HANNIBAL — Turnout and enthusiasm is up for Hannibal cross country, who are getting in the swing of things after a 3K race at Gans Creek last Saturday.
The Pirates have 16 runners on the boys side and 10 runners on the girls side with 26 overall, which is nine more than last season.
“It’s pretty neat to see this group of kids buying into what we are doing and getting more kids to run,” said Hannibal cross country coach Jim Coniglio. “There’s also 20 kids in the middle school level, so the future looks pretty bright.”
It’s quite a turnaround from just a few years ago.
“It’s really a full circle moment for me as a senior to have this many people on the team,” said Hannibal senior Jocelyn Dorsey. “I’m really happy about it and proud we’ve come this far because we did have only two people the first year I ran.”
Dorsey would like to break under 20 minutes in the 5K race this year and earn All-State honors.
“We had summer training with coach,” Dorsey said. “We came here Monday through Thursday. Mostly was light intensity workouts. Just getting in shape for the season. 40 minute runs.”
Hannibal junior David Munger had an internship during the month of June and did not fully start training until later in the summer.
Still, Munger ran around the campground he worked at over the summer.
“Starting with the Fourth of July, I just ran every day,” Munger said. “I got my lactic acids and everything down. By the time we got to the actual scheduled season practices, that’s when we started doing the harder workouts. That’s when you start building up your sprinting speed and things you don’t get at a slow pace.”
Munger learned from Cameron Nichols and Eli Hess during his first two seasons, but both runners graduated last year, so Munger plans to step up as a leader in his junior season.
“My freshman and sophomore years, I was attempting to reach Caleb and Eli, who were our seniors last year,” Munger said. “They were kind of my role models and people I looked up to. So my goal this year is to surpass Cameron’s time, which was a 17:01 5k, and kind of step into that leadership role for the younger kids coming in right now.”
Munger finished 61st overall with a time of 17:34.4 at the Class 4 state meet last year at Gans Creek, the same course Hannibal debuted the 2023 season on last weekend.
“My favorite course is probably Gans Creek,” Munger said. “That’s where I ran state, so I have a lot of memories attached to that. It’s simply the best. It’s made for cross country because of all the dollars put into making it the best. That’s the reason state runs at it.”
Dorsey is also an All-State returner, who placed 59th overall with a time of 21:12 in the girls state race as a junior.
Dorsey would like to return to the state meet and break under 20 minutes in the 5K race to close out her high school career.
“(Last week at Gans Creek) went pretty good,” Dorsey said. “I like the course there a lot. Time-wise, I did what I was hoping to do. As a team, I think we did pretty well.”
As a senior, Dorsey hopes to be a mentor to her younger teammates.
“I feel like I need to try my best to positively influence them and help them with their first cross country experience,” Dorsey said.
Last season at the North Central Missouri Conference meet, the girls team fell short by four points to first-place Mexico and the boys team fell short by seven points to first-place Fulton.
The Pirates would like to improve upon that in 2023.
“The number one goal that I always talk about no matter where we are at in the season is always the test of conference,” Coniglio said. “i will always strive for a conference championship on both sides.”
A couple of schedule changes this season will be Hannibal swapping out the Palmyra Invitational on Sept. 9 for a meet at Forest Park in St. Louis and a new site for the Frank Lemons Invitational on Oct. 7.
“We added Forest Park to our meets,” Dorsey said. “We usually go to the Palmyra meet, but we are going to a bigger meet in St. Louis. It’s going to be a bigger meet like Gans Creek.”
Last year, the home meet was at Veterans Sports Complex. The Frank Lemons Invitational will instead be held at Hannibal-LaGrange University this year.
The Frank Lemons Invitational will begin with a collegiate race, followed by the high school and middle school races.
“I wanted to try out Veterans last year — I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it,” Coniglio said. “HLGU reached out, so I think the course is going to be pretty sweet. I already ran the course several times. We are about to mow it down and get it all lined up, so we can check it out as a team.”
Munger said running on hills like there will be at the HLGU course will benefit Hannibal.
“I enjoy having races in the hills because a lot of people don’t do hill training as much as Hannibal does,” Munger said. “Given that everything is a hill in Hannibal, we are much more adept to those situations and do well in meets with a lot of hills in it. The trail is a lot like that and has several inclines, so there are several places you can build up speed and go up the hill and pass people.”