Strong showings from freshmen, sophomores lead Platte County at season-opening meet

Platte County didn’t have the desired overall team placement in Saturday’s Tim Nixon Invitational at Capitol Federal Park in Liberty but received some encouraging performances from younger runners to give a hint of the potential for an experienced yet somewhat unproven roster. The Pirates were ninth out of 10 full teams in the final standings for the Gold Division, but sophomore Tyler Stambersky (12th) earned an individual medal while freshman Mary Dellinger posted the team’s second-fastest time even with four prior Class 4 MSHSAA Cross Country Championships qualifiers in the lineup.

Stambersky posted a career-best of 19 minutes, 28.10 seconds, now top 30 in Platte County’s program history with only four runners owning the 29 faster times — Sisely Mitchell, Rebekah Geddes, Carmen Gentilia and Ashton Stubbs. This marked only the second time for Stambersky to go under 20 minutes with a time nearly a minute and a half faster than her freshman debut on the same course a year earlier.

Platte County posted a team score of 196, well back of eight-place Staley (169).

Incidentally, Dellinger’s 31st-place finish in 20:52.40 was a second faster than Stambersky ran in the same meet last season. The rest of Platte County’s eight runners were part of a bunched finish between senior Indigo Teufel in 57th (22:15.20) and sophomore Kensington Sturdy in in 68th (23:13.90). The Pirates’ placement points were rounded out with freshman Carlie Baker (60th, 22:28.70) and sophomore Madison Fuller (61st, 22:39.00).

Teufel posted a PR, shaving about 20 seconds off of a time from last year’s Todd Warner Kickoff Classic at Staley.

Platte County comes into the season with five runners owning prior Class 4 state experience, but only four ran Saturday. In addition to Stambersky, seniors Joanna Reil (63rd, 22:54.20) and Eleanor McCoy (64th, 22:57.90) and sophomore Arsema Ayiche (66th, 23:01.30) have all been in postseason lineups during the Pirates’ recent run of five straight team berths.

Facing a move up to Class 5 this season, Platte County also returns senior Madelyn Stewart with prior district and state experience to help try and find a consistent top seven to chase more postseason success. The Pirates were again able to run 10 total in the regular season meet, and junior Alex Yurko also posted a PR (23:05.10) while finishing directly in-between Ayiche and Sturdy.

Last season, Stambersky became the first freshman for Platte County to earn all-state honors since Geddes in 2014. They are two of just eight runners in program history to run under 20 minutes. The Pirates were 10th in Class 4 at state each of the past two seasons with Stewart and Ayiche also factoring into last year’s team score.

Reil and McCoy have run at state twice each.