Ozark Mountain Conference Cross Country Championship Race

by Brian Goatley

On Tuesday, Oct. 9, the El Dorado Springs cross country team traveled to Buffalo to race in their first ever, Ozark Mountain Conference Championship race. The weather held off, just long enough to get the meet in.

The Middle School girls led the way with the first race of the day. They started off really well taking the top 3 spots. Hannah Klaiber led the way, winning the 1.5 mile race with a time of 9:52. Teammate Colbie Wood was just a few seconds back in second with her best race of the year, 7th grader Hanna Ridgeway finished 3rd.

Alivia Bowen grabbed the last medal for the girls race, placing 10th. The top 10 in each race medalled and were named with All-Conference Team accolades. These four girls were joined by Maddison Hendricks to place 1st place overall as a team.

The Middle School boys were the next race on the venue. Garrett Klaiber, like his sister, led the race from start to finish, finishing with a time of 8:29, a personal best time for him. Connor Goatley and Ethan Tucker finished 6th and 7th respectively to round out the medalists as well as those with All-Conference honors. Teammate, Nathan Saderstrom finished 11th, just one spot out of the medals. With only four runners, the boys did not have enough to compete for team honors.

The High School girls were next up. Kenli Rader led the way for ElDo, placing 3rd in the 5K race with a time of 22:32. Sarah King finished 6th with Abby Klaiber, fighting all the way to the line, to take the 10th and final medal, edging her opponent by 0.01 seconds. Fun finish for her. These three girls were joined by teammates Morgan Mitchell and Abby Cartwright to place 2nd as a team, behind a very strong Buffalo team.

The last race of the day was the High School boys. Daelen Ackley led the way winning the race in a time of 16:51. He was joined, for All Conference Honors, by teammates Trevyn Garringer (3rd), Caleb Mooney (5th), Gavin Mooney (8th) and Brice Knoll (10th). Austin Wiegel, just missed the top 10, placing 11th. They were joined by Nick Raddatz (15th) to place 1st as a team.

These guys are running well right now, and are believing in each other and pushing each other.

This was a good day for the El Dorado Springs Cross Country team. Next up, we head home to host our home meet on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at the Gene Prey Memorial Golf Course, starting at 4:00 with the Middle School races. This will be the last meet of the regular season before the high school gets ready for Districts.