JEFFERSON CITY • When Anna Nelson looked through the crowded starting field and across Central Field at the Forest Park Cross Country Festival in September, she never saw what was coming.
She saw possibilities, maybe even a hint for promise. But she didn't see what was coming at the end of Forest Park 5,000-meter run. And she had no idea what was coming nearly two months down the road when she and her Ladue teammates would chase a dream at the state championship meet at Jefferson City's Oak Hills Golf Center.
Saturday, a season that began with a startling run at Forest Park finished with a Nelson improving by nearly 40 places and leading Ladue to a third-place finish in the Class 3 girls state meet.
"We weren't even predicted to get top four," Nelson said. "We wanted to prove to everybody that we could do it."
Ladue was one of only three St. Louis girls teams to nab a state plaque. Herculaneum won the Class 2 race, and Francis Howell was third in Class 4. Ladue chased three-time state champ Kearney and second-place Farmington across the finish line Saturday.
Preseason and early-season predictions skipped over Ladue. The Rams had Kate White and Nelson back, but with three-time all-stater Jocelyn Todd graduated the Rams' hardly seemed state-contender material.
Nelson tweaked the Rams' profile in the season's first race. Out of nowhere, she turned in a career-best run at Forest Park. A runner with a career-best time of 21 minutes, 9 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles), Nelson ran 19:18 at Forest Park.
"I was definitely surprised, I didn't ever think I'd break 20 (minutes)," she said.
Forest Park was the launching pad.
"(I) built from there," Nelson said. "I think it showed how much potential we had."
Saturday, Nelson and Ladue were part of a crowded scramble for a top-four position and a state plaque. Kearney was the class of the field finishing with 53 points, but there were eight teams bunched behind the state champ.
The Rams geared up for their state run the night before the meet.
"We were definitely nervous, but we talked for a good half an hour or 45 minutes about what we wanted to do today," Nelson said.
A key to a run at a state plaque: pushing a couple runners into the all-state (top-25) group and then getting support from the second half of the lineup. That formula had worked in 2010 when Todd and White finished ninth and 14th, respectively, and the Rams came in third.
Saturday, White repeated in the all-state group, finishing 22nd, and Nelson filled Todd's role, placing 16th.
In windy conditions that slowed runners in all eight state races Saturday, Nelson run 20:17.86. White came in 20:29.22. Ladue's other scoring runners: Eva Klingenberg (62nd, 21:32.54), Victory Soncasie (71st, 21:45.25) and Emily Warner (82nd, 22:00.96).
A year ago, Nelson was 54th, finishing in what was a then-career best 21:09.
Looking back to the spring and summer, Nelson's goal was just to improve on 2010. She wanted a faster time and to move up from 54th.
"I was just hoping to do better than that," she said.
She did more than hope: there also were a lot of summer training miles.
"I was really motivated," she said. "We really wanted to continue the tradition so we knew somebody had to step up."
All season long, that somebody was Nelson, who admits she never saw this year's terrific success coming.
"You never know what can happen," she said.
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Hanna Long of Eureka led a strong showing by West County runners at Saturday's state meet. The Eureka freshman finished second in the Class 4 girls race. Long rand 18:29.71, finishing 24 seconds off the pace of winner Samantha Nightingale of Blue Springs South.
St. Louis runners turned in their best efforts in the Class 4 girls race and the Class 3 boys race. Long, Sophia Racette (fifth) of Nerinx Hall, Hannah Richardson of Kirkwood (sixth) were in the top six and 10 area runners were in the top 25 in the Class 4 girls run. The all-state group included Maddy Brown (15th) of Parkway West and Libby Nisbet (17th) of Parkway South.
In the Class 3 boys race, Drew White of Festus, Nathan Henry of De Soto, Amos Bartelsmeyer of MICDS and Kirk Smith of John Burroughs grabbed four of the top five spots. Ladue's Cody Medler was 21st and also earned an all-state medal.
Other West all-staters: Class 4 boys -- Noah Kauppila (fourth) of Marquette, Eric Siville (15th) of Parkway Central, Ethan Lambert (16th) of Eureka, Steven Shearman (17th) or Parkway West, Derek Legenzoff (24th) of Lafayette; Class 3 boys -- Tyler Gardner (11th) of Kennedy; and Class 2 girls -- Carlye Chaney (12th place) of Kennedy.
