Platte County might not yet be at full strength but continues to seek out the depth to fuel some better team finishes after the second race of the young season. The Pirates still finished fifth out of 12 teams in Saturday’s Raymore-Peculiar Invitational at Raymore-Peculiar High School in Peculiar, mostly on the strength of medalist performances from seniors Sisely Mitchell (sixth) and Carmen Gentilia (11th).
Not necessarily on a course known for producing fast times, Mitchell posted a solid, standard sub-20 minute time, finishing in 19 minutes, 38.90 seconds — a minute behind Blue Springs senior race winner Abigail Brackenbury (18:38.90). Gentilia missed the top 10 by one second with her showing of 20:08.80, a week after she became the seventh in program history to record a time under 20 minutes.
However, Platte County’s next three scoring runners were all bunched in 52nd, 54th and 55th. Madison Palmer, a junior, led the way in 22:43.60, while sophomore Joanna Reil posted a 22:47.60. Both were well off the PRs set in the season-opening Tim Nixon Invitational, while senior Alex Beeman went 22:50.60, as she continues to chase the form she showed when running a career-best 21:25.80 in the Class 4 Missouri State Cross Country Championships as a sophomore.
Platte County did welcome back senior Marissa Orellana, one of seven in the current lineup part of some or all of the last three state teams. She returned from injury but placed 67th, off of her normal pace at 23:21.90. She ended up a little more than 12 seconds behind sophomore Nora McCoy, who posted the Pirates’ sixth-best time on Saturday with a career-best of 23:09.70.
For the second straight week, meet rules allowed teams to enter up to 10 runners in an effort to better evaluate lineup options.
Platte County also ran junior Brooklynne Jenni (74th, 23:42.40), sophomore Maddie Stewart (78th, 23:54.80) and junior Annabel Beeman (84th, 24:26.60). Stewart made her varsity debut in the process. The Pirates continue to sort out the top seven with Mitchell, Gentilia, Palmer, Reil, Alex Beeman, Orellana and Annabel Beeman all prior state qualifiers but other clearly pushing for time.
