The St. James Relay Carnival
Who would have thought that you'd see a relay on grass? Not me for sure.
What a brilliant idea from the minds in charge of the St. James Academy cross country program. Last Thursday at the Savior Pastoral Center in Kansas City, Kansas, three different distance relays were ran. Consisting of a 2 x 2 Mile, 3 x Mile, and a 4 x Mile, which even included a Parent/Coach edition. To cover all of the aspects of the meet, we’ll work through each race to get an idea of what went down.
Here’s a link to the results so you can enjoy the meet as much as I did.
Starting with the Boy’s 3 x Mile, where Blue Valley Southwest took the win over a trio of St. James Academy squads. Brenden Duncan led the way for BV Southwest with a 4:58.0, followed by Nate Kaestner in 5:15.7 and Cooper Reeves in 4:57.6. It looked like an easy win for the Timberwolves, who were twenty-one seconds ahead of St. James going into the last leg, but the Thunder’s Jacob Kreeger split a 4:38.7 (WOW!) and nearly caught Reeves, but it the Timberwolves who held on for the 15:11.3 to 15:13.5. St. James A and St. James B finished in 15:46.90 and 15:54.70.
The Girl’s 3 x Mile saw Blue Springs B and Blue Springs A claim the top two spots, with St. James A finishing third. The Blue Springs squad was made up of Emma Wharton (6:20.3), Arian Jackson (6:44.3) with Arian Jackson (6:00.5) bringing it home. The fastest split of the day goes to Blue Springs’ I’yana Foster who anchored her team to a second place finish in 5:48.5.
The 2 Mile. It’s like a mile, but twice. The Boy’s 2 x 2 Mile consisted of Olathe East’s A, B, and E team finishing in 21:18.90, 21:31.70, 21:54.40. Carter Stewart (9:57.3) and Luke Peterson (11:21.7) made up the winning Hawk squad. Also shoutout to Stewart who negative split his two mile with a 4:59.5 followed by a 4:57.9. Heck of a race Carter!
The Girl’s 2 x 2 Mile ended with a fourteen second victory for the Olathe East E squad, over their teammates making up the D and A squad. Addi Stanley (12:46.6) and Mered Serrano (12:50.8) made up the winning pair. Tori Wingrove, the owner of the fastest split of the race, started off the Blue Valley duo with a speedy 11:33.4, where she took it out with a 5:37.6 and closed with a 5:55.8.
In what I can only imagine was an amazing race to watch, the Parent/Coach 4 x Mile. It was the Blue Valley B team that took home the win over the fourteen team field, followed by Blue Valley A and KC Christian. The top three times were 21:41.60 (5:25 average), 22:56.10 (5:44 average), and 23:03.40 (5:46 average). Shoutout to those who took part in this race, I bet it was amazing to be apart of!
Here we go, the final two races of the day. The Boy’s and the Girl’s 4 x Mile. KC Christian took home the victory in the Boy’s race, where their four boys ran a combined 20:07 for the relay. Spencer Mumford (5:05.4), Andrew Schumacher (5:05.5), Nathan Connealy (5:00.4) and a sub-five anchor from Luke Browning (4:56.0) was enough for the win. Blue Valley North B and Blue Valley North A took second and third, with times of 21:33.50 and 21:42.60. The fastest split we saw throughout the relay was Trey Wichman of Blue Valley North C, who split a 4:53.3 to anchor his team.
The final race of the festival, the Girl’s 4 x Mile. Out of the twenty-one teams in the field, it was the St. James A squad that clinched the victory. They were led by Ava Booth and a 6:16.1 first mile, with Mae Douglas (6:37.7) and Grace Heeb (6:19.2) taking the second and third leg, and a dominant anchor from Christine Znidarsi in 5:54.5. St. James D and Blue Valley Southwest A took second and third with times of 25:40.00 and 25:55.50. The fastest split of the race goes to Izzy Ross of the third place finishers Blue Valley Southwest. Ross got off to a 5:36.4 start for the Timberwolves.
At the end of the day, this is an amazing event that gives athletes a “break” before heading into the intense postseason. Yes, they are still racing and being competitive, but this gives them a chance to embrace the idea of having fun with a race and not focusing as much on the outcome. Amazing job to those at St. James Academy who have continued to make this possible!