Paris cross country brings team to districts, brings home titles

Paris cross country is only in its second year but has been making up ground at a quick rate.

District Cross Country Photo Gallery

The girls had five run in the Class 1 District 3 girls 5,000 meters on Saturday at South Callaway in Mokane and all five finished in the top 30 to earn all-district medals, which contributed to the school’s first ever district title. In the race before that for the boys’ Class 1 District 3, the Coyotes managed to earn second place for the school’s first district trophy that was led by Landen Chapman — Paris’ first ever district cross country champion.

While there has been only one season in the program before, head coach Owen Buie said some recruiting was done in the offseason to give Paris enough runners for a full boys and girls team, which needs a minimum of five kids to score as a team. Buie said he can’t take credit for the team increasing as much of that work was done by returning runners.

“I’ve got to thank these kids because they went out and recruited some to come out and run for us this year,” Buie said. “We’ve got several kids dual-sporting and fighting through stuff but came out and worked hard. This is the end result of their hard work today.”

The girls added freshman Ava Crain and junior Kaylee Johnson, who finished fifth and eighth, respectively, with times of 23:21 and 24:02 but needed a fifth runner for a team. Returning state medalist Mairyn Kinnaman, who finished third on Saturday with a 21:46, and returning state qualifier Alexandria Tullius, who was fourth with a 22:42, and the aforementioned two were joined by freshman Midori Williams after she was convinced to run. Williams finished 23rd out of 66 runners to also earn a district medal.

“They talked her into running and I’m certainly glad they did,” Buie said. “She worked her tail off, and they all qualified as individuals. They’ve been doing great all year.”

Determination is a quality that both the boys and girls teams have, especially the boys. Buie said the Coyotes had the district champion Chapman and his son, Owen Buie, who finished 29th, qualify individually with respective times of 17:51 and a season-best time of 20:09 for Buie after playing district football the previous night. Severeno Olivas, however, was one spot away from all-district status in 31st with a time of 20:23 — 10 seconds behind 30th place — and Chase Graupman and Haydeb DeOrnellas finished 36th and 40th out of 99 runners.

“The boys would finish middle of the pack lots of times as a team in those races we ran,” Buie said. “They would never give up, and if someone fell back, someone else took over. We had one fall back a little bit (Saturday) and had another just take his spot.”

Chapman qualified for state last season in his freshman season and has had a sophomore year to remember. He set the boys school record twice as did Kinnaman with the girls record. Buie knew Chapman would make history, despite the unending hills of the course that slow runners down.

“He has been running faster all year,” Buie said. “We ran down here for South Callaway’s invitational back in September. He ran (the course) a minute and half faster than he did the previous year. I knew he had it in him.”

Saturday’s course had many ups and downs, but Paris has been seeing pretty much nothing but ups. Buie hopes to see even more at the Class 1 state meet that starts at 9 a.m. Friday.

“I told them early on, ‘Look at the person next you and think what can you do to pick each other up’ and they did,” Buie said.

Paris learns to compete this year, needs more winning after 50-36 district loss at Knox County

Paris’ first season in 8-man football and first under head coach Cody Carney ended on Friday night.

Carney said he hopes opponents learned the Coyotes aren’t pushovers despite finishing the season with a 50-36 loss at Knox County in the Class 1 District 8 tournament and with a 2-8 record. Paris (with Madison) trailed Knox 36-30 after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter but couldn’t respond to any opposing points after that.

The Coyotes even had a 16-0 lead to start the game before the Eagles (2-8) turned it into a back-and-forth game. Carney said Paris didn’t have enough to keep up with the scoring pace of an 8-man game on Friday night because of mistakes and missed opportunities.

“A turnover here and there and some miscommunications on same pass routes we weren’t able to convert on,” Carney said. “It was a hard-fought ballgame and then we pressed to go for it (on fourth down) in our own territory. Twice, we got inside the 20 and just couldn’t score.”

Colton Kendrick has been Paris’ most potent weapon on offense at quarterback but hasn’t the last few weeks due to injury. The senior was back to play in his final game but in a limited capacity as a receiver and for less snaps.

Sophomore Luke Ensor had more experience and had many chances to throw, going 17-for-34 for 241 yards and three touchdowns, Brady Shivers caught five passes for 82 yards and a touchdown, and Reid Ragsdale had 71 yards and a touchdown on three catches. The Coyotes added 101 yards on the ground, including 81 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries by Gatlin Fountain.

“The first time we played, we threw the ball pretty decently on them,” Carney said. “We relied on the passing game. (Ensor) did a good job. That’s the thing about throwing the ball. There’s a few times where you get few incompletes and start getting second- and third-longs and makes you playcalling a little tougher.”

Knox finished with 378 yards on offense, including 208 passing yards. The Coyotes countered the Eagles on defense with four double-digit tacklers: Ragsdale with 14, Fountain and Aron McCain with 13 and Shivers with 12.

Carney said he appreciates all the hard work and leadership the seniors provided as the Coyotes lost eight games but had games where they were competitive such as the 52-44 losses to Knox and state-ranked Braymer this season. He is proud Paris wasn’t “anybody’s doormat” and believes there is plenty to build off of in the second year of the new system with most of the team expected to return.

“That was one thing this year that we definitely learned how to compete,” Carney said. “We felt like a tough draw for anybody that had to play us because we weren’t going to make it easy for them. We’re a team that’s still learning how to win.”