Davies finishes 2nd to help EHS boys capture their 5th straight league title
By Michael Ashford
Monday, October 16, 2006
A week prior to Saturday’s Centennial League cross country meet, Emporia High coach Mark Stanbrough spoke with Jacob Davies about the junior’s performance heading into the final few weeks of the cross country season.
“I visited with Jacob Davies after his race last week and told him he was feeling sorry for himself during the race and was slowing down,” Stanbrough said. “In cross country, there are no time outs and you can’t feel sorry for yourself. You have to run through the hurt if you are going to be a great distance runner.”
That message hit home for Davies, who said he listened to Stanbrough’s words and bought into them.
“I knew I could do better than I had been doing,” Davies said. “I guess I hadn’t been pushing myself as much as I thought I should have.”
So after a week of sitting on his coach’s words, Davies had a message for Stanbrough before Saturday’s race at Stateland Park in Topeka.
“Jacob came up to me and said, ‘I’m not going to feel sorry for myself today,’” Stanbrough said.
Davies then proved himself right, as he led the Spartan boys to their fifth consecutive Centennial League title with a second-place finish in the 5-kilometer race in a time of 16 minutes, 28 seconds, just seven seconds behind race winner Clay Schneider of Seaman.
“I just went out there and gave it all I had,” Davies said. “I didn’t back off and kept picking up the pace until the end. Halfway through, I found myself in pretty good position, and once you’re there and have worked that hard to get up there, you don’t really want to quit or back off then.”
Consistently the Spartans’ No. 4 runner this season, Davies stepped up in a big way for EHS, leading the Spartans for the first time this season.
“(Coach Stanbrough) had been telling me that I can do a lot better than I have been and that I have a lot of potential to do well in distance races,” he said. “I guess I hadn’t really believed it until this weekend. It has boosted my confidence quite a bit.”
Davies led five Spartans that finished in the top 20 — Asher Delmott followed Davies at fourth (16:40), Tyler Anliker came in sixth (16:51), Mike Robinson finished 12th (16:59) and Lance Sadler rounded out the EHS scoring in 20th (17:13).
“It was a typical Emporia race as we had moved a pack up to the front by the mile mark,” Stanbrough said.
Other EHS finishers were: Andrew Wayman in 31st (17:34), Octavio Dikin in 37th (17:55) and Ryan Parks in 50th (18:29).
On the girls side, Layne Moore led the Spartan girls to a third-place team finish by coming in third individually in the girls 4K with a time of 14:40.
The Spartan girls, ranked second in Class 5A, were up against some heavy competition, as league champion Seaman is ranked No. 1 in 5A while second-place finisher Manhattan is ranked first in 6A.
Michaela Reynolds, who is fighting her way back from an illness, finished two spot back of Moore in fifth place (15:13).
“The pace was blistering from the start with a front pack of (Junction City’s) Tamera Smith, (Seaman’s) Sydney Messick, (Manhattan’s) Marley Crusch and Layne Moore and Michaela Reynolds running through the mile in 5:35,” Stanbrough said. “Smith and Messick pulled away late in the race with Moore catching Crusch at the finish. The times were outstanding as it was a great field and great racing weather.”
Heather Coe came in 20th (16:13), Kelsey Camien finished 21st (16:14) and Jenna Stanbrough placed 25th (16:29) to round out the EHS scoring. Abby Lake (29th, 16:58), Liliana Morales (33rd, 17:22) and Katie Weaver (40th, 17:40) were the other Spartan girls finishers.
Next up for the Spartans is the Regionals meet at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Shawnee North Community Center in Topeka. The EHS boys will try for their fourth straight Regional title while the Spartan girls will again face Seaman on its home course. The top four teams at Regionals advance to the State meet in Lawrence on Oct. 28.