Southeast Missourian Girls Runner of the Year: Jackson's Carli Knott

Carli Knott probably wasn't expecting her district cross country meet to become a defining moment, but when her best friend and teammate, Chelsea Drum, was held out of the race for a nagging illness, Jackson's No. 2 girls runner rose to the occasion.

Jackson coaches Andrea Talley and Jim Stoverink pulled Knott aside and delivered a simple message.

"You know what to do," they told her, and Knott responded in a big way, finishing first in the Class 4 District 1 girls race with a time of 19 minutes, 16.81 seconds and leading the Indians to a district title.

"It wasn't pressure on me, but I was kind of like, 'OK, I have to do this for the team just to secure our district championship,'" Knott said. "Going out leading was a good moment for me because it gave me the confidence for sectionals and state to realize that I could be up there."

Knott followed up her performance with a sixth-place finish (19:23.74) at the Class 4 Sectional 1 meet and concluded her senior year at the Class 4 state meet, placing eighth with a time of 19:02.89 and leading the Indians to a historic state finish -- they took fourth in the team standings and became the first Jackson team since 1993 to reach the podium at state.

Knott's story is one that emerged from a teammate's adversity, making her a unique recipient of the Southeast Missourian Girls Runner of the Year award.

Jackson faced a number of challenges throughout the season, but none of those challenges loomed larger than when the Indians were forced to compete without the presence of Drum, a three-time conference champion whose senior year was altered by illness. Talley believes Knott's biggest transformation occurred when the team needed her the most.

"That was just so pivotal," Talley said about Knott's performance at the district meet. "All of us coaches have always known that she's had that in her, but it was about whether she believed she had that in her. There has to be a bright lining in any situation, and I think that was the bright lining in this whole dark cloud.

"The thing that we saw that came out of this whole experience was that she evolved. She became who we always knew she could be. ... Both girls are talented. Both girls are different types of runners, but this gave Carli the opportunity to know what she's capable of."

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2015 All-Missourian Cross Country - Carli Knott - Jackson High School (Glenn Landberg)

Knott began distance running in seventh grade but said she didn't truly start taking the sport seriously until her sophomore year. It was Drum who inspired the tenacity and showed what it took to become an all-state runner.

"She did so well, and she kind of just pumped me up for it," Knott said. "... It was never competitive with us. It was just about us making each other better. It's never a competition to see who can be one, two or three. It's always who can push the next person the farthest."

Drum saw Knott make one of her biggest strides at the Class 4 state track and field meet during their sophomore year. Knott earned all-state honors with an eighth-place finish in 58.84.

"That made her a lot more confident, I think, and just training together. I think we realized it was a lot more fun because I would spend a lot of days alone [at practice]," Drum said. "We just used each other to get faster."

Knott returned for her junior season of cross country and fared well at her first state meet. She placed 35th with a time of 19:49.11 and helped lead Jackson to an eighth-place finish in the team standings.

But eighth wasn't good enough for the Indians, who entered the 2015 season with both experience and a collective mindset geared toward setting the bar even higher.

"Going into senior year, Chelsea and I were just pumped for it," Knott said. "We knew we had a lot of good girls, so we just kind of set our goals higher than ever before. We were just confident about it. We were really more of a team than we've ever been before. We're all really close and stuff, so I think that helped a lot because we never really doubted each other. We always pumped each other up rather than just saying, 'Oh, it's OK, guys.'

"We just went for it."

Drum and Knott got off to a fast start in their senior season, including when they placed first and second, respectively, in the senior division of the Jackson Invitational in late August. They also finished first and second, respectively, at both the Cape Central Invitational and the Marshall County (Ky.) Invitational before turning in a pair of impressive finishes at the 27th Annual Chile Pepper Festival on Oct. 3 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Drum won the meet with a time of 17:46.23, and Knott finished close behind, placing 11th in 18:38.58.

Everything appeared to be building up for a momentous postseason until suddenly Drum came down with an unknown illness just before the Indians were set to compete at the SEMO Large Schools Conference Meet.

The Indians were able to defend their conference crown, but Drum was unable to defend her individual honors. Notre Dame's Alaina Baumgart won the meet with a time of 19:21.02 while Knott (19:39.89) and Drum (19:52.86) took second and third, respectively.

