No seniors have run in the top seven for Platte County over the past two seasons, and even with consistent improvement and seemingly endless potential, the Pirates might not have been at full strength at any point, either.
Yet, Platte County continues to plug-and-run to great results, including Saturday’s third-place team finish in the Class 4 District 4 meet at Jesse James Park in Kearney. The Pirates safely earned a third straight trip to the Class 4 Missouri State Cross Country Championships behind junior Sisely Mitchell (the individual runnerup) and fellow junior Carmen Gentilia (fourth place).
Five runners returned from Platte County’s 2021 postseason lineup, while sophomore Annabel Beeman and freshman Joanna Reil made their debuts. The Pirates totaled 72 points and were third in a clear top three of champion Kearney (35) and Smithville 57. Warrensburg claimed the final automatic berth but came in well back at 131.
Mitchell continued to shine in her second year as a long-distance runner after giving up volleyball and hockey. She finished in 19 minutes, 21.41 seconds, about 5 1/2 seconds back of sophomore winner Kayleigh Norris of Harrisonville. They were a clear breakaway top two with Smithville sophomore Naomi Hunter nearly a minute back of Norris and Gentilia (20:31.12) more than a minute behind Mitchell.
The performance for Mitchell came two weeks after she claimed the Suburban Conference White Division individual title for her second race win of the season and earning the first league title for Platte County since Rebekah Geddes in 2016. She is now a two-time state qualifier, coming off of her 11th-place all-state performance as a sophomore — the first such showing for the Pirates also since Geddes’ junior year in 2016.
Geddes graduated early and did not run as a senior.
Gentilia will be the only third-time state qualifier, while junior Alex Beeman continued to battle a sore ankle to place 21st (22:47.20), sophomore Madison Palmer came in 25th (23:18.37) and junior Marissa Orellana rounded out Platte County’s team score in 30th (23:24.98). Alex Beeman, Palmer and Orellana are all made state debuts for the Pirates last year along with Mitchell.
Platte County did not have a runner record a personal-best time on the historically difficult course, but Annabel Beeman, who ran varsity on multiple occasions as a freshman, turned in a fourth straight sub-24-minute time (34th, 23:57.32). Reil came in 35th at 24:04.54.
A year earlier, Platte County placed second out of eight teams, building on a unique performance in 2020 to end a state drought. The Pirates were in a smaller Class 4 District 8 field due to COVID-19 protocols changing the postseason setup for that season and came in third, needing to qualify six individuals to earn the right to compete at state as a team.
Platte County’s senior-laden team two years ago placed eighth in the final Class 4 standings, while the Pirates dropped back to 13th last year despite Mitchell’s all-state showing. She has three times this year run faster than her 19:12.10 state time this season — once while winning the White Division championship and another while setting a PR in the Gans Creek Classic, which is run on the same course as Friday’s state meet.
Mitchell will be chasing Geddes’ school record of 18:44.66 set while placing sixth in the 2016 Class 4 race before the state moved to a five-class system.
Gentilia will be looking for her best performance having finished 46th as a freshman and 56th as a sophomore when injuries plagued her throughout the season and limited her to just three varsity races. Her times have been almost equal at state, but the 2021 race was much faster overall than two years ago.
Platte County’s other returning state qualifiers will be looking to break into the top 100. Alex Beeman was 106th, Orellana 132nd and Palmer 144th. The Pirates will also have junior Julia Greco as an alternate this week. She placed 137th as a qualifier in 2021 but was outside the top seven for the District 4 race.
