ShawneeDispatch.com

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

At the beginning of the 2006 cross country season Shawnee Mission Northwest head coach Van Rose saw a lot of new faces on his varsity squad. Having to replace a strong senior class and defending the state championship title for the 12th year in a row were tough tasks even for a proven coach like Rose. With just two runners with varsity experience in his crew of eight and early race returns not being what the Cougar faithful had become used to, many wondered if 2006 was the year that "The Streak" would come to an end.

Members of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School's 13th-straight state championship cross country squad show off their trophy. The Cougars won the 6A state title last Saturday in Lawrence.

In the end, however, Rose's patience with his new squad -- along with his challenging schedule -- gave the Cougars boys' squad the tools it needed to claim the 2006 Kansas 6A State Championship -- their 13th in a row -- Saturday at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence. The Cougars outpaced all of their opponents with a score of 65, 36 points ahead of nearest competitor, Maize, which scored 101.

It was a race in which Rose allowed his best runner, senior Josh Weems, to run away from the pack in search of a high individual finish. Though the lack of a leader broke up the pack somewhat, Rose felt that he owed it to Weems to let him try for the individual title.

"In all fairness to Josh, we kind of thought we needed to see how far he can go,'" Rose said. "Our pack wasn't there so we had a bunch of kids trying to race on their own, but we had great running from Jared Ellsworth and Daniel Munro -- two rookie racers."

Indeed, Weems, Ellsworth and Munro combined to take three of the first 13 spots in the 100-runner field, and six of the seven Cougars finished in the top half of all competitors. Weems took second with a time of 16:33, while junior Ellsworth finished 11th at 17:13. Munro, a sophomore, earned 13th with a mark of 17:15, and senior Michael Hauber finished 27th at 17:30. Junior Diego Ladron was 38th at 17:40 and freshman Keaton Jones took home 42nd at 17:43.

The Cougars' finishes came despite tricky terrain at Rim Rock, where the Big 12 Cross Country Championships were run one day earlier. Rose felt that, and the pristine weather, helped his team.

"The day was fantastic," Rose said. "The Big 12 kind of packed down the course for us. There were parts with mud but it was easy to go around. We were prepared for that."

For Rose, this title may be sweeter than some of the others, years in which his teams were laden with All-American-type talent. This season Rose had to work many more inexperienced runners into his lineup and the runners didn't have much time to warmup as they were thrown into meets that Rose had scheduled across the Midwest against some of the country's top competition.

"I think the thing that is the most satisfying is that out of our eight kids -- our seven varsity and our one alternate -- six of these kids had never been here before," Rose said. "This was their first time to step on the state course and now they're state champions."

The Cougars' runners had their spirits buoyed by a large contingent of Northwest cross country alumni and current 'B' and 'C' team runners who came out to watch the race and cheer on their teammates. The alumni gathering has become a tradition at the state meet for Northwest and each year it has appeared to pay off.

"It was absolutely huge," said Rose of the Northwest turnout. "I'm not sure if that scares the kids or excites them, but I just try to tell them, 'Hey, all these people are here to pour their energy into you.'"

With four of the seven varsity runners returning to race next year, Rose can go into the offseason knowing that, unlike this year, he won't face as many unknowns when he kicks off the 2007 season.

"We have a good group coming back," Rose said. "Hopefully, they'll take some experience from this and have more confidence next year."