On Nov. 9, junior Ariel Kirkpatrick and senior Ean Theilbar competed in the State Competition at the Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City.

Ean ran first, competing alongside other Class 4 runners from schools such as, SLUH, Howell, and Lafayette. Ean started the last cross country race at 11:30 a.m.

Eighteen minutes and fourteen seconds later, that was it. He was done. He had finished the last race of his high school career. Being a first timer at State Ean wasn’t sure what to expect. He just ran the best race he could and came in at 150th place.

SLUH ended up winning  State as a team, while Noah Kauppila from Marquette won the race individually with a time of 15:22.

Ariel, on the other hand didn’t run till 12:35 p.m. Ariel had qualified for State before in track her freshman year, but never in cross country. Ariel ran a 6:14 for her first mile, putting her in 104th place.  After the second mile, Ariel dropped 16 places to 120th. At the three mile mark, Ariel was in 114th. She finished 109th, with a time of 20:56.

“At first I was just glad to go [to State] but when I realized that I was running I became more nervous about the course, but once I was done I was satisfied with my time,” Ariel said.

Next season, Ariel plans on returning to State. She believes, that it will be very different to this year because the team is losing so many key seniors.

“I actually feel sad about next season because we’re losing two of our best athletes,” Ariel said. “They pushed me a lot this season and they’re not going to be here next year.”