Barrett Jesina competes in a cross country meet last season. Jesina began this season with a 4th place finish at the Marshalltown Early Bird Invite. FILE PHOTO

MARSHALLTOWN — The 2025 STC cross country team traveled to Marshalltown on Thursday, August 28, to begin their season at the annual Early Bird Invite. Having to cancel the meet many of the past few seasons due to the heat, the team was able to get the early competition in this year under first year coach Edgar Tapia.

The evening was highlighted by a top-five finish for Trojan senior Barrett Jesina. A two-time state meet qualifier, Jesina kicked off his final XC campaign by finishing fourth with a time of 17:05.

“I felt really good the first mile,” said Jesina after the race. “But, then, I hit the hills and I started dying.”

It was a challenging race for Jesina, whose personal best time in cross country is 16:23.

“I went out a bit too fast and I also was running alone a lot of the race, which made it difficult,” he said.

Still, it was a strong opening meet for the senior who finished behind Marshalltown’s Preston Johnson (15:25), Grundy Center’s Emerson Vokes (15:54) and Marshalltown’s Carter Nunn (16:43).

In other boys action, Jesina was joined by four underclassmen for the Trojans. Coming in second place for the team, in his first varsity race, was freshman Max Schirmer (25th place, 19:51). Jesina’s younger brother, sophomore Brady Jesina, came in third for the team (34th place, 20:08). He was followed by freshman Riley Stubbs (65th place, 28:22) and freshman Nolan Arp (66th, 28:36).

As a team, the boys finished in seventh place out of eleven teams. Scoring 194 points, STC finished ahead of Ottumwa (224), North Mahaska (242), Waterloo East (267) and Gladbrook-Reinbeck (268).

On the girls side, STC ran three athletes in Marshalltown. Junior Livia Smith finished first on the team, coming in 55th place with a time of 30:54. She was followed by sophomore Jayva Gomez (59th place, 34:55) and sophomore Cahysia Kapayou (60th place, 34:58).

The Trojan runners travel to Grinnell on Tuesday, Sept. 9, to compete at the annual XC Invite at Ahrens Park. This will be followed by the South Tama Coed Invite, which will take place on Monday, Sept. 15, at the STC high school campus.