Tyler Stambersky jumped to the early but eventually settled into a comfortable second place, doing more than enough to provide her needed and expected top-end impact.
Platte County sophomore Carlie Baker runs in front of sophomore teammate Mary Dellinger in the Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational on Thursday at Platte Ridge Park.
Platte County followed the standout junior to the team title in Thursday’s Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational at Platte Ridge Park. The Pirates posted an impressive total of 43 with all five scoring runners in the top 20 on their home course.
Park Hill South finished a distant second with 83 points.
This marked Platte County’s third straight team title in the annual home meet, adding to 2023 and 2025 when a sixth-runner tiebreaker made the difference against Park Hill South. Excessive heat canceled the 2025 edition.
On Thursday, Stambersky came in as the runnerup at 22 minutes, 2.90 seconds behind only Benton junior Rachel Cera (21:44.30) on an ultimately sticky hot morning race. Platte County’s times were overall fairly high with temperatures already rising in the unique mid-week race, but sophomores Carlie Baker (sixth, 22:57.60) and Mary Dellinger (seventh, 23:09.20) made the Pirates the only team with three runners in the top 10.
Platte County remains without junior Maddie Fuller (shin), and freshmen Claire Babcock (14th, 24:38.20) and Lane Keraus (18th, 25:04.10) rounded out the team total. The Pirates rounded out the lineup with junior Kensington Sturdy (22nd, 25:22.80) and senior Elise Lundholm (31st, 26:04.30).
This marked a break in the difficulty of the schedule over the season’s first four weeks that next goes to this weekend’s Gans Creek Invitational on the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia — also the site of the state meet.
Platte County’s top three runners all ran last postseason, but only Stambersky has prior experience advancing out of districts. She did so each of the past two years — earning all-state honors as a freshman in Class 4 and making the individual cut out of Class 5 District 4 as a sophomore. The Pirates advanced a team to state each fall from 2020 to 2024 but saw that streak come to an end with last year’s move up and the corresponding change in competition level.
With a return to Class 5 this fall, Platte County knows the challenge ahead and hopes to have Fuller back in the mix at some point as part of the overall youthful lineup.
