While nobody from Mexico made the podium at Friday’s Class 4 state meet, there were still reasons to be impressed.

Maggie Ramsey finished her fourth state meet with a 35th-place time of 20:08 to fall short of an individual state medal by five places. Seth Stevenson, Carter Nading and Brady McCoy had respective finishes of a 42nd-place time of 16:58, a 78th-place time of 17:34 and a 110th-place time of 18:04.

Each of Mexico’s runners on Friday were all-conference this season and improved every race and every year in the program. All of them except the freshman Stevenson ran their final high school race as seniors. Head coach Lucas Breneman is proud of how the seniors did in the program.

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“The big goal for the seniors was to make it to state,” Breneman said. “We want to get here for them and their senior year. They are kids who bought into the program, they put in the summer miles and they were great leaders.”

Ramsey was 65th at the first 1,000 meters and steadily made progress in 53rd, 50th, 40th and finally 35th on the last 1,000 meters. Breneman said Ramsey has always been someone who passes people throughout the race but even he was impressed.

“The last time I told her place, she was in 50th,” Breneman said. “I hadn’t given up on the top 30 but had switched focus to time because she had a time goal. Then all of a sudden, with about two minutes to go in the race, she comes around the corner in 37th. Unfortunately, at this meet, you have to get out a little bit quicker.”

Breneman said Ramsey had a “bunch of goals,” starting with the school record of 19:38. He said she also wanted to finish under 20 minutes and was just nine seconds behind that goal. 

Ramsey is “one of the toughest racers” Breneman has coached and has always counted on her to be there at the end. 

“That’s been the story of her career,” Breneman said. “She’s always been someone who has gone out on the conservative side and just worked her way up through the race.”

McCoy competed in his second straight state meet while Nading and Stevenson each made their state debut. Breneman said the goal for each of them this season was to make to state so they were all thrilled for doing that. 

“Brady made it last year, but the course conditions were terrible with the rain so I was excited to have him back and running again,” Breneman said. “They had big goals like they wanted to see how close they could get to 17 flat or even breaking 17. Carter and Brady came from running really slow times as freshmen, and through hard work, have improved every year.”

Breneman said Ramsey and Nading plan to run in college while Stevenson represented Mexico as a freshman like Ramsey did four years ago. Stevenson is actually a better swimmer than runner, Breneman said, and his racing in the water helps him race on land.

“The thing that helps Seth, in my opinion, is he’s been swimming his whole life,” Breneman said. “That’s his main sport. He’s swum at the national level, and he went out of state to compete in big meets. As a freshman, I didn’t see the nervousness. He seemed very confident and going after it versus some freshmen get here and are like, ‘I’m so nervous.’”

Breneman would have preferred cooler temperatures and overcast on Friday rather than the warmer and windy conditions for better running weather, but he said the Mexico program still impressed.

“It’s something to see some of our runners who did not qualify were here and cheering them on,” Breneman said. “It shows you how close cross country is.”