After a disappointing result in the final race of a decorated career, Blake Herron chose holistic reflection.
“I’m learning to be grateful for the opportunity and not the outcome,” Platte County’s star senior wrote in an Instagram post after finishing 47th in Friday’s Class 5 MSHSAA Cross Country Championships at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.
Herron finished as a two-time all-state performer having come in 23rd as a sophomore and ninth as a junior in Class 4 on the same course, but he didn’t perform up to typical high standards as Platte County’s lone qualifier after a move up in this year’s postseason assignment. The Pirates qualified for state as a team each of the past five years, but the streak came to an end against Class 5 competition.
In Friday’s early afternoon race, Herron sat in 25th after the first kilometer but couldn’t keep pace and faded from there. He crossed the finish line in 16 minutes, 19.90 seconds — more than 17 seconds out of all-state placement in the top 30.
Herron set a PR in September’s Gans Creek Classic on the state meet course at 15:36.20 and finishes as the second-fastest runner in program history behind Andrew Johnson, who owns Platte County’s six best times. Johnson, Herron, Tanner Jenks, Kade Meinke and Nathan Straubel have the only sub-16 performances with the majority coming over the past three seasons.
The final race certainly doesn’t define the immense contributions to Platte County’s winning culture.
A rare four-time state qualifier, Herron helped Platte County advance out of districts as a team each of the previous seasons. His ascension to all-state as a sophomore helped the Pirates to a state runnerup finish in Class 4 in 2023 as part of the fastest collection of runners in program history. They were fifth last season with Jenks and Herron the leaders of a quick rebuild that nearly resulted in another team trophy.
Herron finished fifth at Class 5 District 4 to earn a solo trip to state this season with Platte County sixth as a team in one of the deepest postseason fields in the state. His time at Gans Creek from September would have been good for ninth place on Friday, while his mark of 16:19.90 ended up being slower than his 23rd-place mark in Class 4 as a sophomore before his time took a hit last year in rainy and muddy conditions.
