3rd Place at State for Lawson Girls Cross Country!
Highest Finish Ever by Cross Country Teams
At the Oak Hills Golf Center on Saturday, November 7th, the Lawson Girls Cross Country squad accomplished a feat no other cross country team in Lawson High School history can claim. Coached by Nick Sloop, the squad finished with a 3rd place trophy at the Missouri State Cross Country Championships!
When the day began 149 runners were vying for a state title at the 5K championship. In the team competition, to calculate a team score, the top five finish places on each team are converted to points. The team with the lowest team point total is crowned the champion. Lawson's top finisher, Joan Kessler, crossed the finish line in 21 minutes and 14 seconds, good enough for 10th place of the team competition racer, equal to 10 team points. Karen Rose finished just behind Kessler in 21:46, placing 12th overall. Dawn Weir (21:56, 16th), Brittany Weir (23:49, 47th), and Kati Baker (23:59, 49th) rounded out Lawson's top five finishers. Trailing their teammates by just a few seconds, Amanda Mavel (24:12) and Jessica Korb (24:25) completed the seven member team.
For their efforts, Kessler, Rose, and D. Weir were deemed All-State performers. Medals are given to the top 25 individual places. On this day, however, all eyes were on the team standings. Lawson's top five finishers tallied a team score of 134, great enough for the 2009 MSHSAA Class 2 Third Place Trophy! This finish represents the first State Cross Country trophy and highest place of any Lawson Cross Country team, boys or girls team in the 14 year history of the program. The previous best finish at State was the boys 8th place finish in 2003. Way to Go, Cardinals!
Other team scores in the championship were as follows:
1. Herculaneum - 31 points
2. Springfield Catholic - 110
3. Lawson - 134
4. East Newton - 143
5. Pembroke Hill - 188
6. Principia - 192
7. Blair Oaks - 205
8. Mountain Grove - 205
9. Lutheran - 229
10. Conway - 230
