points.
Making the improvement in Webb City’s team standings were three juniors: Araceli Perez, 14th; Brooke Collard, 36th, and Emma McKinzie, 39th; and freshman Tatym Buster, 64th.
Also placing in the 5K run was Alexis Shuster, 124th.
“I love the way each of them battled for each other,” says Miller. I’m so proud of these ladies for growing as a program. 2023 we finished 16th (last) and 2024 we finished 10th.”
Prior to this year’s championships, Webb City was ranked fourth, barely ahead of fifth. “We knew that we would have to be perfect to get on the podium,” says Miller. “The girls were relaxed and focused the whole trip. They were willing to do whatever it took to get on the podium with their teammates. We got out hard and settled in our packs, which was our game plan, and they came through the 1k marker in fifth with 150 points, 2k in 5th with 151 points.
“Then we started to move up, 3k fourth with 143, 4k fourth with 139 (20 points behind third, 35 behind second and 23 ahead of fifth), 5k second with 133 points.
Webb City boys competed at state individually: