This year’s Wellsville-Middletown Invitational on Sept. 18 was one to remember for Jenelle Boeckelman and Bethany Slovensky.

The W-M seniors not only got medals at the W-M Invitational, but they were also honored at a senior recognition ceremony which included their parents.

“This was our first senior night and our last home meet,” Slovensky said.

Slovensky earned a medal at the W-M meet for the second straight year after finishing seventh with a 25:45, while Boeckelman came in 12th with a 26:43 to receive her fourth W-M medal.

Slovensky said she was thrilled to get her first medal of the season in her last appearance at the W-M Invitational.

“I was halfway through and (Montgomery County coach) Chasity Rodgers was like, ‘Bethany, it’s your last time running here.’ I was, ‘Woo!’ I think that’s what got me through this,” Slovensky said.

Boeckelman picked up her second medal of the season. She started her senior year on Sept. 5 with a 12th-place finish at the Van-Far Invitational.

“It was much better than last year,” Boeckelman said. “Last year, I missed Van-Far and my first meet was at Linn. That was not a fun way to start my season at all.”

Now, the seniors are hoping to end their cross country careers with another trip to the Class 1 state meet. Slovensky and Boeckelman have a combined four state meet appearances.

“This is our sixth year doing (cross country),” Slovensky said. “I think it’s very rewarding to be able to run at state as many times as we did. We’re hoping to end it on a high note.”

If Slovensky and Boeckelman go to Columbia this year, they will extend the Tigers’ streak of consecutive years of having state qualifiers to 30.

“I want to keep my dad’s (W-M coach John Slovensky) streak alive,” Slovensky said. “I don’t want to ruin it in my last year. I want to put my heart into it.”

Boeckelman said the goal for her and Slovensky as the season approaches the final month is to continue decreasing their times. The Tigers have meets in Clopton (Oct. 2), Columbia (Oct. 7), Bowling Green (Oct. 20) and will compete in the Eastern Missouri Conference meet on Oct. 14 at North Callaway.

“We’re going to steadily work on getting better and running faster,” Boeckelman said.

Slovensky is the Tigers’ lone returning state qualifier from last year’s team. She finished with a 25:31 at the 2022 state meet. She qualified for Columbia when she was a freshman, but didn’t finish the race.

Boeckelman competed at state in her freshman and sophomore seasons, but didn’t qualify last year. She finished 52nd in last year’s district meet.

When Boeckelman and Slovensky were freshmen, they joined Layne Norris and Jacob Hollensteiner as the lone W-M representatives at the state meet. They finished with a combined nine medals.

The next year, Boeckelman was the Tigers’ top runner for most of the season and finished with four medals, including a 16th-place finish at districts that qualified her to state.

Last fall, Slovensky finished with four medals, including a 15th-place finish at the EMO meet for her first all-conference award. Boeckelman finished with an 11th-place medal at the W-M meet for her only medal of the year.

This year, Slovensky and Boeckelman are the only seniors on a girls team that has just three runners. The other runner on the team is freshman Aubrey Harmon.

“We don’t have a team,” Slovensky said. “Instead of a team, we’re more of a family with just the three of us. Jenelle and I have been doing this for six years. Now, we have Aubrey. I love her. We’re teaching her our ways.”