State Championship History

 

SLUH has a rich history of success at the State Cross Country meet. Each year, a program goal of ours is to qualify for the State Championship. The first team in our program's modern era to qualify for State was the 1989 team. Since then, we have sent a team to compete at the State meet an additional 32 times, including every season since 1993 - an active streak of 31 years!

Click HERE to see our program's All-Time SLUH XC State Championships Team Scores

Click HERE for SLUH Team Split Sheets from 1993-2023 - all 31 years of our active streak!

  • Click HERE for One Class Boys State CC results from 1944-1974 (Note especially the 1961 results!)
  • Click HERE for Class AA Boys State CC results from 1975-1978
  • Click HERE for Class 4-4A Boys State CC results from 1979-1981

State Meet Records

Listed below are all the program's State finishers from 1982 through the present, sorted by...

Finish Place

Finish Time

Grade Level Records

Last name

Year of Competition
 


All-State Gallery & Data

Since 1953, we have had 55 All-State performances from 43 different runners at the State Meet. To earn All-State honors, a runner must finish in the top 30 of the State Meet (N.b.: Before 2023, the All-State cut-off was top 25; before 1997, the All-State cut-off was top 15). To the present day, Larry Dirnberger '62 remains SLUH's only individual XC state champion. 

Click here for the SLUH XC All-State Gallery 


Year-by-Year State Meet Results (1982-present)

