North Callaway’s Schmauch to make fourth state trip after medaling at districts

Another year, another trip to state cross country for North Callaway senior Pressley Schmauch.

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Saturday’s girls Class 3 race at Gans Creek in Columbia, starting at 9:45 a.m, will be Schmauch’s fourth state meet as she finished 17th with a time of 21:04 in this past Saturday’s Class 3 District 3 meet at South Callaway in Mokane. Schmauch has four all-district medals and will be seeking her second state medal, which she earned during her freshman year.

Head coach Brooke Fischer is in her first year as the program’s head coach. In every meet this season, Schmauch has been North Callaway’s top finisher and has a collection of medals to prove it, but Fischer didn’t need to be in the position for long to see how Schmauch is special.

“Going in, we did summer runs, just trying to get people to build up mileage,” Fischer said. “Pressley was always very dedicated, and she’s easy to get along with. When the season started, everyone would train as a team and they would push each other to keep going, try harder and get faster. Specifically, Pressley would be like, ‘Do you mind if I do a couple extra (hills in Fulton)?’ every time. She has the mindset to continuously get better, and she wants to show growth.”

Fischer didn’t doubt Schmauch would be back at state yet again as she is a strong runner mentally as she is physically.

“She puts her mind to something and is a very determined person,” Fischer said. “That’s a tough goal to get (qualifying for state). She makes it look easy, but she works hard to get it.”

Fischer is satisfied with the times given the cold conditions outside and the hilly conditions of the South Callaway course. Grace Rasmussen finished sixth in the girls 5,000 meters with a time of 24:04, and Tristan Young, Emerson Reinhard and John Higgins finished 86th, 120th and 121st in the boys race with respective times of 20:29, 22:32 and 22:33.

North Callaway can’t complete offense, drives in season-ending 26-14 loss at South Callaway

North Callaway scored on its first drives of the first and second half on Friday in its district game.

Those were all the points scored by the Thunderbirds as they lost their Class 2 District 3 tournament game 26-14 at South Callaway in Mokane. North Callaway finished with 170 yards rushing but had only six yards passing and four interceptions.

Tucker Wright capped North Callaway’s first drive with a three-yard touchdown and then scored the two-point conversion, giving the Thunderbirds an 8-0 lead right out of the gate and factoring into his 138 yards on 28 carries. Quarterback Lane Kimbley, who was one of several seniors playing his final game, ran for a 23-yard touchdown to put North Callaway ahead 14-12 to start the second half, but that was all the Thunderbirds could muster.

“We had other long drives that we didn’t finish, and we didn’t throw the ball very well (Friday night),” head coach Kevin O’Neal said. “They made some changes up front defensively, which messed with our blocking schemes, and we weren’t getting the yards we were getting earlier in the game.”

O’Neal said the game plan was to heavily run the ball so execution was difficult when North Callaway was forced to pass. The Thunderbirds’ freshman quarterback Coltyn O’Neal, who had started the last few weeks, was unavailable due to injury. One interception was turned into a touchdown by South Callaway (7-3) before halftime for a 12-8 deficit for North Callaway and another led to a Bulldog touchdown, which was Tayber Gray’s third rushing touchdown of a 77-yard night.

South Callaway wasn’t able to run all over the field, however, as the Bulldogs had 149 yards to finish with less than North Callaway. Jaiden Galbreath led with 10 tackles followed by eight tallied by Carter Moore and seven by Kimbley.

“Our defense did a great job of stopping their option game,” O’Neal said. “We played aggressively defensively. Our guys did a good job of playing fundamental defense, reading their keys and then playing fast.”

O’Neal was glad to see Wright back on the field this week along with several other Thunderbirds after dealing with injuries last week.

“(Tucker) was seeing the field very well, attacking running lanes and breaking off some big runs,” O’Neal said. “Our offensive line did a good job early in the game controlling the line of scrimmage.”

O’Neal said senior Kyle Pennell also had a good blocking game at fullback in what was his final game as a senior. All of North Callaway’s seniors completed a 2-8 campaign – 1-6 in the Eastern Missouri Conference – this season after the program had at least seven victories in six of the previous seven seasons, so O’Neal is proud of how they played Friday night.

“I was very proud of our team and our seniors,” O’Neal said. “With a rough year, it could be easy to pack it up and give up. I don’t think our kids did that at all. We had a good week of practice and competed (Friday) against a very good South Callaway team. Hopefully, our seniors learned some things throughout the year to handle and face adversity. Hopefully, our underclassmen learned from that as well and don’t accept a 2-8 season and know that they have to work hard in the offseason to get better for next year.”