Plainsmen bring home State Championship

Senior Mason McGreer is no stranger to the State Cross Country competition, but this year was a little bittersweet for the PC senior. 

McGreer has had quite the season, taking first place at several meets, falling second only to team mate and friend Elijah Goodell more often than anyone else. 

McGreer took his final trip to the state competition last week, coming off of the district championship. 

McGreer took the Class D state championship title on Friday when he finished the boys 5,000m in 15:52.13, a new State Championship Meet Best time. “Mason will go into the NSAA record books as the first Class D boy to run a sub-16 minute race at the State Meet,” a proud Head Coach Seth Burge said. 

McGreer’s first place finish was followed up just over 4 seconds later with Elijah Goodell, who finished second place at 15:56.2.

Goodell was also named to the Nebraska Coaches Associations Super State Athlete list. 

Other members of the team and their respective times were Brock Tines, 18:10.07, Ethan Swesey, 18:43.24, and Logan Barry, 19:07.56. 

Without the persistance of every member of the team, the win wouldn’t have been as sweet, Burge explained. 

“It wasn’t an easy win, he said, “we tied at 28 points with North Platte St. Pats and won the tiebreaker with our 4th place runner. What a lesson we’ve learned over and over again this season: Every person counts. Every runner matters!” 

Burge added “to put it into perspective, if Brock Tines would have run 0.9 seconds slower, we would have been in 2nd place. If we didn’t have Ethan Swesey as a non-scoring tie breaker, we would have been in 2nd place. It was so close, but all of these boys pushed themselves to the max and earned their title,”

Looking back on the season and even the years leading up to this, Burge knew this team was special, saying “what a tremendous season. Looking back at the boys team 5th place finish at State in 2023, with no graduating seniors and returning all of our runners for the next season, that is when these boys realized that they could make it happen.”

Even though practices didn’t officially start for cross country until August, Burge encourages his team to participate in the summer run program and he and the team members are glad they did. 

“These boys are so dedicated that they bought into their team and the program early in the summer. They pushed themselves throughout the summer, running the streets of Grant together and recording miles that they knew it would take to win a championship,” Burge said, adding, “One of my favorite things I heard after we found out we won the championship was Ethan Swesey saying ‘All of those summer miles were SO WORTH IT!’” 

“It is a bittersweet end to the season as we say goodbye to our two senior leaders, Mason McGreer and Brock Tines. Mason and Brock joined us as student managers in jr. high and paved the way for the addition of an official Jr. High cross country team at Perkins County in 2023,” Coach Burge said. 

Mason McGreer ended his senior season with a multitude of medals, two individual XC State Championships, and the new Class D Nebraska State Cross Country Meet best time. 

Burge noted it’s been 16 years since the last NSAA State Championship Team title for Perkins County and “spirits are high!” 

“Our returning runners are already looking forward to what they can do in the seasons to come” he said.