Mitchell, Gentilia cap standout careers together in Class 4 state medal ceremony

For two full seasons, Sisely Mitchell and Carmen Gentilia served as leaders for a senior-less roster.

The job description didn’t change this fall for Platte County’s top two runners, who continued to thrive and ended their careers together on the medal podium of the Class 4 MSHSAA Cross Country Championships at Gans Creek Recreational Area in Columbia. Mitchell finished as a three-time all-state performer and arguably the best long-distance runner in program history, while Gentilia garnered her first all-state accolades and completely fulfilled the promise shown for four years.

Mitchell (third) and Gentilia (eighth) led Platte County’s deep and experienced roster to 10th place in the final team standings, combining with junior Madison Palmer (72nd), junior Brooklynne Jenni (115th) and sophomore Joanna Reil (116th) to post a score of 212. The Pirates were just four points behind Clayton for ninth but still made a move back up after placing 14th in 2022 and 13th in 2021.

This marked Platte County’s best finish since coming in eighth in 2020. The Pirates built to this moment after not having a senior in the lineup for full two seasons, finishing this year with three, a group that also included three-time state qualifier Alex Beeman.

Gentilia represents the final link to that team, which started an active streak of four straight team state berths. She was one of five runners, including three seniors, who qualified as individuals that season to earn the right to post a team score — one that ended up good enough to be in the top half that year.

As a freshman, Gentilia placed 46th before injuries slowed her progress as a sophomore. She battle back to make the postseason again and posted finishes of 56th and 30th the past two years.

Gentilia’s final state race resulted in a personal-best run of 18 minutes, 55.60 seconds. She steadily moved up from 26th after the first 1,000 meters into the top 10 and became just the third in Platte County history to run sub-19 minutes in a race.

In this year’s season-opening Tim Nixon Invitational, Gentilia joined the exclusive sub-20 minute club at 19:37.00 that now includes seven runners and then lowered her career-best in the final two races, previously doing so while placing third at Class 4 District 4.

After giving up ice hockey and volleyball prior to her sophomore season to focus on distance running, Mitchell quickly recorded a sub-20 time in her first year of cross country and ultimately broke 19 minutes and then set the school record, breaking all program marks three-time all-state runner Rebekah Geddes set from 2014-2016. Geddes did not run as a senior after graduating high school early.

Mitchell also finished top 25 at state in all three of her seasons with Platte County. After coming in 11th as a sophomore and 12th as a junior, she moved all the way up to third this year in 18:28.60 — the fastest state time ever for a Pirates runner and just 0.1 of a second off the school record she two weeks earlier at conference.

Running in the top 10 from the start, Mitchell pushed into fourth after 1,000 meters and eventually pushed past fading Rockwood Summit junior Caterina Rossomanno into third. Mitchell trailed Fulton senior Emery Mayfield by 12 seconds going into the last 1,000 meters and made up about 100 meters in the final 500 of that dash but ended up third by an extremely small fraction of a second in essentially a photo finish.

Palmer also completed her resurgent finish to her junior year since returning from a hip injury. She posted a career-best 20:56.00 to ended up 72nd and ran under 22 minutes for just the fourth time this season, third straight. This marked her first sub 21-minute time.

Now a three-time qualifier, Palmer ran at state for the first time since finishing 144th as a freshman. She missed last year’s race due to illness.

In addition to the top three finishers for Platte County, Reil and Beeman were also returning qualifiers, while Jenni and sophomore Nora McCoy made their debuts. The Pirates ended up with so many options that sophomore Madelyn Stewart didn’t end up in the top seven at state after starting but not finishing last week’s Class 4 District 4 race, and senior Marissa Orellana (134th as a junior and 132nd as a sophomore) and junior Annabel Beeman (143rd as a sophomore) also served as alternates on Saturday.

After taking Palmer’s place at the last minute in the 2022 state race and finishing 146th, Reil posted a career-best 21:51.00 — just her second sub-22 minute run and first since the season-opening race — to place 116th. She came in one spot behind Jenni, who did not run at districts but earned her spot back with a strong performance in the alternate race.

Jenni previously posted her career-best while placing 12th at conference and then bettered that mark at state by 42 seconds, crossing the finish line in 21:46.80.

While Jenni transferred to Platte County, McCoy went out for cross country after giving up other spots and rapidly progressed into a lineup mainstay. She also posted a career-best time (21:56.60, 118th) and went under 22 minutes for the first time while running 28 seconds faster than she did on the same course earlier this season in the Gans Creek Classic.

Beeman wound up 135th (22:29.80) in her final race after placing 106th as a sophomore and 142nd as a junior. Her career-best time ended up being at state in 2021, but she provided a consistent presence during Platte County’s rebuild that for now culminates in Saturday’s top-10 finish. The Pirates will return four of this year’s qualifiers plus two others with state experience next season, although Mitchell and Gentilia leave a sizable gap to fill at the top of the lineup.