On Saturday, Sept. 7, the El Dorado Springs cross country team finally got the competitive season started, as they headed to Bolivar for the SWCCCA cross country meet. SWCCCA stands for Southwest Cross Country Coaches Association. This organization hosts this meet early each season and features races at the Middle School, High School and college divisions. This gives a chance to highlight the great talent in southwest Missouri. There were over 40 schools from Southwest Missouri represented at this meet, from Class 1 all the way up to Class 4. All Classes ran together and then the results were sorted out after the race, by classification.

On the boys side, Sophomore Daelen Ackley led the way. Daelen showed patience early on, and allowed the race to come to him, and when the opportunity to take the lead presented itself, Daelen took full advantage of it, and took it to an overall win. He also did it in school record breaking fashion, finishing with a time of 16:00.99, breaking his record from last year of 16:08. Joining Daelen on the awards stand for Class 2, was Junior Trevynn Garringer who finished 13th, with the top 15 in each class medalling. Junior Brice Knoll just missed the awards, finishing 18th in class 2. Freshmen Connor Goatley and Blayze McCullough, had impressive races, making the transition to the High School division, finishing as the teams’ 4th and 5th runners. Also competing for the boys’ team were Sophomores Austin Wiegel, James King and Riley Quinlan, along with Junior Gavin Ring. At the end of the day, the Bulldog Cross Country team found themselves 3rd in Class 2, and 14th overall out of 38 complete teams in all classes.

On the girls’ side, Freshmen Hannah Klaiber and Colbie Wood led the way for the Lady Bulldogs, finishing 4th and 11th respectively in Class 2. Also joining them on the awards stand was Sophomore Kenli Rader, who finished 14th, despite being a little under the weather. Sophomore Morgan Mitchell and Senior Abby Klaiber just missed the awards stand, finishing in 16th and 19th respectively. These five were joined by Freshman Madison Hendricks, who despite not medaling, had a breakout race for herself running a faster pace for this 5K, than she ever even thought about, in Middle School running just 1.5 miles. At the end of the day, the girl’s team tied for 1st place in Class 2, just getting edged out with the tiebreaker.

Overall, both teams ran well. It was nice to finally run a meet, so that we could really find out where we are at. They competed well, and hopefully came out with a little confidence to help boost them through to a great season.

At the Middle School level, they did not sort out results by class after the race, so medals just went to the top 15 overall. 7th grader, Audrey Goatley led the way, finishing 4th in the girls division. 8th grader, Hanna Ridgeway just missed the awards, finishing 20th, just a second off of her time last year. Other girls that competed were 8th Graders Myka Barger and Alivia Bowen, as well as 7th Graders Gabrielle Leonard and Maya Steward.

The top finisher for the Middle School boys team was Ethan Tucker in 50th. He was joined by 7th grader, Logan Fisk and 8th graders, Blake Loane, Kolton Nichols and Nathan Saderstrom.

This is the first year running for several of the boys and girls in Middle School. They are all working hard and growing as runners.

Next up for the High School and Middle School Cross Country teams is a meet at the public golf course in Nevada, sponsored by Cottey College. It will be held Saturday, Sept. 14, with the Middle School getting things started at 8:30 am, and the High School races to follow.