In a matter of days, a season that began with so much optimism became obscured by questions.

"It was kind of a downer when Chelsea got sick," Knott said. "I was really sad because she's worked so hard, but since we're such close friends, I think it kind of gave me the confidence to be like, 'OK, I've got to do this. I've got to step up.' I was scared at first. I wasn't used to having that confidence to just go out and try to win something."

Without Jackson's No. 1 runner, Knott led the way at the district meet. She took first, followed by teammates Kaylee Wilson (5, 20:06.70), Megan Barnum (6, 20:11.28), Leah Hecht (13, 20:48.60) and Ana Compton (22, 21:26.32).

Although she wasn't at full strength, Drum returned to compete at sectionals, finishing 10th in 19:38.50, before both runners capped their high school careers with all-state finishes at the finale.

"I guess we'll never know what could've happened had Chelsea been right there," Talley said about the performances at state. "She may have even gone faster. She definitely would've been pushed farther up, but she still had a great run.

"I think Carli was peaking, and I think she did have some of her better runs toward the end. Luckily she stayed healthy. I don't know what we would've done if she had gotten sick, too. I think it all just fell into place."

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Jackson senior Carli Knott runs to an 8th-place finish in the Class 4 race at the 2015 MSHSAA State Cross Country Championships.

Both runners will continue their careers at the Division I level.

Drum drew interest from Kentucky, Missouri, Saint Louis University, Missouri-Kansas City and Southeast Missouri State, but made a verbal commitment in early December to compete at Ole Miss.

On the other hand, Knott will remain close to home at Southeast. She received interest from SLU, Arkansas State and UMKC, but said she fell in love with the Redhawks' program after making an official visit. Her signing was officially announced on Nov. 19.

"Coach [Ryan] Lane's amazing. ... He's a different kind of coach, and I think I can work really well with that," said Knott, who plans on pursuing a degree in education with eyes on becoming a junior high math teacher. "It makes me excited, and I love all the girls and guys on the team. They remind me of my teammates now, so that was comforting."

Talley is confident that Knott will have no problem adjusting to competition at the college level.

"I think she'll have a really smooth transition because she listens," Talley said. "She knows to not go out and overtrain. She's got a good head on her shoulders, so she's not going to go out and do anything crazy. She's just going to improve and gradually increase her mileage and intensity. She's running through the winter and training, so she'll just keep building."

Coaches across Southeast Missouri struggled to identify one particular runner of the year, so Knott and Drum split those honors.

Their bond extends far beyond the sport, as they've known each other since they met as girl scouts in elementary school.

"I know a lot of people say, 'You get a lot of friends from sports, but they aren't your actual friends. They're just your friends because you spend so much time with them.' But I feel like Carli and I would be friends whether or not we were playing the sport," Drum said. "... Carli was probably running 22 or 23 minutes back in freshman year. I just think it's really awesome because as the second runner, you typically don't always get the attention compared to being at the top. I wouldn't change it. I had a great season with my team and everything."

When it comes to her high school cross country career, Knott said she'll never forget the many people she encountered. Among those is Talley, whose impact leaves Knott at a loss for words.

"She's just really special to me because obviously we've been through a lot. I look to her as a coach, but I also look to her as a mentor, too," Knott said. "... When she's down, we help her, and when we're down, she helps us, too. We work really well together, and sometimes we get frustrated at her and stuff, but she knows it's for a good cause."

Perhaps no one is more grateful than Talley. The longtime coach has no shortage of words when it comes to describing what Knott and Drum have meant to the program.

"That's at least an hourlong talk right there," Talley said jokingly. "It's just been a joy to coach them. As a program, it just made the younger kids believe. A lot of people believe there's some magic trick to being great as a distance runner, and it's just about putting in the hard work.

"... All programs, no matter what sport it is, have their ebbs and flows, high points and low points. Right now, we were just blessed to have runners like Carli and Chelsea because they influenced that next generation of runners -- those kids coming up through the ranks. I could talk forever on what they've brought to the program. We're just very lucky to say that we've had them together. That entire senior class has just been a very special class."