With regional showdowns only a week away, Thursday afternoon, many of the area schools gathered at Twin Falls State Park for the annual Coalfield Conference cross country meet.
In the end, it was a banner day for Shady Spring.
The Tigers bested James Monroe by 22 points to take the girls title, before the boys made it a Coalfield Conference sweep beating PikeView by 18 points.
“We expected to be competitive today. The goal is always to win, I am not going to lie to you,” Shady Spring head coach Eric Lawson said. “The kids are competitive and our ultimate goal every time we step out there is to win. As long as we are competitive and going hard then I am fine with that.”
Once again balance was the key for Shady Spring Thursday.
Gwynn McGinnis and Bre Crouse led the Lady Tigers finishing second and third, respectively, but all five scoring runners came home in the top-15.
“It was back and forth. I felt pretty good going down the hill, but coming back up was pretty rough,” McGinnis said about her run. “It definitely doesn’t feel good because I was so close (to winning). That’s OK though, I can still get regionals.”
Journey Wisthoff finished 11th, while Abby Honaker was 12th and Audrey Justice crossed the line in 15th place.
Eli Jordan was fifth Thursday followed by Logan Malott in sixth to lead the boys charge. David Northrop was 13th on the afternoon and Reid Radford was 17th overall. David Hegele was right behind Radford in 18th position.
“We go deeper than five (runners). We go deeper than seven. We are about 10 or 11 deep,” Lawson said. “The sad thing is we can only run seven at regionals. I hate having to hash out who my (number) six and seven are. I am definitely blessed that they all want to come in, work hard and get better. I will definitely take this kind of problem though over the alternative.”
James Monroe standout Katie Collins won the girls event in a tight battle with the McGinnis and Crouse.
“At first I kind of struggled for a bit. Gwynn and I fought back and forth for first place,” Collins said. Near the end, (Carli Spade from PikeView) passed me, but after I got up that hill I passed her. I just kept a good pace and ran through.”
Ranked 20th in the state in Class A, Collins was considered one of the top contenders entering the race.
“I hoped to win today, but I didn’t really expect it, honestly,” Collins said. “Gwynn beat me at the last meet, so I was kind of worried, but I pulled through.”
Helping push the Mavericks into second place Thursday were Abby Dixon and Kynzie Taylor who finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Gracie Tooze was 24th for James Monroe and Natalie Broyles rounded out the scoring in 42nd place.
Spade was fourth in the girls race followed by Avery Lilly from Summers County.
The story between Spade and Lilly, however, went far beyond a top-five finish.
With both runners having a strong season, Spade was eying the top spot, while Lilly was looking for her personal best time of the season.
“There was that really talented front pack in that race. I have raced with Carli before and she has always beat me,” Lilly said. “So I said to myself, I am going to stay with (Carli). Coming back (towards the finish line) in the second half of the race, she moved up into first.”
With Spade making a move for the win, Lilly refocused on accomplishing her personal goal.
“(Carli) got up that (last) hill really quick. So I just wanted to try and stay with that front pack,” Lilly said. “She maintained the lead, but when I came around that last bend, I saw her on the ground. I didn’t know what happened, but I told myself I was going to get her up and we were going to finish the race. I just felt like if I was down, I would want someone to pick me up too.”
Amidst her struggle to finish the race, naturally Spade was a little taken back by the gesture.
“I think at first she was a little shocked. I was a little shocked. I sprinted up to her and wanted to make sure we finished and didn’t lose any places either,” Lilly said.
Still struggling on the way in, both runners ran the final stretch hand in hand until just before the finish line. Lilly let go of Spade’s hand to allow her to cross just in front of her.
“I picked her up and told her we are going to go together. We ran for a bit and I told her we were going to finish it. We are going to do it together,” Lilly said. “She said I can’t do it. I told her she could and we were going to do it (together). She told me thank you and I was just like, absolutely.”
Not only did Lilly exemplify what the sport is all about, she also reach her original goal as well.
“It was really special for me. I have been wanting to get under 23 (minutes) all year. My best time before this race was a 23:03,” Lilly said. “To be able to help her and still get a personal record was amazing for me. I wasn’t worried about placement really, fourth or fifth place did not matter to me.”
Lilly finished the grueling course at Twin Falls in 22 minutes and 37 seconds.
Tyler Huffman was third in the boys race along with Jonah Nolan in tenth to lead PikeView to its second place finish. Efren Martinez and Elijah Keaton were 15th and 16th, respectively for the Panthers. Rylan Cook was the fifth Panther across the line in 47th place.
The top spot on the boys side was a photo-finish between Nicholas County teammates Johnny Walkup and Luke Barr.
“We started off and Luke and I started picking off some guys that were at the front (of the pack),” Walkup said. “I ended up leading up to the turnaround point. The shortly after that, Luke passed me. We ended up side by side there at the end and it was just whoever could kick the hardest I guess.”
Both runners were all smiles after the wire-to-wire showdown.
“We took off pretty easy and we got into a good position,” Barr said. “I took the lead and then there at the end it was a dogfight. It was fun though.”
The remaining top-25 on the girls side included Baylee Jarrett (Richwood) eighth, Adrienne Truman (Nicholas County) 10th, Haley Johnson (Nicholas County) 13th and Jaycee Pritchett (Princeton) 15th.
Kyndal Lusk (Wyoming East) was 16th, followed by the Oak Hill trio of Emma Curtis 17th, Jordyn Floyd 18th and Emma Willard 19th.
Sophie Mullens (Richwood) was 20th ahead of Caroline Hinkle (Nicholas County) 21st, Peyton Light (Oak Hill) 22nd, Braelyn Farrish (Summers County) 23rd and Alyssa Bailey (Richwood) 25th.
Zachary Neal (Princeton) was fourth in the boys race, while teammate Brady McCabe was seventh. Hank Marson (Bluefield) was eight along with Caleb Carver (Oak Hill) in ninth place.
Wyoming East standout Tommy Wikel was 11th followed by Jadon Acord (Liberty) 12th, Dakota Pettry (Summers County) 14th and Wyatt Lilly (James Monroe) 19th.
Brayden Hoosier (Wyoming East) was 21st, trailed by Tony Brubaker (Oak Hill) 22nd, Jaxson Walker (Wyoming East) 23rd, Bo Huffman (Shady Spring) 24th and Ethan Dowdy (Shady Spring) who rounded out the top-25.