What a great weekend to be a Panther!! Congratulations to Jasmine and Lexi for making the most of their trip to the State CC Meet. The course at Oak Hills is no walk in the park, and Jasmine and Lexi ran very smart races Saturday. It is difficult to run your own race when the leader of the race is out to break the course record; which Eureka's Hanna Long did in 17:46. The first mile was blistering fast and Jasmine and Lexi easily ran their fastest 1st mile to date with Jasmine coming through at 5:54, and Lexi coming through at 5:59. That mile includes the uphill 400+meter start! Mile two really saw the race start to spread out as the runners made their way through the switchbacks and to the Firehouse Hill in mile three. Jasmine and Lexi did an excellent job to maintain focus and run their strongest races of the season. I'd say this course easily runs 30+ seconds slower than Ray Pec, but when you're running with the best of the best, anything can happen.
Jasmine and Lexi both ran much better races than they did at Sectionals with Jasmine finishing 6th from our Sectional (up from 18th at the Sectional race) and Lexi finishing 17th from our Sectional (up from 19th at the Sectional race). At the finish, Jasmine was the 2nd fastest freshmen and Lexi was the 13th fastest freshmen. Overall, Jasmine finished 18th with a PR of 19:11.83 and Lexi finished 65th with a 20:21.51!! These are AMAZING TIMES!!! Special congratulations go to Jasmine for finishing 18th, which makes her All-State!!! This is Park Hill South's first Girl's All State Cross Country runner since we've been in Class 4!!
Coach Jurgensmeyer lerchp@parkhill.k12.mo.us
