Nigntingale, White flirt with history

 


LAWRENCE, Kan. – The records at Rim Rock Farm are a little nebulous as the course has gone through its different incarnations.

Whatever the official mark, there’s a good chance that Blue Springs South’s Samantha Nightingale was in the neighborhood when she rolled out her 14:15.4 over the 4k course Saturday on the University of Kansas course.

Nightingale, the defending Class 4 state champion, not only won the Gold Division of the Rim Rock Farm Classic for the second consecutive year, but she beat Arkansas state champion Maggie Montoya of Rogers by 21 seconds (14:36.5).

But Nightingale wasn’t satisfied.

“I was a half-second off the record,” Nightingale said. “I’m aggravated. It’s upsetting. I wanted the record; it’s all I wanted.”

Then she caught herself and started thinking about tackling the next obstacle – the KC Metro.

“Oh, I’ll live. The next race I have, I actually have the record but I want to bump it down,” Nightingale said. “I ran 17:59 at KC Metro, and I want to get 17:40s.”

The Ray-Pec cross country course for the KC Metro has also been altered this year, so even Nightingale will be in the dark whether the difficulty will also change.

There was nothing difficult about the way Nightingale attacked the Rim Rock course. She led from the starting gun to the finish and continued to lengthen her lead throughout.

She admitted she wasn’t quite that confident of that outcome as she was lining up in the starting box.

“I was actually really nervous today. But once I got out, I kinda knew the race was in my hands,” Nightingale said. “Maggie Montoya, the girl that took second, last year we actually ran together the whole race and battled it out the whole race until coming down the hill and I just kind of scooted past her.

“Last year, (at Southern Stampede) she beat me by a lot. Then I came back the next week and beat her. I didn’t see her last week because the meet was rained out.”

Nightingale is starting to see some growth out of her Jaguar teammates. She said a race like Rim Rock will only help her team advance and become even more competitive.

“It also helps prepare my team since we’re a pretty decent team this year,” Nightingale said. “It helps the newer girls understand, ‘You’re not in little kid races anymore, this is big girl races. You’re in the real world now.’”

 

While Nightingale charged to the front and was not challenged, Festus’ Drew White didn’t have quite the same results.

White pushed the pace at the front of his race alongside Rockhurst’s Zach Herriott for more than a mile. But a challenger from Kansas came up in the second mile and left White and Herriott to battle for second, as Jacob Morgan of Topeka’s Washburn Rural pulled away for a Gold Division victory in 15:13.2.

“That kid at the two mile mark storms by me and Herriott,” White said. “I had no clue who he was at all.

“I’m a little disappointed because I thought it was a two-man race mainly. It’s not because I didn’t think the kid was good; I just didn’t know about him. I’m disappointed because I would’ve taken a different approach. I have to be happy with it.”

White was able to grab his revenge for the Forest Park final by surging into second place by himself (15:24) and leaving Herriott to claim third (15:34). White, who lost out to Herriott earlier in the season, also can feel secure in his place as the Missouri Class 3 top contender. Herriott is the defending Class 4 champion.

“(Rim Rock) really, really helps for Foot Locker and events like that,” White said. “This year I’m going to go through state training-wise and try to peak out at Foot Locker Midwest Regional, try to get that top 10 bid for a national spot. If I can do that, it’s been a great season.”

 

 

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