It was a second-straight all-state performance for St. James High School junior Ashton Moreland and nearly a top-10 finish for the Tiger boys’ team at the Missouri Class 3 State Meet Friday, Nov. 6 at Columbia’s Gans Creek Course.

The Tiger runners just missed finishing in the top-10 of the team standings, placing 11th. Herculaneum and Maplewood Richmond tied for first place in the Class 3 team standings with 121 points. Herculaneum won the fifth-runner tie-breaker. St. James was 11th with 268 points.

Leading the charge for St. James was Moreland, who finished sixth overall in the 5,000-meter race to earn all-state honors with a school-record time of 16:04.1. That is a big improvement over last year, when he was all-state with a 22nd individual placement.

Other scorers for St. James included sophomore Tristin Barton, who was 67th overall and sophomore Kylar Hodge 68th with an identical times of 17:26.3; junior Ryder Byfield 142nd at 18:45.8, and sophomore Eric Bolte 144th at 18:50.1.

The Lady Tigers also sent two runners to the Class 3 State Meet. Freshman Tara Murphy finished 90th overall at 21:34.1 while senior Katherine Strackeljahn was 144th at 22:56.5.

“Friday was a great day for running,” said St. James coach Bri Hodge. “It was cool out and overcast, and the kids were really excited for the experience of running at state. Our boys went into the race with a goal of finishing 10th as a team and ended up 11th by 26 points. But we still had kids reach individual goals. Ashton went into the race shooting for a sub-16 minute time and he ended with 16:04, but took sixth place and set a new PR by 24 seconds and a school record. He had a great season. Tristin and Kylar finished with the exact same time. This was Tristin’s first year running with us and he has been a real asset to our team. Kylar fell back about 70 places with a cramp then ended up passing over 50 people in the last 2K to get back up close to where he was. Tristin and Kylar pushed each other hard until they ran through the finish line. Ryder ran his second-best time of the season and Bolte and Kypton Earney and Isaac Siders were not far behind him at all.

“Kate and Tara represented the beginning and ending of high school careers. I am very proud of both girls for how they ran. Tara ended up with a great season-ending race. Kate had been to state before, so it was really good for Tara to have that leadership from her to help her stay calm and just enjoy the experience.”

Moreland had to work himself free from being boxed in with a large pack before finishing with a school-record flourish.

“I’m pleased with the race I ran,” Moreland said. “I didn’t really get the time I wanted, but my placement was way better than I thought it would be. The first kilometer I was boxed in. Thankfully, that pack was fast; usually they are slower. After that I took outside to pass people, slowly picking everybody off. It was great racing conditions; pretty chilly but good to run in.

“I knew the runners in front of me. State was my PR. I’m happy with it. It just made me want to train harder (for next year).”

Both coach and her star runner are looking forward to next season’s possibilities.

“Our team has two juniors and the rest are sophomore or freshmen,” Moreland said. “We will have the same team again. I think our team will be real good next year.”

“Kate is our only senior this year, and we will definitely miss her presence next year,” Coach Hodge said. “The rest of our team will be able to run again next year, and hopefully come back even stronger. We plan on really getting after it this summer and building our program up even more. We are hoping to get our middle school kids to come out next year as well.”

Missouri Cross Country

State Championships

Nov. 6 at Columbia

Gans Creek Course

5,000-Meters

Class 3

Boys

Top-10 Teams: 1. Herculaneum 121*, 2. Maplewood Richmond, 121, 3. Fair Grove 123, 4. Lutheran St. Charles 137, 5. Owensville 148, 6. McAuley Catholic 163, 7. Jefferson City Helias 172, 8. Thomas Jefferson Independent 174, 9. MICDS 210, 10. Mountain Grove 242. 11. St. James 268.

*-won fifth-runner tie-breaker

Top-5 Individuals: 1. Nolan Spickert, Centralia, 15:20.2; 2. Heru Bey, MICDS, 15:47.2; 3. Leo Butler, Summit Christian, 15:53.5; 4. Nathan Lind, Lutheran St. Charles, 15:54.0; 5. Jack Mahoney, Lutheran St. Charles, 16:03.4.

St. James Results: 6. Ashton Moreland 16:04.1*, 67. Tristin Barton 17:26.3, 68. Kylar Hodge 17:26.3, 142. Ryder Byfield 18:45.8, 144. Eric Bolte 18:50.1, 150. Kypton Earney 18:59.2, 152. Isaac Siders 19:18.7.

Girls

Top-10 Teams: 1. Herculaneum 43, 2. MICDS 83, 3. Knob Noster 147, 4. Notre Came de Sion 167, 5. Summit Christian 215, 6. Lutheran St. Charles 216, 7. Potosi 216, 8. Osage 233, 9. Jeff. City Helias 234, 10. St. Pius X KC 237.

Top-5 Individuals: 1. Brianna Krueger, St. Charles West, 17:34.1; 2. Anna Ross, Reeds Spring, 17:35.4; 3. Kelly Frank, Notre Dame de Sion 18:42.1; 4. Katrina Cantwell, Fair Grove, 18:53.2; 5. Adysynn Gonzalez, Herculaneum, 18:54.5.

St. James Results: 90. Tara Murphy 21:34.1, 144. Katherine Strackeljahn 22:56.5.