Boys Cross Country Claims 3A State Title

On Tuesday, November 16 the Parkview Baptist Boys Cross Country team took home its first State Championship title in program history.  The team scored 48 points, with runner up ED White scoring 84.  This win was the culmination of three years of goal setting that would not be deterred by COVID, much less anything else.

Parkview Baptist School is a K3-12 school and most of these runners have been running together since 6^th grade and a few have been running cross country since 4^th grade.  When Head Coach Chad Landry came on board in the summer of 2019 the team was down to one varsity boy runner and a slew of talented middle school boys.  The potential was there, but the boys had to have the patience and fortitude to stick it out and play the long game.  During the 2019 season a single varsity boy stood on the line for all the regular season meets and at the end of the season 7^th and 8^th grade runners were ran up on varsity so that the team would have enough runners to score.  Cross Country is more than just about the individual, while an individual can win a race five team members are required to score.  Each place corresponds to  points and the team with the lowest score wins.  The 2019 team made a good showing at State and promised themselves that 2021 would be their year.

At the beginning of 2020 track season COVID struck, and everyone was sent home and not allowed to gather for practice.  The boys pressed on with their training, based upon a practice plan sent out by Coach Landry, in the hopes that they would be called back.  When it became clear that they weren’t going back the boys started to focus on the 2020 Cross Country season.  The 2020 season was a challenge due to meets with team limits, Parkview only ran at Highland once that season and had to find meets out of town and sometimes out of state for the kids to run.  Thankfully the LHSAA was able to hold the State Meet with limited fan capacity.  Once again the team fielded a young team for State, but that year they placed 4^th and their top runner placed 5^th overall.  They still felt that next year would be their year.

The team started summer practice in June with a new training plan.  Everyone looked strong and stayed healthy for the most part.  A runner was lost during the season due to a hamstring injury, but the young team was joined by two 8^th graders to give the team more depth.  The boys worked hard and had solid performances all season, they even made their first appearance in the top small schools cross county poll.  One of the 9^th grade runners had a breakout season and that energized the team even more and made them more determined to come out on top.

On the Monday before the meet Parkview gave the team a wonderful send off and after a quick shake out run the team was on their way to Natchitoches.  They stopped in Alexandria at the same restaurant that they stop at each year for dinner and arrived in Natchitoches in time to have a quick team meeting and wind down before lights out.

Tuesday dawned warmer than usual, and the team knew that they had to hydrate, especially since runners were becoming dehydrated and collapsing in each race.  Race time for the boys was at 1:15pm and the temperature by then had risen to 80.  In the prerace huddle Coach Landry told the boys that this race wouldn’t be won on stamina, it would be won on heart and that they needed to race as a pack.  The boys had visualized this race for so long and they knew what they had to do.  The team finished with three runners in the top ten and all five scoring runners in the top twenty.  Wyatt Whipp, Parkview’s top runner and lone senior, grabbed 4^th place in a spectacular come from behind finish.  This was the guy that had stuck with the team when he was the only one on the line and this year he led the team to the first ever State Championship in school history.  Aiden Monistere, the freshman with the breakout season, came in 7^th and Kohl Feucht had a gutsy race and came in 9^th.  The fourth man in was Konner Broussard, who had an amazing race, he left everything he had on the course and came in 11^th.  Ethan Delatte passed another athlete right before the line and snagged 20^th, while Caleb Whipp came in 22^nd on the heels of Ethan.  If needed, his score would be used to break a tie.  The final runner that was fielded was Reed Boudreaux.  The coaches felt that the boys had won, but the live results were updating as other runners continued to come in.  Once second and third place was locked in the coaches told the boys that they had won and the celebration was a sight to behold.  Joyful tears were shed and bear hugs were given all around as the team celebrated.  As the team and coaches were called to the infield the members of the team that didn’t race joined them, they are Ben Beach, Bruce Morello, Miles Moton, Jacob Ramey, and Noah Wilson. 

On the podium were two coaches who are mothers to three of the athletes, two brothers were in the top 7.  Despite a fourth of the team being related to a coach this team is family.  They stuck together and made what they knew was possible a reality.  This is why sports matter, the lessons and character that was built during this journey will serve these boys well for the rest of their life.

The Varsity Girls also raced that day and placed 8^th out of 16 teams with a total of 219 points and 136 runners.  The girls were led by Maggie Liner (22:52.60 (36)), followed by Caroline McCulloch (23:16.10 (43)), Gracie Pepitone (23:18.70 (44)), Grace Davis (24:31.80 (60), and Addy Bernhard (24:58.10 (63)).