Slade Keller and Garrett Hopke provided the Van-Far cross country program with everything it needed and more leading to their final state races Saturday.

Keller broke the school record set by Hopke when he finished 14th in the Class 1 boys race at Gans Creek in Columbia with a time of 16:47.1 and Hopke was 16th with a time of 16:51.0 for both of them to medal for the second straight year. The boys team also made it to state for the second straight year, finishing fifth and one spot shy of a team trophy, while a girls team made it for the first time.

Van-Far State Cross Country Photo Gallery

“It’s great that me and him had the chance to do it side by side both years,” Keller said. “It’s a blessing to get to do this.”

For both runners, the biggest blessing was to run with a team. The Indians had 159 points and were one spot shy of the team podium behind fourth-place Lutheran (Kansas City) and its 143 points. Tyler Carlyle was 62nd with a time of 17:55.7, Jaydon Hug-Hernandez was 87th with a time of 18:22.7 and Harrison Wright was 108th with a time of 18:51.0. 

The boys brought a team to state for the second time in school history after doing so for the first time last year. That “very competitive group of five kids,” according to Hopke, competed every second of the race and this includes Brady Puls, who ran last year at state but was injured most of this season.

“I hope that we made a name for not only for everyone else to see but also for our own school to see Van-Far cross country as a sport to compete in to where we get more runners,” Hopke said. “Hopefully, a winning program will help that in the coming years.”

Keller said their “underdog team” accomplished much this season by winning six of the 10 meets they ran this season, including the school’s first Eastern Missouri Conference title. Bowling Green had won it 24 out of 27 schools.

“It was having faith in each other and knowing everyone else around us will do what they’re supposed to do,” Keller said. “You just need to run your best. We prayed before every meet, we would always mess around at practice and have fun, but when it came time to be serious, we would be serious. We weren’t running for ourselves. We were running for each other.”

Head coach Kris Cross said this was the best cross country season in school history, and in fact, she said it was her best team since one she had in Minnesota 20 years ago. Two big reasons why were Keller and Hopke. She said they were instrumental in recruiting enough runners for a team a year ago after going six or seven years without a team, and they’ve also been instrumental in leading this team.

“They are a two-for-one deal kind of,” Cross joked. “They lead the team together and are great kids. Garrett has such a positive attitude, and he’s the more serious one of the two. Slade is more of my goofy one that makes everybody laugh a little more, and you need that, of course, too. You need both.”

Cross said it was such “a Cinderella year” as Van-Far kept winning meets or finishing high in the standings. 

“They’re hard to come by,” Cross said. “It is just one of those years that you rarely get.”

It was a rare year for the girls, too. On top of making their first ever state appearance as a team, the Lady Indians had enough for a team for the first time in about seven or eight years.

The girls were 12th out of 15 schools with 279 points. Former state medalist Khloe Wallace was the top finisher with a 56th-place time of 22:05.2, Elliott Utterback was 90th with a time of 23:05.1, Mylee Keller was 98th with a time of 23:10.5, Jordan Trainor was 138th with a time of 25:34.1, Emily Smith was 151st with a time of 26:37.7, and Kylee Gibson was 158th with a time of 27:53.0. 

“At the beginning of summer, I didn’t think we would have a complete girls team in any shape or form,” Cross said. “We had Elliott and Mylee do some running with us this summer, and they decided to double between us and softball. Elliott PR’d today, and Mylee was only three seconds off, so for being their first state meet, it gets kind of intimidating sometimes.”

Cross said her other senior Wallace ran her best time of the season in a state meet that had faster times on the girls and boys side. She said she will be glad to have Jordan Trainor and Emily Smith back. 

Keller and Hopke said they were glad to end on a high note, which includes having a girls team join them at state. They will both miss the team, with Keller saying the boys were “probably one of the closest teams out of anyone in their conference” and joking they “might not have taken practice serious enough at times” but having the team around helped push him.

“Four years gone and ready to move on,” Hopke said. “We have track season, and hopefully, we can have a good 4x800 team in track season.”