STARKVILLE — Cross country coaches dream for teams filled with rabbits.
To take a term from track and field, rabbits refer to athletes who take the lead and set the pace for the rest of the field before dropping out.
The Starkville High School boys and girls cross country teams incorporated that strategy and managed to keep all of their runners involved. The result was a pack mentality that encouraged each runner on each team to push to beat the teammate ahead of them.
That philosophy paid dividends Saturday at the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A State meet in Clinton.
Paced by a first-place finish by seventh-grader Kate Mattox and a second-place showing by Kamau Bostic, the Starkville High teams took second and third, respectively.
All told, Starkville had five runners — Kate Mattox, her sister, Walker, Abigail Arinder, Bostic, and Joseph MacGown — earn All-State honors. For their performances the Starkville High cross country runners are The Dispatch’s Prep Players of the Week.
“The All-State team did fantastic,” Woomer said. “I am proud of them. They worked hard. They earned All-State. For the team as a whole, the girls to be runner-up was very good. That wasn’t where they were in the standings. All of our girls had a good day.
“Our boys kind of left disappointed. We really should have been second or first. We had a couple of runners who had problems and struggled in that race. I think they kind of beat themselves up over it. Considering that, we did great and placed third with times that weren’t our best times of the year. I am proud of them. They worked hard. I think this is going to drive them and motivate them.”
Kate Mattox recorded an elite-level time of 15 minutes, 2.10 seconds to win the girls 4-Kilometer race. Her older sister, Walker, took second (16:09.2), while Arinder was seventh (16:39.6).
“At the beginning of the season, me and my sister told each other we would work our hardest at practice to perform our best at the state meet to help our team,” Kate Mattox said. “I felt I had a chance to win, and I just had to keep going and working hard at practice and competing my best at the meets to give myself confidence.
“I just knew the Lord was with me and He was helping me.”
Shanika Musser was 24th (17:46.9) and Anna Jackson was 27th (18:01) to help the Lady Yellow Jackets score 62 points and beat Oxford (69 points) for second. Saltillo (53) won the meet.
“I thought I did very good,” said Walker Mattox, who had a personal-best even though she didn’t crack the 16-minute barrier.
Said Arinder, “I was really happy with my place, but I know I could have done better. My PR is a 16:17, but I was proud of myself for making All-State. For the girls team, I thought we did amazing. We fought for it.”
On the boys side, Oxford’s Lucian Duchanne out-kicked Bostic in the final stretch to win the 5-K race with a time of 16:45.5. Bostic, a senior, was second (16:53.6) and MacGown was third (16:55.7). Ethan Musser was 22nd (18:18.7), Alex Ross was 30th (18:44), and Damien Grady was 32nd (18:51) to help Starkville score 89 points and finish third behind Oxford (46) and Saltillo (78).
The top five runners on each team scored.
Bostic thought he was going to get first, but he said he couldn’t sprint in the final 200, which allowed the Oxford runner to catch him.
While disappointed he didn’t have his usual kick at the end of a race, Bostic said he was proud of his season.
“It was a pretty good season,” Bostic said. “It was kind of rough at the beginning. There were a few complications, but it all smoothed out through the course of the season. Team-wise, we were doing really well and working hard and doing everything they needed to do. It has been a good season.”
MacGown said he and Bostic set the pace for the team this season. He said he could have done better Saturday and that he will use it as motivation for next season.
“We did pretty well because we came in third, but we definitely could have done a lot better,” MacGown said. “Some of us were a couple of minutes slower than we normally would be, but we still ran well.”
Woomer said the rabbit aspect of the pack performance worked better Saturday for the girls. She credited Kate and Walker and Kamau and Joseph for being the pace-setters all season. She said the lead runners did a great job of motivating their teammates to push through pain and to reach their potential.
“That was kind of our game plan for this season, catch the guy in front of you,” Woomer said. “Stay with your teammate in front of you and go in in a pack. We’re just going to have to keep working toward that. It definitely applied for the girls.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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