Scott City's sixth runner earns Rams trip to state meet

ST. LOUIS -- This was one time that Travis Schiwitz was glad that he did not calculate his numbers correctly.

Schiwitz is a math teach at Scott City High School as well as the coach of the first-year Rams cross country team.

Schiwitz was lamenting the fact that according to his preliminary numbers, his boys team just missed out on making it to the state meet.

"I think we lost by one point," Schiwitz said. "It is disappointing, although I felt that the guys ran to the best of their abilities considering their inexperience."

It turns out that their best was, in fact, good enough to get the Rams to state. Scott City tied with Crystal City for second place in the Class 2 District 1 meet, which was held Saturday at Jefferson Barracks Park in St. Louis County.

Scott City's Skylar Cobb tries to stay ahead of Kelly's Cody Kern during Saturday's Class 2 District 1 meet in St. Louis. (TONI HAMMES ~ Special to the Southeast Missourian)

Only the top two teams advance to the state meet, which will be held Saturday in Jefferson City, Mo. It went down to a tie-breaker -- which team had the better finish from its sixth runner since the top five score. Scott City's Landon Robert finished one place ahead of Crystal City's Alexander Beaty to send the Rams to the state meet.

"This is awesome," Schiwitz said when he learned of the official results. "These guys worked really hard for this."

The Rams were led by sophomore standout Brandon Shemonia. He finished third despite taking a fall in the mud while leading at the 1-mile mark.

"It's tough to come back mentally after a fall like that," Shemonia said. "I didn't feel real good physically today, but I did what I had to do in districts. State is what really matters."

Senior Skylar Cobb finished 10th.

"The ultimate goal was to make it to state and I was just hoping that the team could make it," Cobb said. "It is so exciting. I was not that pleased with my time today, but I was pleased with my place."

Senior Libby Miles became the first Scott City girls runner to qualify for the state meet as she finished 11th overall.

"Coach always told me that I could be a good cross country runner," said Miles, who runs the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in track. "I'm glad that I had a chance to do it this year, although I wish I had more than this year. I didn't want to be too overconfident today, but coach told me that I should be fine if I ran my race. It was awfully muddy and with the hills and the leaves. It was a case of slipping and sliding at times. But I feel very fortunate and lucky to make it to sate. I am just going to go out there and give it all I have."

Arcadia Valley freshman Saga Barzowski won the girls race but the meet was dominated by defending state champion Herculaneum. The Blackcats had seven runners finish in the top nine. Dexter finished second as a team and will be headed to Jefferson City next weekend.

Herculaneum also won the boys meet and had the individual champion -- Alex Mason.

Two other area boys qualified individually -- Dylan Drum of Woodland was seventh while Cody Kern of Kelly was 14th.

Boys

Team scores -- 1. Herculaneum 34; 2. Scott City 66; 3. Crystal City 66; 4. Arcadia Valley 100; 5. Woodland 109; 6. Hancock 133.

Local finishers

Scott City -- 3. Brandon Shemonia 17:44; 10. Skylar Cobb 18:56; 17. Robert Matheney 19:40; 19. Eric Essner 20:00; 20. Chris Limbaugh 20:01

Woodland -- 7. Dylan Drum 18:17; 21. Corey Chapman 20:04; 24. Gavin Keller 20:15; 28. Aaron Yount 20:53; 34. Brandon Chapman 21:40

Kelly -- 14. Cody Kern 19:06; 36. Juan Campos 21:50

Girls

Team scores -- 1. Herculaneum 15; 2. Dexter 49

Local finishers

Scott City -- 11. Libby Miles 23:42

Woodland -- 25. Tess Rainey 29:24; 26. Jessica Little 29:38; 28. Amber LaClair 33:54