1982: Pete Palumbo's 20th place finish his Senior year
1983: Rob Behm qualifies as a Sophomore
1984: Behm rises 51 places as a Junior
1985: Behm finishes 36th his Senior year; joined by junior Chris Woodward
1986: No SLUH individuals or team qualifies. Season summary for 1986.
1987: Sophomore Mickey Luna qualifies and finishes 58th. Season summary for 1987.
1988: Luna's 27th place finish his Junior year sets the stage for the year to come. Season summary for 1988.
1989: Luna All-State at 10th place; first SLUH team under Jim Linhares to qualify for State and school's first team qualification since 1968; 10th place team finish. Season summary for 1989.
1990: Junior Sean Lock finishes 4th, still tied for our second-highest individual finish of the post-1982 era.
1991: Lock's repeat of a 4th place individual finish leads team to finish 8th place overall
1992: No SLUH individuals or team qualifies (The last time SLUH was not represented at the State meet)
1993: Junior Pat Hamel finishes 32nd, team finishes 9th (The genesis of SLUH XC's current streak of Team Qualifications)
1994: Hamel finishes 14th and becomes an All-Stater, the fourth such finish of the modern era of SLUH XC; team finishes 8th, third in St. Louis-area, ties best overall finish since '82
1995: Led by sophomore Ben Fanson (61st) and senior Tim Chik (71st), team finishes 16th
1996: Senior Joe Donnelly leads team to 9th place finish; Ken Reichert becomes our highest placing sophomore in 37th place (Ken remains tied for #2 on that list today). Season summary for 1996.
1997: Team finishes third - the first team trophy of the modern era of SLUH XC. Senior Ben Rosario finishes All-State in 18th place.
1998: Junior Ted Snodgrass finishes in 18th place and team finishes 12th. Five juniors gain experience for the year to follow.
1999: First State title since 1961. Snodgrass earns his second All-State honor (19th). Pack in 30s & Tim Huegerich collapses across the line as the 5 man to help team beat Liberty by one point.
2000: Team finishes 6th. Junior Tipper O'Brien (23rd) earns first of two All-State XC medals.
2001: Team finishes 8th. O'Brien (25th) repeats as All-State.
2002: Five seniors in the top 71 give SLUH its highest finish (5th) since '99. Peter Schaefer takes home an All-State medal in 16th.
2003: Team finishes 8th. Andrew Linhares (33rd) is our highest finisher. Sophomore Ben Murphy-Baum emerges on the scene in 40th.
2004: Murphy-Baum finishes in 10th; team again finishes 8th. At the time, M-B's 10th place is second best that a SLUH junior has ever placed at State (he is 4th on that list today).
2005: Fourth place team finish sends us back to the podium for the first time since '99! Murphy-Baum finishes 2nd, tied with Caleb Ford for our best State place since Jerry Dirnberger won it in 1961. Matt Lawder and Drew Kaiser also All-State; Jonagan not far behind. Freshman Cliff David closes out our score.
2006: Another team trophy, this time for 2nd place. Lawder (5th) goes sub-16:00, a first for a SLUH runner at State. Sophomore John Clohisy becomes our best ever sophomore in 13th place and All-State.
2007: First team championship since '99! Clohisy's second All-State finish (18th) and Austin Cookson (26th) & Dan Warner (27th) close behind help give us another close win... five points over Parkway West.
2008: Three in the top 20 and a strong #4/5 not enough to eclipse Lee's Summit West's legendary day. Eighty-seven team points remains our third best result at State and gives us second place overall and our fourth straight team trophy. A. Cookson (9th) and Caleb (13th) earn their first All-State medals. Clohisy grits out a remarkable 18th place for his third All-State finish; John remains our only three-time all-state XC athlete.
2009: Linhares-era closes with an all-time day. Three in the top 10 help account for our lowest ever State score (65), holding off a great Lee's Summit North squad for the win. Caleb Ford in 2nd, Tim Rackers in 8th, and Tim McLaughlin with the surprise 10th place finish.
2010: Tim Rackers ties Sean Lock for SLUH's 2nd best individual State finish (4th). Team earns another trophy for a third place finish in Coach Porter's first year as head coach. Michael McLaughlin finishes in 25th for a second All-Stater.
2011: McLaughlin reprises 25th place all-state finish; team finishes in 5th, first time off the podium since 2004.
2012: Placing six in the top 41 leads SLUH to edge out Blue Spring's potent top four by three points, 98-101. Our fourth State title since 1999, led by Matt Nicholson in 8th and Tom Rubio in 23rd.
2013: Back-to-back State champions, this time by a "comfortable" 16 point margin after a brief finish line scoring error had us second. Three All-State juniors in Shayn Jackson (13th), Jack Sullivan (18th), and Thomas Hogan (25th).
2014: Despite our fastest average time (16:24) and second lowest point total (86), SLUH finishes 2nd to the Lafayette juggernaut. Hogan repeats as an All-Stater (19th), and Matt Hennessey (6th) becomes our fourth all-state runner from the Class of 2015. Hennessey's time of 15:50 is our second-fastest Oak Hills time.
2015: Dustan Davidson finishes All-State in 14th place, but the team finishes 11th, its lowest team placing since 1998.
2016: Joe Laughlin runs our third-fastest time ever at Oak Hills (15:56) for 8th place, and the team improves one place to finish 10th.
2017: Paul Burka grabs 25th place to make it 14 straight years SLUH has an All-Stater; team again finishes 10th but is set up with a lot of returning firepower.
2018: Back to the podium after a three year absence, in the final State meet held at Oak Hills in Jeff City. Second place team effort, led by three All-Staters in Lucas Rackers (7th), Noah Scott (24th), and four-year State runner Patrick Hetlage (25th). Team returning four State runners, positioning team well for 2019.
2019: Team runner-ups for the second consecutive season; first State meet at new Gans Creek XC course. Noah Scott (5th) & Lucas Rackers (6th) become two-time State medalists and #2 and #3 on SLUH's all-time 5k list; team average of 16:06 our fastest-ever team average.
2020: Another second place finish; sixth runner-up trophy since 1999. Yet, no All-State finishers for the first time since 2003. Best-ever State scoring spread of 15 seconds secures third consecutive second place. Grant Brawley finishes as our top runner in the pack in 27th place, and Daniel Hogan becomes our best-ever #7 finisher in 60th place.
2021: Team trophy for the fourth consecutive season; our 5k average of 16:00.1 is the fastest average time for a 5k race in program history; season-best scoring spread of 38 seconds earns us fourth place overall; trio of senior all-staters Grant Brawley (11th), Sean Kellogg (16th), and Baker Pashea (23rd)
2022: Team finishes 9th, highest-placing St. Louis school and 30th consecutive State qualification; for second time in three seasons, no all-state runners & first time since 2003 without representation at awards ceremony; Tim Greiner our #1 finisher in 16:18 for 28th place; freshman Jaden Elgin our #5 finisher in 17:04 for 84th place, our fastest and highest-placing freshman in program history
2023: Team returns to the podium, finishing in 3rd place. Scoring average of 15:49 is our fastest 5k in program history. Freshman Jackson Miller (6th) and senior Charlie Murray (18th) earn all-state medals. Jackson runs 15:17 and breaks Tim Rackers's 5k school record. Charlie's 15:39 puts him #4 on all-time 5k list. Jackson sets MO state record for freshman 5k time and is highest male freshman placer at State in large school class since 1989.