In their eight tournaments, the girls’ and boys’ cross country teams have achieved feats not seen since before the pandemic.
At the Bishop-Dubourg Invitational on Sept. 25, junior Karl Barthel, boys varsity cross country captain, became the first Clayton individual champion for the boys varsity team since 2019. Barthel’s performance also propelled the rest of his team to first place. Seniors Anna McAndrew and Ella Welch secured first place for the varsity and JV cross-country teams. Additionally, junior Eli Emmenegger placed first for individual awards for the boys’ JV team.
Cross-country has been essential to Barthel for years. He started his running journey at 9 years old under the mentorship of his father, Erik Barthel, who currently serves as an assistant coach to the teams. Barthel would run for the St. Louis Blazers, a cross country and track club for kids ages 8-14 that is officially sanctioned by USA Track & Field, the sport’s American governing body. They raced at the AAU National Championships for cross country.
However, although he faced challenges, Barthel’s experience allowed him to adjust smoothly to the more competitive high school cross-country landscape.
“When you’re a freshman, there’s guys that are bigger than you [and] faster than you. The team levels [and] atmosphere are simply different,” Barthel said. “My experience with cross country gave me an edge over other freshmen.”
Upperclassmen at that time acted as mentors for Barthel in this freshman year, especially the captains: junior Luke Baker and senior Nate Martin, who have since graduated. Now that Barthel himself is a captain, he has preserved their legacy by building connections and mentoring the freshmen on the team.
“[I’m] just trying to assure them they’re doing a great job,” Barthel said. “[I tell them to] eat before a race, so they don’t get sick while running and move them to push themselves during the workout. That’s one of the main things with running. It’s mostly mental.”
While exercising, Barthel motivates himself to value every race as if it’s his last.
“During the workouts, I’m trying to push myself as hard as I can,” Barthel said. “Sometimes I imagine that it’s my state meet during senior year, like [it’s] the last cross country course I’ll ever do. And that’s just motivation for me.”
During races, Barthel reflects his competitive attitude onto his strategy before competitions.
“I like to pace myself for the first mile, and then slowly speed up over the course of the second mile, and then once I’m about four fifths of the race, I just go as fast as I can and try to pass as many people as I can at the end of the race. There’s a lot of endurance involved.”
He attributes his success to fellow runners and juniors Cole Craig and Dante Zou, who are often seen running side by side at competitions.
“[We’re] a team, so they’re always right up next to me during the races usually,” Barthel said. “We really just push each other to go faster, especially during the workouts [as well as] in the races, where we usually pack [together]. Running is one of those sports where one of the best ways to get faster is by running with people just as fast as you, if not, faster.”
Barthel also recognized the high performance of the girls’ cross country team. In Clayton’s home meet on Oct. 25, the girls’ varsity and JV teams won first place and second place respectively. McAndrew won first place and the entire team managed to place within the top 40 runners.
Although the team wasn’t able to qualify for state, individual qualifiers included Barthel’s trio on the boys’ team along with McAndrew and Welch. Seniors Anna Beutelmann, Cesarine Cross and Analee Miller also qualified as well as juniors Ava Cowan and Rachel Baker. At the Class 4 State tournament on Nov. 9, Clayton’s runners set new individual records and seek to continue surpassing expectations in the near future.
