GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — Andrew Johnson didn’t waste anytime.
Platte County junior Kade Meinke rounds a corner on the course during the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Grain Valley North Middle School in Grain Valley.
Thanks to a recent trial run, Platte County’s junior No. 1 knew the terrain at Grain Valley Middle School and knew he could start fast and finish strong. He didn’t quite match his previous course record but did more than enough to pull away from the field and earn an individual title in Saturday’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships — the second straight conference championship for the Pirates.
Johnson led a full pack of Platte County all-conference performers with all seven runners finishing in the top 15 to earn medals, and the Pirates came away with a second straight league title. They were Blue Division champions in 2021 before moving up to the White Division for the first time in school history.
“It feels great,” said Platte County junior Kade Meinke, who finished third at 17:10.24 as one of three for the Pirates in the top five. “Even just being able to come into this new conference and still come out and do our job and win it, it feels really good, and it feels like all that work we put in was worth it.”
Two weeks earlier, Johnson ran his first sub-16 minute time — and one of the fastest in Platte County history — in the Sock It to Cancer Grain Valley Invitational on the same course, and this time around, he went 16:03.56 for the second-fastest performance of his career and second straight individual win.
Platte County sophomore Tanner Jenks runs in the Suburban Conference White Division Championships on Saturday at Grain Valley North Middle School in Grain Valley.
Johnson built a big lead early and cruised from there, finishing more than a minute in front of runnerup Rylan Smith, a junior from Grain Valley. This marked his third all-conference performance after placing 11th as a freshman and finishing as runnerup to teammate and current Pittsburg State freshman Andrew Early.
“Knowing that he’s going to be strong and be that strong leader that we need is reassuring to me because I know I just need to keep him in my line of sight for that first part of the race,” Meinke said of Johnson. “I think he’s done a really good job of paving the way for the rest of us.”
A second-year runner, Meinke has shown rapid development to quickly vault up Platte County’s lineup to the consistent No. 2 runner. He also set a PR in his previous run at Grain Valley and came up just a little more than 4 seconds shy of that in the return and became a two-time all-conference runner (11th in 2021 as a sophomore).
“It’s been a lot of looking up to my teammates. They’ve become my mentor in a way,” Meinke said. “Seeing all the effort that they put in and how much they trust the training, so that’s kind of the second part is just coach (Courtland) Ingram and my other coaches and how much I trust them to just get me trained and that’s going to get me where I need to be.
Platte County freshman Blake Herron runs in the Suburban Conference Blue Division Championships on Saturday at Grain Valley North Middle School in Grain Valley.
“This is kind of further than I thought I would come. It’s been a kind of quick turnaround. Really, cross country last year was a let’s see what’s going to happen kind of thing. I think there was a lot of success in my first year, and coming out of the gates this year, it was just some initial success that really kind of surprised me but it’s been exciting.”
Platte County lost only two seniors from last year’s team, which captured the Blue Division title after losing out on that crown the year prior due to a coaching error that led to a disqualified runner. The Pirates then went on to advance to the Class 4 Missouri State Cross Country Championships as a team for a second straight year.
However, Platte County went into conference still minus sophomore Ben Letcher but tapped into increased depth from three newcomers to the top seven.
Tanner Jenks, a sophomore, ran at conference for the first time and turned in a PR of 17:15.95 — more than 31 seconds faster than his time two weeks earlier at Grain Valley — to place fifth, and senior and four-year varsity contributor Kage Audas was right behind in sixth at 17:24.17. In addition, Pirates freshmen Donavin Ness (ninth, 17:45.61) and Blake Herron (12th, 17:47.04) both went sub-18 for the first time in their careers and maintained their role as key contributors.
Platte County totaled 24 points and bested Grain Valley by eight points in a breakaway top two in the five-team standings. Herron and senior Tanner Johnson (15th, 18:46.55), a returning state qualifier but battling to keep a spot, didn’t even factor in the scoring yet collected the all-conference hardware in another encouraging performance.
Now, a weekend off awaits Platte County before the Class 4 District 4 meet on Saturday, October 29, at Jesse James Park in Kearney.
Johnson will be the key to more postseason success now turning in consistent times not seen since Nathan Straubel’s record runs from 2012-2015. The return of Letcher could bolster the Pirates, as well, and give them a fifth returning state qualifier plus two freshmen and Jenks to consider for the final two races of the season.
