State Cross Country: Oak Ridge's Elam finishes second in Class 1

~ The Oak Ridge senior finished career with her best finish

Oak Ridge senior McKenzie Elam crossed the finish line in second place to earn a top spot among 160 high school cross country runners who competed at the Class 1 state cross country meet on Saturday at the Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City, Mo.

Elam finished with a time of 20 minutes, 25.43 seconds, just less than 10 seconds behind Russellville senior Miranda Hill's first-place crossing.

"Unbelievable," Elam said about winning second place. "I'm really honored."

Elam and her coach Jason Niswonger developed a strategy before the meet.

Oak Ridge senior McKenzie Elam competes on Saturday. (Chris Auckley)

"We knew going in that there were four really strong girls, and she would be right up there with them," Niswonger said. "She executed perfectly."

"I just tried to run to the best of my ability," Elam added.

The steep layout of the course proved to be the most challenging part for Elam.

"The hills killed me," she said. "They were tough."

Elam has often led the pack for Oak Ridge in its meets this season. This was no small task for her since she also played volleyball while running cross country.

"She missed out on some speed work from volleyball, which was difficult for her," Niswonger said. "But she's not going to use that as an excuse."

Oak Ridge's Lexi Wunderlich and Maci Jo Schamburg also competed at the state meet. Wunderlich, a senior, struggled with an ankle injury while running and barely missed all-state recognition with a 31st-place finish. Schamburg placed 61st.

small task for her since she also played volleyball while running cross country.

"She missed out on some speed work from volleyball, which was difficult for her," Niswonger said. "But she's not going to use that as an excuse."

Oak Ridge's Lexi Wunderlich and Maci Jo Schamburg also competed at the state meet. Wunderlich, a senior, struggled with an ankle injury while running and barely missed all-state recognition with a 31st-place finish. Schamburg placed 61st.

St. Vincent junior John Lipe competes in the Class 1 state cross country meet on Saturday at the Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City, Mo. (Chris Auckley)

On the boys' side, Oak Ridge senior Jake LeGrand finished the race in 60th place, ahead of sophomore Zackry Moore who came in 82nd.

"He's been a great leader," Niswonger said of LeGrand. "We're going to miss him, his work ethic, his personality."

For Elam, finishing second place at the state meet was a great way to end her high school cross country career.

"I'm just glad that I went out with a bang," she said. "I'm just really thankful for my coach for getting me through my high school and middle school years. He's just been a really motivating factor for me."

Niswonger said he was pleased with his team's performance at the meet.

"I'm proud of all my kids," he said. "They gave me 100 percent, which is all I can ask for."

Although the season is now over, Niswonger sees potential in his team as well as other teams in the area.

"We have a really strong area for cross country," he said. "Our district is getting better and better. Zalma is getting better. St. Vincent is very strong, and they don't graduate anybody."

Both the St. Vincent and Zalma boys' squads qualified for the state meet. The Indians placed sixth overall in the team standings. Junior John Lipe posted an all-state time of 17:49.88 to place 18th for St. Vincent. Teammate Isaac Baer, a sophomore, barely missed the top-25 cutoff with a 27th-place time of 17:59.03.

Zalma, a young team composed entirely of freshmen and sophomores, finished 13th as a team. Freshman Peyton Ford led the Bulldogs with a 42nd-place finish of 18:23.19. Freshman teammate Jacob Steinberg followed in 55th place.

"No words can describe the feeling when I crossed the finish line," Ford said. "I never would have thought of getting in the top 50, let alone my personal record time of 18:23. It was amazing."

This is the third year that Zalma has fielded a cross country team. Second-year coach Faith Bailey said she was proud of her team's performance.

"To have an entire team qualify as one of the top 16 teams in the state and to do as well as they did for as young as they are, I am absolutely ecstatic with happiness for them for what they've done," she said. "Coming into this year, I knew what we needed to do and how we needed to get there, and I had an entire cross country team -- even the ones who didn't make it -- that said, 'Show us what we need to do and we'll do it.' They gave me more than 100 percent. It's a coach's dream come true when you have a team that believes in you just as much as you believe in them. That made all the difference, and will continue to make the difference."

The Bulldogs' trip to state was the first time that a team from Zalma has made it to the state tournament in any sport since the volleyball team advanced to the final four in 1992. Zalma had one individual state qualifier last season, Jenny Ware, who is currently attending Culver Stockton College in Canton, Mo., on a cross country scholarship.

