Boonville senior Jason Thurman stood in 54th place after the first mile Saturday during the Missouri State Cross-Country Championships at Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City. Thurman wound up placing 74th overall in 18:30.39.
For Boonville senior Jason Thurman and freshman Holly Krumm, the Missouri State Cross-Country Championships Saturday at Oak Hills Center in Jefferson City was an experience of a lifetime for the Pirate duo.
Although Thurman qualified for state in his only season of cross-country, Krumm will have three more years to reach the medal stand.
With 170 girls and 169 boys participating at state in Class 3, Krumm started first at 11:30 a.m. with temperatures in the high 40s with a slight breeze. However with all 170 girls positioned on the starting line, Krumm would have to re-focus after a false start with one runner falling down. Meanwhile, after a successful start on the second run, Krumm made her way through the pack with a slight uphill grade.
“I like the first mile because it didn’t have a lot of hills and I had a really good time,” Krumm said. “But the adrenaline of starting with that many people got to me and I took off faster than I logically would have before. I felt good until about one mile and a half and I got a little bit of a stitch and then at two mile I wasn’t feeling that bad. Then, at the third mile, it seemed like there were a bunch of hills. Going downhill I would let myself go and I would catch up a few places but then uphill I just wasn’t moving anywhere. By the time I was finishing I didn’t feel too good. I had a stitch in my stomach but I saw the finish line so I told myself to keep going.”
At the one-mile marker, Krumm stood in 107th place in a time of 6:43.27 and trailed the leader Olivia Franklin of Kearney by almost a full minute at 5:49.91. Meanwhile, at the two-mile marker, Krumm moved up one position to 106th place with a time of 12:06.77 but lost almost a full minute as Franklin turned in a time of 14:08.59.
Then, with one mile left to the finish line, Krumm again moved up in the pack while finishing 102nd overall in a time of 22:31.81. As for Franklin, the Kearney standout wound up capturing first in a time of 19:22.75.
Jasmine Edwards, also of Kearney, finished second overall in a time of 19:33.64, followed by Elizabeth Kiblinger of Notre Dame in 19:33.97, Nicole Lee of Clinton in 19:41.61 and Sammy Laurenzo of Liberty North in 19:46.90.
Boonville Pirates Cross-Country coach Jonathan Kersha said Krumm started about where she usually does in a race.
“She didn’t go out too hard which I think a lot of kids at this particular race made that mistake,” Kersha said. “I think she went out and started about what she should do. She was sitting a little bit more towards the back but like I was telling them before the race, you have about 18 minutes approximately to get it gone what you are going to do. It doesn’t all have to happen in the first-five minutes. You don’t want it to happen that way because you are going to get strung out.
“I thought Holly had a great race. She was right around her best time for the whole season on a really difficult course. As far as comparing it to the whole season, this is probably one of her best races so that’s awesome if you can come out of the state championship and have one of your best races of the year.”
Kearney also captured the team championship with 53 points. Farmington finished second with 101 points, followed by Ladue Horton Watkins with 134 points, Smithville with 143, Festus with 161, Bolivar with 170, Notre Dame de Sion with 188, St. Dominic with 197, St. Charles West with 200 and MICDS in 10th place with 225.
All in all, Krumm said she thought she did good.
“I know my time was in the 22s which isn’t that bad,” stated Krumm. Oak Grove kind of compared to this a little and I had like a 24 there but that was my first race. I was really nervous at the start. Never being at a state competition or anything near this big I didn’t really know how I would do so it kind of got to me and then with the cold weather I was wondering how I would do.”
As for the experience, Krumm said she would like to come back next year.
“That’s going to be my goal to come to state every year,” Krumm said. “Whenever I started cross-country I wasn’t think of being that good, but getting to go to state was unbelievable. My goal for state was to get in the top 100 and I think I was right around there so I am anxious to find out where I placed.”
Kersha said Krumm’s season was really amazing.
“Holly has been a dual sport athlete all season,” Kersha said. “She has had to miss for tennis tournaments and I was worried about the wear and tear on her from the two practices because she would run and then go to tennis practice after that which is not easy. That is such an active sport also but she has really come through it with great results. And then once she started running just cross-country it just seemed like she flourished.”
As for Thurman, he had a little better start while clocking in after the first mile in 54th place in 5:22.02. Drew White of Festus led the field of runners in 4:52.68. Meanwhile, at the two-mile marker, White led in a time of 10:04.71 while Thurman lost ground on the second mile by losing 12 places in a time of 11:28.11.
White wound up winning the race in a time of 16:06.71 while Thurman finished 74th overall in 18:30.39.
After the race, Thurman said it was a little harder that what he thought it was going to be.
“We came up early on Friday and walked the course and looking at the course it didn’t look that bad but after you start running it there was quite a bit of mud still on the course after all the rain we had and then once you start running all these hills it really got to you,” Thurman said. “It was a lot harder course than we expected and these guys in front have been training for years so they were definitely ready.”
Thurman said he also started pretty fast.
“I got out a little bit ahead of everyone but I kind of like getting out there in front because there were so many guys you didn’t want to try and fight through. With 169 guys running up and down through the course I tried to stay out in front but even then there was a lot of pushing. At the halfway point, I could tell my time was quite a bit slower than normal so I knew right then everybody was slowing down because everybody in front of me was still running the same speed. Everybody was pretty worn out about halfway. I don’t really think we were expecting what was in-store for us.
“At the finish, or last 100 yards, I looked up there and seen the finish line and then I started looking and I said this is my last race so I am going to leave everything I have here. Even though my mind was telling me not to keep going I just kept pushing myself and I ended up passing 6-7 runners at the end so that was good. My goal was to get in the top 25, which would have been good enough to medal, but after I started I realized all these guys have been training for years so it wasn’t going to happen so I tried to make the best of it.”
After last week’s start in the district meet at Mexico, Kersha said Thurman ran about the same time Saturday on a much more difficult course.
“He finished today around the guys that he has been finishing with all year long so he was right there,” Kersha said. “I think he was a little surprised by the difficulty level of this particular course. He thought it was going to be easier but that has to be the hardest course we race on all year and you would expect that being a state championship course. What’s amazing about Jason is that he wasn’t even there the first week of practice because he wasn’t sure that he wanted to run. He just showed up and said I can run and of course he can. Outside of just his racing performance, Jason has been amazing student to coach. His attitude is 100 percent. He has been the easiest to coach ever.”
Warrensburg captured the team title with 72 points. Festus finished second with 96 points, followed by MICDS with 113, Smithville with 142, DeSoto with 158, Ladue with 179, Kearney with 195, Clayton with 218, St. Dominic with 245 and Osage with 265.
Copyright 2011 Boonville Daily News. Some rights reserved
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