It’s one thing to run and be considered good enough to compete in the country's small section known as Mid-Missouri. It’s a different perspective to be willing and able to take your skills beyond the Mexico and Columbia areas.  

This is what two young ladies from Mexico chose to do late last month. Nine-year-olds Amira Beck and Lydia Bowen chose to extend their cross country season by a month to participate in the postseason process. Their first step was the regional qualifier in Grain Valley, featuring teams chiefly from the competitive Kansas City metro area. They teamed up with eight other girls from Mid-Missouri (Columbia, Moberly, and High Hill) to run under the CMAC (Central Missouri All-Stars) banner. 

For their team to qualify they had to finish in the top two as a team or as individuals by finishing in the top 20. All of these ladies ran well enough and their team finished second in their age group at regionals behind a team that would end up finishing second at the national meet. Lydia and Amira ran solid races, setting PRs (personal records) for the course and season's best times.  

Another two weeks of practices were in store for the two girls from Mexico with their sights on getting even better. Cold weather and snow were in the forecast for the national meet’s host, Lexington, KY, on Nov. 23. This course is the same one used by the University of Kentucky. Despite the cold, wetness, and occasional wind gusts these young ladies ran their best meet of the season.  Both Amira and Lydia ran 30 seconds faster than their times at the regional meet, setting PRs for the season. Their eight teammates also ran extremely well with three of them reaching All-American status (top 20 in their age group).  

The coaches were attempting to count while the officials did the official tallying of the scores to see which teams would make the podium (top 3 in the country). Based on the coaches' counting, it was going to be a close race for third between CMAC (Central Missouri All-Stars) and the Louisville Tiger Sharks. With numbers on their side, the CMAC All-Stars ended up edging out Louisville by a final team score of 167 to 190, bringing home the national team plaque.  

It should be interesting to note that this was a race for both nine- and 10-year-old girls. This CMAC team only had one 10-year-old on their team this year. So with another year in this age group and another year of growth and training, these young ladies could see the podium again next year. We will just have to wait and see.