The Republic girls cross country team is the Central Ozark Conference champion. The Lady Tigers placed four runners in the top ten to win the title. Miha Nambara led the way for Republic, finishing third. Gracie Troester was seventh, Misora Nambara was 12th, and Kristin Probst was 19th. Trinity Lawler finished 33rd.
“These girls have worked so hard all year, and it is super exciting to see them win a conference championship,” said coach Christie Bishop. “We talked strategy with them for the last two weeks, making sure every girl knew their part to make it happen, and they executed the plan perfectly. As coaches, we are very proud of their accomplishments and excited to see what they can do at districts.”
The ranks of the top five finishers are added to get a team score, with the lowest score winning. Republic totaled 74 points. Second-place Joplin had 82, and Nixa finished with 87. Republic’s five best runners finished with a combined time of 1:42.41. That’s about 40 seconds better than Joplin’s combined time.
It’s the first time anyone associated with Republic’s cross country program recalls a team conference championship, and it could be the first ever for the Lady Tigers. Their highest previous finish since 2008 was fourth, in 2014.
At times during the past several years, Republic didn’t even have enough runners to compete as a team. So strategizing before a race with the entire team was a new experience for Bishop and assistant coach Kyle Crouch.
“Last year, we were talking about how we were going to get enough girls to compete as a team, and this year we finally have the numbers,” Bishop said. “Not just any numbers – we have seven highly competitive athletes that want to be the best runners they can be. We talked strategy with Miha and Misora heading into districts to make it on to the state competition (last year), but it feels amazing to apply that same plan to a full team.”
Ethan Haynes was the top finisher for Republic in the boys race, placing 10th. Republic’s boys placed 8th as a team.