Lady Mustang Cross Country Districts Qualifies McCory

Courtesy Photo Melysia McCrory is shown with her 12th place medal from the Missouri Class 4 District 6 Cross Country Championships held on Oct. 31 at Nixa High School. McCrory's 12th place finish earned her a trip to the state cross country championships set for Friday in Columbia.
Courtesy Photo Melysia McCrory is shown with her 12th place medal from the Missouri Class 4 District 6 Cross Country Championships held on Oct. 31 at Nixa High School. McCrory's 12th place finish earned her a trip to the state cross country championships set for Friday in Columbia.

Sophomore cross country runner Melysia McCrory added to the success of fall sports at McDonald County High School with a 12th place at the Missouri Class 4, District 6, Cross Country Championships held on Oct. 31 at Nixa High School.

McCrory's top 15 finish earns her a trip to the state cross country championships. McCrory, who entered the race with the 15th best time among the 40 runners, finished the 5,000-meter race in a time of 21:56.

Riley Hawkins of Webb City led a first, second and third place sweep by the Lady Cardinals in a time of 20:22.

"It is very exciting to have Melysia qualify for state," said coach Ashleigh McFarland.."She has always had the potential, but just recently set her mind to achieving this goal. It was fun to watch her time drop literally by minutes and half minutes at every meet. It all happened at the right time and put her in a great spot to do really well at districts. She has kicked it in gear lately and has worked really hard to get where she is at."

Rounding out the Lady Mustang results were Anna Belle Price in 29th in a time of 24:15 and Madison Burton in 32nd in 24:30.

"I look forward to the coming years because our whole group is made up of only freshmen and sophomores," McFarland said. "With Melysia leading our ladies, the other two -- Anna Belle and Madison -- battled back and forth the whole season, improving as they went along. The girls we have are a tough group of girls even though they are few. They get their mind set on something and work hard to achieve it. The ladies never asked why, argued or complained. They buckled down day in and day out to get done what they were supposed to and they saw improvement because of that. Hopefully, we can grow to at least five on the ladies' side next year and, if we do, it will be a fantastic, tough team with the leadership they have."

The boys' team was led by Lane Pratt with a 33rd place finish in a time of 20:27. He was followed by Gunner Cooper, 36th, 21:01; Tyler Rothrock, 37th, 21:02; Cross Spencer, 43rd, 22:13; and Ayden Ball, 47th, 23:55.

Roman Borboa of Webb City won the race in a time of 16:30. The Cardinals won the team title, followed by Neosho, Carl Junction, Harrisonville, Logan-Rogersville, Nevada and McDonald county.

"The boys are young and learning," McFarland said. "Lane was the team's consistent leader each meet. He was also elected team captain this year as a freshman. Gunner was always on his heels pushing him to keep getting better. Gunner would battle Lane for the team lead and beat him a couple of times. Gunner actually has the fastest overall team time. They fueled each other's fire. They were a good strong duo as they raced each week. Tyler was always right behind them and was the most consistent. He always did his job and did it well. He consistently got faster and faster. He's all business and seemed to have no bad days. Cross is our lone sophomore on the boys' side. He is a 'get it done' kind of kid. More of a silent leader type. Being in high school sports a year already, he knew what was expected, always gave it his best. Ayden completed the group as the team comedian. He always has a joke or something to say. He has worked so hard to keep improving. Toward the end of the season, he began having more fun with it than focusing on times and that's when we really started to see improvement. He had his best time of the season today and he seemed happy to finally break that 24-minute mark. In any sport, if you ask only freshmen and a sophomore to compete as varsity, it's going to be ugly at first. Juniors and seniors are more mature, have more experience and understand the sport better.

These kids, both boys and girls, took the challenge head-on and got better and better. If they competed as a JV team -- as young ones usually do -- they would be competing for JV titles, but they didn't get to do that. They had to race the big dogs as such a young group. They will continue to get better and be able to hang with the others as a team. I'm excited to see what the future holds for them."

McCrory is believed to be the first cross country runner to qualify for state from MCHS since 2015.

The Class 4 girls' state championship race is set for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 6 at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.