Tigers Boys Cross Country Team Sets Precedent By Earning First-Ever State Trophy
The Kingsville Tigers boys cross country team left the MSHSAA Class 1 Cross Country Championships in Columbia Saturday, Nov. 8 with a new, unique item for the trophy cases at Kingsville Schools by placing third to gather a top-four state trophy.
The third-place state trophy marks Kingsville’s first-ever hardware from a state finals event.
“I was very proud of how everybody ran today,” said Kingsville cross country coach Lee Smith in regard to the team which entered the state meet with pre-race projections of potentially an even better finish. “It was a little eery feeling coming back to the tent. We did something that our school’s never done before, we finished in the top-four, come back to the tent, and I see everyone’s upset, which tells me as a coach they cared.
“They expected more out of themselves just like I always expect more out of them, and for a lot of them now, we’re already starting to talk about when we’re starting training for next year, because they know they deserve first, second, you know at least first place this year. Today wasn’t our day, and that’s okay sometimes. It just happens.”
In addition to the team award, Tiger junior Avery Barnes added to his personal medal collection by running to a seventh-place individual finish and earn the second top-30 all-state medal of his career. Barnes clocked a time of 16:58 to break into the top-10 in the field of 175 finishers. Barnes’ finish earned five team points to help lead the way to the state trophy finish.
Our plan was hopefully to get first but we did something that Kingsville’s never done before, so I think we did a really good job,” said Barnes. “When we got the trophy, we were super excited because like I said, Kingsville’s never done it. It’s exciting.”
Last year, Barnes placed 16th to earn his first all-state medal as he competed in his second career state meet to close out his sophomore season.
“My goal was to at least get top-10 this year, and I did it,” said Barnes after the race. “I would say the fourth kilometer was probably the hardest to push through because I had to go faster, and that last little stretch at the end, sprinting the whole way was very hard. I passed a few guys at the end.”
Barnes’ time proves to be the best time turned in by any Kingsville cross country runner on the Gans Creek Course. He also joins a small group of multi-time all-state medalists from the Kingsville cross country program.
“Avery’s always been a competitor, he’s a fighter, and to watch him come out and run a great race today, I believe he ran the fastest Kingsville time on this course at a 16:58,” said coach Smith. “I think Luke’s (Engel) fastest time was a 17:05, so to have a new record set on this course is such a great feeling. It’s a good day no matter what way it shakes out, basically.
“I’d have to look back, but if he gets three medals…I need to look to see if Luke Engel had that,” continued coach Smith in regard to Barnes having his senior season in which to still compete. “To see him continually come out here and fight and battle, and now him knowing that he’s got people nipping at his heels, I’m excited next year for a top-five finish out of him, and even see some of the other boys be much closer to them on that.”
The runners nipping at Barnes’ heels include Tiger freshman Cole Smith who placed 45th on Saturday with a time of 18:00, sophomore Jack Ewing who placed 48th with a time of 18:03, junior Gideon Melling who placed 50th with a time of 18:06, and sophomore Levi Dennis who placed 141st with a time of 20:12. Dennis worked through an injury during the race after earning an all-state medal last year during his freshman campaign.
Foreign exchange student Emanuele Levegue turned in a 105th-place finish with a time of 19:06 for Kingsville in the race.
“Our typically number-six runner, Emanuele, comes up and was our number-five today,” noted coach Smith. “I can’t say enough great things about how much he fought.”
Lone Tiger senior Julian Molina placed 170th with a time of 21:53.
Tiger freshman Eli Terrell served as an alternate runner for Kingsville on the day.
“We kind of knew where we needed to be at, and having an injury really kind of changed our game plan today,” said coach Smith. “Levi has been battling an injury. He fought as hard as he could. That’s what we talked about before the race. I told those four – Avery, Cole, Gideon, and Jack – that we needed them to push and to get down there as far as they could. If you look at the team scoring, it was 21, 22, and 24 [points scored by each of them], I think in the team scoring. I couldn’t ask for anything more than having them be right there, which tells me once again as a program, we’re not far off.”
Barnes, Cole Smith, Ewing, and Melling turned in top-30 all-district placings the week before at the Class 1, District 4 Meet in St. Joseph.
“My goal was to medal, as for myself,” said Cole Smith after the state meet. “After a couple distances, I just blanked out. I didn’t really see what the sign markers said, but with people yelling out to me I knew where I was. I just left it all on the course, but couldn’t leave enough on the course.”
For Molina, the race closed out his four-year Kingsville cross country career after competing at the state meet as a team qualifier last season when Kingsville placed sixth in Columbia as a squad.
“I thought it was awesome having another opportunity to get to go to state with the team,” said Molina. “I mean today like Cole said, I left it all out there, and eventually at some point, you just blank out when you’re running. You either find someone to pace with or you just keep going. I don’t know how to explain it. You don’t even worry about it. You just run. You just go for it.
“It’s been awesome running with everyone,” summarized Molina with his team all-state medal around his neck. “Today on everyone’s faces, you can kind of see it. They weren’t very happy with how they did, but they’ve still got another year, at least to make it to state and do better.”
For Kingsville, Barnes finishes the season as a Class 1 seventh-place all-state medalist and all-district runner. Cole Smith, Ewing, and Melling finish the season as all-district medalists and state meet competitors on Kingsville’s state trophy team. Dennis and Levegue finish the season as state meet competitors. Terrell ends the season with an all-state team medal as Kingsville’s alternate runner.
Coach’s Corner
As noted, the Kingsville boys cross country team’s third-place finish this season comes after placing sixth in the team standings last season. It also comes after several consecutive seasons of having at least one all-state runner.
“We’ve had the talent ever since I started coaching at Kingsville,” said coach Smith at the conclusion of this year’s state meet. “I’ve seen it there. It’s really hard in the smaller classes to get five to seven committed kids to come out and work hard, and make it happen. Cross country’s a unique sport to where you have to have everybody firing at the right time in order to do it, and to see having enough to make that happen today, and we were even battling some injuries.”
The team looks to build upon inter-squad competition as it builds toward next season, and as the team is joined by new running talent.
“They’re just competitive against each other,” said coach Smith. “Iron sharpens iron is a very common theme, and that’s what we see here is that Avery wants to make sure he’s number-one, and then you’ve got Cole, Jack, and Gideon right there thinking that, ‘Hey, we’re going to go after Avery and get him.’
“Then, it just trickles all the way down there, and we even have our eighth grader Derek (Merriott). He wants to be right up there with everybody else, so it helps having a couple kids running really well and everybody else wanting to compete with them and push themselves to be right there because they know he’s not that much better than me. I’m just as good as he is. So that’s a cool thing to watch them do that. It’s something I can’t do. They have to come up with it on their own.”
The state meet top-four team finish leaves the Tigers looking for more next season.
“It’s hard to enjoy the moment because you’re always thinking ahead,” said coach Smith. “You’re thinking about what’s next, and that’s something that even I caught myself the last week or two weeks thinking about what we have coming up next year, too. It’s been such a fun season with these kids, and to watch them compete, watch them grow, and watch them really learn.
“I tell them all the time that there are some days our best is just not good enough and that’s okay, but learn the adversity from it and move on. A lot of them wanted state medals today and they were hanging their heads for that, but then, I don’t think they realized when they got that third-place trophy, they all got a state medal. So that was a really cool feeling. Everybody walks home today with a state medal.”
