Nevada runners eye state experience

Nevada High School senior Trevor Hinkle will run his third state cross country meet on Saturday.

This time, he'll have his whole team with him on the rugged course at Jefferson City.

Nevada's boys cross country team will compete in the Class 3 state meet Saturday at noon at Jefferson City. It marks the first time in 13 years Nevada qualified for state.

"If you haven't seen it, you can't comprehend the difficulty level of the course," Nevada seventh-year head coach Robert Watts said. "We don't even have a hill that resembles what we're going to be running. It's much to your advantage to have seen it and run it before."

The Tigers are going to inspect and run the course Friday evening in preparation for Saturday's meet.

"It's one of those things the competition is 10-fold from anything we've seen before," Nevada cross country coach Robert Watts said. "If we go up there and at the end of the race we feel like we raced the best race we could we have no excuses. To experience something like this, especially for the younger kids, is going to be amazing for them."

Hinkle is coming off a 30th-place finish at last year's state meet. He also qualified for state as a sophomore and just missed qualifying as a freshman, when he placed 17th at district (the top 15 qualify for state) due to a Lee's Summit squad that nabbed seven of the top 14 spots.

"I think he should medal," Watts said of a top-25 finish for Hinkle.

"It's a little different this year. The night before we'll all have to go to sleep at the same time. And we'll all be in the same box on the starting line," Hinkle said.

Hinkle, who ran a 16:50 and finished third at district last week, noted that it's imperative he gets off to a strong start.

"The start of the race is a lot more faster," Hinkle said. "You have to be in front. If you get in a big pile, you are never going to pass anyone."

After watching the state meet three years, senior Jacob Query is stoked for running at state.

"To make it my senior year is pretty exciting," Query said.

The younger kids Watts referred to include sophomore Todd Brier and freshmen Stephen Jenkins and Mike Bray.

Brier improved his time about 1 minute and 20 seconds from the previous week.

Bray dropped his time from 20:07 to 19:47 at the district.

"I want to work hard next year and hope to be able to run four times at state," Bray said.

This likely will be the lone appearance at state for freshman Stephen Jenkins, who finished ninth in the district last weekend.

Jenkins plans to play football at Nevada next fall.