Carmen Gentilia stepped out of her comfort zone early in the Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational and matched strides with the eventual race winner.
Platte County sophomore Lily Kytasaari runs in a pack early in the Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational on Thursday at Platte Ridge Park.
Coming off an injury-plagued season that stunted some growth, Platte County’s junior No. 2 went out fast with junior teammate Sisely Mitchell in what became a breakaway duo for the home team Thursday at Platte Ridge Park. Eventually, Mitchell pulled away by herself and recorded the first win of her two-year career, finishing in 20 minutes, 35.60 seconds to beat a pair of freshmen by nearly a minute.
Gentilia faded back to fourth in 22:01.00, happy to have tested some limits and to see Mitchell earn a gold medal.
“I’m super proud of her. I think she’s going to have a great season this year,” Gentilia said. “She just improves every day.”
Times were slow overall with a spaced-out field of 67 runner, and the sun coming out in the middle of the race to provide increasingly adverse conditions on a hot evening.
Platte County’s top pair helped place the Pirates third in the team standings with 63 points, behind champion North Platte (42 with three in the top 10) and Kansas City Lutheran (49, three in the top 10).
Platte County junior Alex Beeman and sophomore Madison Palmer run together during the Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational on Thursday at Platte Ridge Park.
Already a two-time Class 4 Missouri State Cross Country Championships qualifier, Gentilia expected to compete for the top spot in Platte County’s lineup as a sophomore but instead dealt with various leg injuries that essentially limited her to the postseason stretch run and left her unable to match her career-best time from the last race of her freshman season.
Mitchell, who gave up hockey and volleyball to focus on distance running, experienced a breakout as a sophomore and became just the sixth in program history to run sub-20 minutes. In this year’s season-opening Tim Nixon Invitational, she joined school-record holder Rebekah Geddes as the only sub-19 runners in program history.
Platte County hasn’t had a senior in the varsity lineup at any point the past two seasons. Gentilia didn’t shy away from her challenge to stay with Mitchell for the first mile in Thursday’s race and then holding strong enough to record a top-five finish, as she looks for ways to set her own personal-best times.
Platte County junior Sisely Mitchell races toward the finish line in the Judge “Chris” Stubbs Invitational on Thursday at Platte Ridge Park.
“Our goal today was to just challenge ourselves and stick together, work really hard,” Gentilia said. “It was a hard day for me because I don’t usually start with Sisely. I’ve never stuck with Sisely for that long so it’s a challenge, and today was to build off of that and get used to going out strong and fixing my mental, getting used to going out fast and knowing I can run with Sisely.”
Platte County only raced six at its home meet and did not have junior returning state qualifier Marissa Orellana in the lineup. Despite that, the Pirates also put sophomore Lily Kytasaari (19th, 24:00.90) and junior Alex Beeman (22nd, 24:11.70) in the top 25, and sophomores Madison Palmer (37th, 25:16.90) and Annabel Beeman (38th, 25:18.20) finished back-to-back.
Mitchell, Gentilia, Orellana, Alex Beeman and Palmer were all on last year’s state team, while Annabel Beeman and Kytasaari ran a lot of varsity as freshmen. In fact, Kytasaari only missed the postseason due to conflicts with her club soccer schedule, and the top seven currently doesn’t include junior Julia Greco, who ran C team on Thursday and could be working her way back for a team still developing and tapping into potential.
“It was really challenging when lost pretty much every upperclassmen after (my) freshman year,” Gentilia said. “But knowing that we have a whole lineup of girls behind us for the next few years is going to be really good. There will be a lot of experience and hopefully, we’ll pass on some good mental and physical traditions.”
Raymore-Peculiar Invitational
Behind medalist finishes for Mitchell and Gentilia, Platte County finished a solid fifth out of 11 schools in the large team standings Saturday in Peculiar, Mo.
Mitchell ran 20:16.50 to place fifth as the first Class 4 finisher in the field, while Gentilia went 21:04.40 to just miss the top 10 by just 4 seconds. The Pirates had Orellana in the lineup, and she marked the third finisher for the Pirates on the day, placing 39th (23:10.30).
Kytasaari put up her season-best time for Platte County (23:38.40) in 43rd, while Alex Beeman rounded out the team score at 24:32.00.
