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(Photo: Twitter @ARMileSplit)
West Plains Dominates Stampede; Riddle Takes Second
It was one of those efforts by the West Plains Zizzers that makes you sit back and simply say, "Wow." The historically great program is showing no signs of slowing after a down year (by their standards) in 2016. At Saturday's Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin, the West Plains boys put 4 boys in the top 16 (in a 388 participant race) and averaged 16:24 among their top 5. The Zizzers scored 107 points, putting them 66 points clear of second place Fayetteville (AR). This kind of dominating performance puts Class 4 on high alert as not only did Ethan Hutchinson (15:48, 7th) and Ben Stasney (15:50, 8th) break 16:00, but Caleb Boys had his big breakthrough as he came across 14th overall (3rd on the team) in 16:07. This was a 40 second PR for Boys after breaking 17:00 for the first time earlier this season at Memphis Twilight. Jacob McCrackin was unable to duplicate last year's 15:16, but he still crossed in 16th in a very respectable 16:11. Had it not have been for a 70th place finish by #5 man Dylan Hayes, who was right behind Boys at Memphis Twilight, West Plains could have been truly transcendent. This will absolutely affect our team rankings moving forward as West Plains seems to have the horses to make a run at a title this season.
Webb City's Ryan Riddle has made it known that he's gunning for sub-15:00 and there are very few who are questioning the legitimacy of this goal. On Saturday, it appeared that he was taking it out with that goal in mind, but he was ultimately unable to hold his breakneck pace and was ultimately left by Fayetteville (AR) junior Camren Fischer, running 15:37 for 2nd. It was a hot day when the boys varsity took off and that may have affected many of the athletes as Riddle was ultimately left in the dust at the 2 mile mark. Fischer's 15:14 was a much better result than the week previous at Forest Park where he was handily beaten by Blue Springs senior Victor Mugeche. Four more boys from Missouri broke into the 15s, all for the first time, as Nicholas Ondr (Glendale), Ean Buffington (Jackson), Chandler Gibbens (Hickman), and Clayton Whitehead (Carthage) ran 15:53.6, 15:53.8, 15:58, and 15:59 respectively.