"They knew that they had some faster competition," Bailey said. "They had heard horror stories about the course, and I kept trying to calm them on that on the way up. Once they got to run the course Friday night, that kind of calmed them. We just kept talking and said, 'Look, you now know the course isn't a monster like you thought it was. You made it here. You have a reason to be here. You have earned your right to be here. You got here on your own merits. You're equally worthy to be here.'"

Ford credited the team's practice and shared many of the same sentiments.

"Our team as a whole did great," he said. "At the beginning of the year, I didn't think there was any way that we would make it as a team. Through midseason we all really picked it up a notch with most of us setting new personal records 30 seconds to a minute faster than what we started with. We all knew we had a chance. Even though we got 13th as a team, in my mind, we still won."

Bailey said she expects to see great things from the cross country program at Zalma in the years to come.

"For them to make as big of an improvement as they did from last year to this year and the improvements I see coming into next year," Baily said. "This is a team that is going to continue to grow and get better and stronger every year. To have this as our starting point is awesome. We have nowhere else to go but up."

BOYS

Team Scores -- 1. Russellville 87, 2. Linn 111, 3. West Platte 140, 4. Lone Jack 150, 5. Plato 166, 6. St. Vincent 174, 7. Humansville 203, 8. Sparta 204, 9. Hermitage 209, 10. Bakersfield 235, 11. Lutheran (Kansas City) 239, 12. Maysville 262, 13. Zalma 276, 14. Spokane 304, 15. Northeast (Cairo) 345, 16. Marion County 387

Top 10 finishers -- 1. Seth Brown (La Plata) 16:51.09, 2. Riley Gorham (Hardin-Central) 17:07.14, 3. Chandler Harker (Vienna) 17:12.12, 4. Alex Thompson (Russellville) 17:14.60, 5. Michael Walling (Maysville) 17:15.43, 6. Chase Jones (Linn) 17:18.36, 7. Parker Wilkinson (Father Tolton) 17:32.23, 8. Jordan French (Stover) 17:33.07, 9. Seth Schenck (New Haven) 17:34.59, 10. Tristan Eaton (Sparta) 17:35.05

Local finishers

ST. VINCENT -- 18. John Lipe 17:49.88, 27. Isaac Baer 17:59.03, 31. Levi Krauss 18:09.13, 93. Zach Schumer 19:32.75, 145. Samuel Baer 20:56.35, 153. Brett Lottes 21:14.25, 170. Charles Nenninger 23:25.27

ZALMA -- 42. Peyton Ford 18:23.19, 55. Jacob Steinberg 18:44.30, 91. Alex Steinberg 19:28.38, 138. Wyatt Lemons 20:24.63, 149. Luke Robertson 21:08.85, 150. Charles Freeman 21:10.18

OAK RIDGE -- 60. Jake LeGrand 18:50.11, 82. Zackry Moore 19:18.60

MEADOW HEIGHTS -- 62. Josh Wilfong 18:52.88, 83. Chris Bollinger 19:19.28

GIRLS

Team Scores -- 1. Russellville 66, 2. Lutheran (Kansas City) 120, 3. Salisbury 123, 4. Crystal City 134, 5. DeKalb 139, 6. Valle Catholic 157, 7. Jasper 170, 8. Columbia Independent School 221, 9. Sparta 215, 10. Couch 225, 11. Mound City 269, 12. Plato 275, 13. Mansfield 301, 14. Elsberry 303, 15. Lone Jack 320, 16. Hermitage 338

Top 10 finishers -- 1. Miranda Hill (Russellville) 20:15.95, 2. McKenzie Elam (Oak Ridge) 20:25.43, 3. Grace Young (Russellville) 20:37.03, 4. Alessandra Moss (Couch) 20:39.34, 5. Sierra Grimm (Lutheran-Kansas City) 20:56.97, 6. Sarah Kurpjuweit (Humansville) 21:01.79, 7. Autumn Baker (Chamois) 21:04.40, 8. Kendey Eaton (Mound City) 21:04.45, 9. Haley Schroeder (Lutheran-Kansas City) 21:12.19, 10. Lexi McNiel (Plato) 21:13.76

Local finishers

OAK RIDGE -- 2. McKenzie Elam 20:25.43, 31. Lexi Wunderlich 22:16.90, 61. Maci Jo Schamburg 23:32.74

DELTA -- 48. Jamie Hodge 22:59.74