The California High School cross country team competed at the Tri-County Conference Meet at Eldon Thursday, where the varsity girls finished second as a team, while the varsity boys placed third, and the JV boys first.
"So many of our kids ran with their heart at this race," California Coach Kenny Goans said. "We had 16 runners who ran their personal best time for the year."
Blair Oaks' varsity girls won with 25, followed by California with 47, Eldon with 76, and Southern Boone with 80.
Leah Korenberg led California with 21:04 to finish in second place individually. Katie Imhoff placed seventh with 21:38; Emily Ziehmer, 13th with 22:46; and Laney Porter, 15th with 23:03. Korenberg, Imhoff, Ziehmer and Porter earned All-Conference honors.
"Leah ran a strong race from start to finish to end up second overall," Goans said. "Katie followed close behind to finish seventh. Emily improved her personal best by two minutes from conference one year ago. Her All-Conference honor was well-deserved with her dedication to continue to work. Laney truly showed the spirit of a cross country runner, as she was running with a stress fracture. She found out late last week that she had the stress fracture, but didn't want to miss conference. It was an emotional run as she was able to fight the obvious pain and finish with All-Conference honors."
Blair Oaks' varsity boys won with 50, followed by Southern Boone with 63, California with 65 and Eldon with 103.
California was led by Adam Burkett, the Tri-County Conference champion, with 16:53. Zach Merrill followed in seventh place with 17:27, while Justin Mitchell placed 11th with 17:56. Burkett, Merrill and Mitchell earned All-Conference honors.
"At the two mile marker, it was Adam's race," Goans said. "Zach and Justin competed hard to round out with All-Conference honors. Hunter Carpenter stepped up and took off a full 90 seconds from his personal best time to finish 22nd overall."
California's JV boys finished in first place with 23. Eldon placed second with 60, followed by Blair Oaks with 64 and Southern Boone with 73.
"The JV boys' conference race was a great way to end the day," Goans said. "At the first mile marker, it was a sea of blue ahead of the pack."
Medalists for the JV Pintos were led by Micaiah Garcia, the JV conference champion, with 19:16. Tyler Long finished second with 19:49; Cord Mitchell, third with 19:56; Kolten Barbour, sixth with 20:21; Brayden Ash, 11th with 20:43; and Simon Schroeter, 14th with 21:28.
"Micaiah had a strong race on his way to first place, followed by Tyler in second place. Cord made sure the JV was going to win gold, silver and bronze. Kolten and Brayden fought out many runners with their determination to finish sixth and 11th. Simon allowed us to be the only team to medal all runners with his 14th place finish."
Next for the CHS cross country runners is a meet at Westphalia at 2 p.m. Saturday.