David Koppelmann stays with a Clinton runner as they both make their way up “fireman’s hill” towards the end of the race course at Oak Hills.

Lauren Baehr (center) tries to navigate her way through the crowd of runners as the MSHSAA Cross Country Championships held at Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City Saturday.

Sophomore Lauren Baehr and senior David Koppelmann earned their way to Jefferson City by finishing among the top 15 at their district meet held at Big Driver in Washington just one week earlier.

“This (Oak Hills) is a hard place to run,” OHS Cross Country coach Matt Candrl said. “Both runners handled the emotions, the large amount of people and the start with about 160 other runners.”

One big difference between Oak Hills and Big Driver were the weather conditions. Temperatures pushing 70 degrees greeted runners at Big Driver while runners at the state meet ran in temperatures that had a hard time reaching 40 degrees. Wind chill factors made it feel even colder at times throughout the day.

Baehr started her race by pacing herself while other runners took off too fast out of the starting blocks. That allowed Baehr to pass some of them later in the race and help her finish 78th out of 157 runners.

“It was a hard course to run,” Dutchgirl sophomore Lauren Baehr said. “I have an amazing coach and an amazing team and hopefully we’ll get back here next year.”

Joining Owensville with runners from the Four Rivers Conference included St. Clair, Pacific, Hermann and St. James.

For Koppelmann, it was all about getting here. Overcoming everything from an injured ankle to a diabetic episode, Koppelmann followed in his brother’s footsteps and finished 135th out of 167 runners.

“This course was a lot tougher than I thought it would be,” Dutchmen senior David Koppelmann said. “It will be sweet to jump to 8K races once I hit the next level. This was a great way to close out my high school career.”

Park College near Kansas City and William Woods University in Fulton appear to be front runners for Koppelmann’s college choices.

Overall, it was a successful season for Owensville Cross Country.

Dutchmen harriers defended their team title at St. James and had medalists in nearly every race they entered. The team collectively won 28 individual medals between the varsity and junior varsity teams.

Dutchgirl runners also saw a lot of success as they brought home a team total of 19 individual medals. They were also five points shy of a team title at St. James as Cuba narrowly defeated them.

Baehr also captured her first individual victory in the race at St. James back on Wednesday, Oct. 1.