Andrew Johnson officially can have a claim to race favorite on any day at any course.
Continuing a four-year-long breakout trend, Platte County’s senior No. 1 recorded an individual win for a second straight week, this time setting a course record to win the Raymore-Peculiar Invitational on Saturday at Raymore-Peculiar High School in Peculiar. He didn’t quite match his school-record mark from the week prior in topping a deep and talented field at the Tim Nixon Invitational, but no one has over gone faster on this particular trek. His time of 15 minutes, 26.30 seconds marks his second-fastest in a continuingly accomplished career, not mention the second-fastest in program history since he unseated Nathan Straubel’s 2014 mark to open what already appears to be a memorable final season.
Johnson beat Blue Springs senior Keagan Enicks to the line by nearly 13 seconds for another impressive margin of victory, as well.
Platte County senior Kade Meinke (16:17.20) also earned a medal with a ninth-place finish, and the Pirates ended up fourth in the final standings out of 12 with a 103 team total. They were just seven points back of third-place host Raymore-Peculiar after another strong set of showings from a lineup with a clear top two and then a set of improving options mixing in behind.
While Meinke and Johnson didn’t quite match last week’s PRs on a course not necessarily set up for low times, Platte County junior Tanner Jenks has now recorded the lowest time of his career each of the past two weeks. He placed 24th in 17:08.70 to improve on his Tim Nixon Invitational time by about 7 seconds. The Pirates have five total returners from last year’s Class 4 Missouri State Cross Country Championships qualifying team plus junior Ben Letcher, who went to state as a freshman but dropped out of the top seven last season while dealing with asthma complications.
In addition to Jenks, Platte County sophomores Blake Herron (29th, 17:15.40) and Donavin Ness (42nd, 18:15.60) also factored into the team scoring, while Letcher came in just behind Ness at 46th (18:30.00). That meant the Pirates’ six runners with returning experience led the way Saturday, while sophomore Elijah Jackson set a PR of 18:42.40 to place 55th in a field of 96 runners.
For the second straight week, the race hosts allowed teams to enter 10 runners to increase varsity opportunities in evaluating the roster.
Platte County also ran senior Scott Sellers (70th, 19:35.00), a key JV contributor the past two years, and fellow senior Lincoln Duane (84th, 19:50.30), while freshman Gio Cucchiara made his debut, placing 87th in a PR of 20:04.80. The Pirates’ next chance to race will be Thursday on their home course at Platte Ridge Park in the third annual Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational.
Johnson will chase another superlative there when he looks to win his home race for the first time after finishing second in 2022. For reference on his big jump in performance, he posted a time of 16:55.20 in his runnerup showing a year earlier and has since run sub-16 on four different occasions, including both races this year, and how has five career race victories.
