The balance couldn’t have looked much better for the host team in Thursday’s Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational at Platte Ridge Park.
Platte County junior Evan Backer runs in the Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational on Thursday at Platte Ridge Park.
Platte County’s seemingly established top five of senior Nick Flowers; juniors Evan Backer, Tate Stone and Landon McKinzie; and sophomore Haddon Newsome finished back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back in the fourth through eighth spots. The balanced showing, which featured a spread of just 36 seconds between the five runners, gave the Pirates the team title with an impressive score of 30.
Oak Park came in second at 82 with four more of the top 20 individuals.
This marked Platte County’s fourth straight team title in the annual home meet, adding to 2022, 2023 and 2025. Excessive heat canceled the 2025 edition.
Backer led Platte County an increasingly impressive debut season, placing fourth at 17 minutes, 51.00 seconds, while senior Nick Flowers finished right behind while breaking 18 minutes for the fourth time in his career and third straight race overall dating to last year’s Class 5 District 4 meet. His 17:55.20 ended up less than 30 seconds back of his PR of 17:26.00 from the Raymore-Peculiar Invitational five days earlier.
Platte County junior Landon McKinzie runs in the Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational at Platte Ridge Park.
Newsome ended up with the breakout performance, going under 18 minutes for the first time at 17:58.90. He flirted with the mark in each of the first two weekends this season, which induced an 18.00.70 at Ray-Pec before posting his PR at home.
This marked the third different top runner for Platte County in the past three races. Stone paced the Pirates in the season-opening Tim Nixon Invitational but came in seventh on Thursday at 18:00.30. Having battled blister issues to this point, McKinzie was eighth at 18.27.40. He did not finish the Tim Nixon Invitational race due to the issue but had the team’s top time at Ray-Pec while nearly setting a PR.
Platte County went without senior Jackson Townsend for a second straight week due to a lingering ankle issue. The Pirates used seniors Zarren Moore (30th, 20:18.50) and Jacoby Keith (44th, 20:47.90) as the last of seven entrants.
This marked a break in the difficulty of the schedule over the season’s first four weeks that next goes to Saturday’s Gans Creek Invitational on the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia — also the site of the state meet.
Platte County remains in Class 5 for this postseason and faces an obvious challenge to rebuild the roster from a year ago. McKinzie, Flowers, Stone and Newsome all ran at districts in 2025, but the Pirates’ last five full teams to advance all went to the Class 4 MSHSAA Cross Country Championships.
McKinzie and Keith were on the last Platte County state team in 2024.
