CLEVER, Mo. — McAuley Catholic will be represented at the state cross country championships.
Three runners from McAuley qualified for state by finishing in the top 30 at the Class 1 District 2 meet on Saturday in Clever.
For the McAuley boys, freshman Michael Parrigon placed 10th with a time of 18:31 and junior Phillip Motazedi finished 12th in 18:45.
“Michael Parrigon and Phillip Motazedi are first time qualifiers for the state meet,” McAuley coach Andy Youngworth told SoMo Sports. “Michael battled some injuries in the middle part of the season and really came on strong the last few weeks. Phillip has run for three years, but didn’t fully begin to understand what it was going to take to be successful until the last couple of races. Now he is just a different runner.”
Also competing for the Warriors were Armando Alberto (43rd), Kevin Tran (63rd), Kable Reichardt (64th), Drew Zeb (71st) and Cliff Nolan (77th).
“Kevin Tran, our only senior, had his best race of the year, running a personal best of 20:36 and finishing as our No. 4 runner,” Youngworth said. “This was his first year running and he provided great leadership. Armando Alberto and Kable Reichardt rounded our top 5 and both ran close to their PR’s.”
The top four teams were Fordland (99), Dadeville (103), College Heights (105) and Marion C. Early (118). McAuley’s boys finished seventh in the team standings with 149 points.
“It was a very tight race, as only 50 points separated the district champion from the 8th place team,” Youngworth noted. “I thought we ran a good race, but just didn’t have quite enough experience and confidence at times to handle the race.”
On the girls side, McAuley’s Kendall Ramsey finished eighth with a time of 22:21. A sophomore, Ramsey is McAuley’s lone high school female runner.
“Kendall Ramsey is making her second trip in two years to Columbia,” Youngworth said. ” She had a tough midseason stretch where she battled some injuries that forced her to miss a couple of meets. She had a great conference meet last week at Southern and set a career PR by 1 minute. That race gave her some confidence going into today’s meet at Clever. She again set a career best with her time of 22:21, in much tougher conditions this morning due to the rain the last few days. She did a great job competing in the last 1,000 meters.”
The 47th MSHSAA Cross Country Championships begin on Friday in Columbia.
The Class 1 meet will be held on Saturday, with the boys race to begin at 9 a.m., with the girls race to follow at 9:45.
Youngworth, in his first season at the helm at McAuley after a long tenure in Carthage, said he’s been pleased with the team’s progress this fall.
“We took a big step forward this year, but the kids know that it will take more dedication and hard work in the next year for us to achieve our goal of qualifying for the state meet,” Youngworth said. “We have seven runners back next year, plus a talented group of freshmen coming up next fall.”
