Woodland’s Calvin Layton keeps sibling legacy alive with Heartland Conference championship

Woodland’s star cross country runner Reed Layton has won the Heartland conference championship for three straight years.

Even though he graduated this past spring, his younger brother, Calvin, kept the family legacy alive by winning the conference championship Tuesday, Oct. 22, in Cape Girardeau.

“It's definitely exciting,” Layton said. “I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to run with him while he was in high school. It's really important to me and I think the school for me to be able to run and win this again.”

Layton ran side by side with his older brother last year when he was the one winning all the races and leading the Cardinals. Only the slimmest of margins separated them.

With Reed moving on to the next phase of his life, Calvin is free to finish ahead of the pack in his junior season. Yet, without having someone to chase or someone to be chased has proved to be challenging in itself.

“I like being the top dog at Woodland,” Layton said. “But it definitely is a lot harder to push myself without a guy always being there to rely on pace. I haven't been running quite as fast at all my meets, but I do like being able to lead the team.”

The Heartland Conference championship meet is set at Cape County Park North, a course where not even the meet champions establish personal records.

“I think this course is by far the most hilly,” Layton said. “Obviously, hills all over the place, there's a lot of sidewalk to run on that's hard on spikes. But it's not really about time. It's more about place at a course like this.”

With Layton and senior Hayden Vangennip, who finished third in the race, the Cardinals are expected to make a repeat run at the Class 2 state championships.

“Right now, I think Mo MileSplit has us projected No. 1 as a team in Class 2,” Layton said. “So I think we have a very good shot to go back-to-back.”