Centralia cross country was covering much ground in the school record books Saturday.

The girls, who had qualified for the state meet for the first time since 1996, won the school’s first team state trophy by taking second place among the top four recognized at the Class 3 meet at Gans Creek Cross Country Course. The Lady Panthers were led by senior Jozelynn Bostick in her fourth trip to the state meet as she finished 11th — the highest individual finish in school history — to earn her second career state medal.

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The achievements didn’t stop there as Bostick set a new Centralia girls state meet record with her time of 19:53 while JR Lesher did the same on the boys side of the record book, with a time of 17:13.7. Lesher placed 28th to miss out on a state medal by three spots but improved on his finish and time from last year’s state meet by more than 70 spots (101st) and north of a minute (18:22.70).

Head coach Jason Watermann said a Centralia girls team had only finished as high as sixth prior to Saturday. In most years, Centralia has sent one or a few of runners to the state meet, but to have every girl make the trip this year, let alone finish second with 137 points behind winner St. Charles West’s 74 points, contributions have to come from multiple spots.

“Eight years ago, when I started at the middle school level all the way through until now, (everyone) really had a hand in this,” Watermann said. “We always had one really good girl when we started and then it just kept on building on to each other and building on to each other until they finally could all run as a pack together.”

Every Lady Panther ran well, Watermann said, as freshman Kenedee Moss missed all-state by one place with a time of 20:34.3, junior Shelby Lewis finished 30th with a time of 20:49.8, senior Annie Robinson was 71st with a 21:58.5, junior Rylee Palmer slotted in 103rd with a time of 22:56.2 and senior Gretchen Marriott was 141st with as time of 24:28.1. Waterman said he expects to see big things next year from Lewis and Moss, who almost medaled with a performance that was “phenomenal for a freshman.”

As was the custom, Watermann had the honor of putting the medal around Bostick’s neck while everyone in attendance tried to stay warm on a colder, blustery day that had sprinkling rain in the morning. To this day, he said he is amazed how good Bostick has been over her career, especially considering how she juggles softball and cross country during the fall season.

“Putting the miles in the morning during softball season and still be able to run at a high level and then go play softball in the afternoon, go to every cross country meet that we have and then leave immediately from there to go help out the Centralia softball team too is just phenomenal,” Watermann said.

Bostick said he felt she could do better than the 21st-place state medal a year ago so she got to work. She said she was running 40 miles a week during the summer, an increase from a season ago.

When she made it back to state, Bostick wanted to make sure she finished around the top 10 this time. Bostick shot to sixth place through the first 1,000 meters and hovered around the top 10 the other 4,000 meters.

“The start started off really fast and I knew I had to get up with the top 10 to stay with my spot,” Bostick said. “I stayed with mostly the top 10 girls the whole way.”

Balancing softball and cross country is difficult, Bostick said, but worth it as she enjoys being part of a team. Her cross country team this season was no different.

“I really like every girl I’ve been on a team with,” Bostick said. “(For cross country), I think we all improved so much this year and we really love each other and this team runs for each other. We have so much fun together, and I love them all.”

The boys sent seven runners to the state meet after Centralia qualified a boys team for the first time in history. The Panthers finished seventh with 216 points — with Father Tolton taking first at 106 points — so no hardware was coming home with them, but several of them met or exceeded projections.

According to virtual meets on MoMileSplit, Watermann said Lesher finished exactly where he was predicted to while setting a new school record. As a unit, the boys always finished from eighth to 10th but came away with seventh place on Saturday.

Sophomore Carter Moss had the next best finish behind Lesher at 44th place with a time of 17:35.7, junior Rohan Holiman finished 52nd with a time of 17:45.4 after he advanced 12 places in the final 2,000 meters, junior Elijah Hill was 87th with a time of 18:11.9, senior Landon Moss placed 102nd with a time of 18:26.5, sophomore Dryst Bostick finished 140th with a 19:17.1 and freshman Zane Deckerd rounded out the group with a 149th-place time of 19:46.3.

“Zane was our seventh runner and he had to fill in for (freshman) Wesley Robertson, who got a stress fracture right before districts,” Watermann said. “Zane helped us out where Wesley helped us out at the beginning of the year.”

Watermann said bringing an entire team to state, whether it be boys and girls, is achievable in the future. The Panthers need to preserve their pack and another trophy could be in the future.

“The more people we have, the less gaps in between from one spot to the next,” Watermann said. “When you run together, you don’t even realize that you’re running faster because there is less of a gap. They get faster, they get more conditioned, they get miles they don’t even realize that they’re doing and then this happens.”