Liberty junior, St. Teresa girls team wins Tim Nixon Invite

Liberty junior Lily Hurt began the 2025 season with a nice victory at the Tim Nixon Invitational on Saturday morning in Liberty.

She won a race a 80 runners from numerous large schools to kick off the year. Hurt finished the 5K course in a time of 18 minutes and 26.6 seconds, 11 seconds ahead of second place.

Hurt was followed closely by freshman teammate Tessa Perdue, who finished fourth in the race. Her time was 18:46.9.

The Lady Blue Jays placed fifth out of 10 teams at this season-opening meet with 154 points. 

Winning the meet was St. Teresa’s Academy, with its top five runners placing in the top 20. St. Teresa’s scored 54 points, clipping runner-up Blue Springs South by just six points.

St. Teresa was led by sophomore Caroline Bowen. She was the runner-up, finishing the course in time of 18:37.4. 

Junior Polly Fendler was three spots behind her teammate, placing fifth in the race. Sophomores Cleo Federlein and Ella Messner finished 14th and 15th, respectively. Senior Madeline Dwyer rounded out the St. Teresa scoring, placing 18th overall.

Blue Springs South top runner was senior Ashlyn Wahrenbrock, who placed third in the race. Her 5K time was 18:46.1.

Also scoring points for the Lady Jaguars were junior Jayda Bailey, junior Bailey Baier, sophomore Emery Diederich and junior Anna Sundberg. The Lady Jaguars finished as the Class 5 state runner-up last year.