St. Vincent’s boys cross country team — or at least one member — is already drawing a bit of attention even before the season begins.
When the Missouri State High School Activities Association issued its 2025 Cross Country Manual, the rule book used by all competing schools in the state, was issued earlier this year, it featured a picture of St. Vincent junior runner Carter Henneman in all his glory, running at the state meet last year.
“I don’t know how they go about deciding, you know, who makes the makes the cover,” said St. Vincent coach John McClain. “And then Madeline Grifford, she was a senior last year at Valle, and was a very accomplished runner herself.
“Carter’s a very successful, talented runner, and had a great season, so I think if anyone deserves kind of a place on there, there’s probably lots of runners in that group, but he’s definitely one of them.”
After the manual was released, a social media post on the team’s Facebook page shared the image of the cover, along with the message: “This year’s state cross country manual is out, and we spotted a familiar face on the cover. Don’t worry. We’re pretty sure this doesn’t work like Madden, and Carter and the rest of our team are ready for the year ahead.”
Rather famously, athletes chosen for the cover of EA Sports’ annual “Madden” NFL football video games have often had disastrous, or at least less-than-stellar seasons, giving rise to the “Madden Curse.”
Last season, Henneman set the school 5,000-meter record in his second full-length race, and finished 11th in the state championship meet as a sophomore, two spots down from his 2023 finish.
“Carter individually had a great season,” McClain said. “It was an interesting season. I mean, he started off really, really well. He ended up finishing fourth at districts, actually got beat by Woodland’s number two runner. But that kind of I think lit a fire under him a lot. “He finished 11th at the state meet, which was two places back from where he was as a freshman. He finished ninth as a freshmen. So in that sense, I think there was maybe a little bit of disappointment, but in the end, he was the fastest of all the runners from our district, so all three of those other gentlemen that beat him at districts, he finished in front of all of them, so I think that was a good sense of a bounce back. I think in the end, he ended the season on a really positive note.”
McClain said that, despite the unexpected callout, Henneman’s teammates haven’t given him much trouble and he expects the junior to have another good season.
“He’s, by far, been our most successful runner the last year, for sure,” McClain said. “And even the year before had a lot of success as a freshman. We don’t have any seniors on our team this year. So he’s a junior this year, but he’s already stepped up to kind of be the leader of the team without that senior presence.
“So, I think, if they, if the team got to pick somebody from the boys to be on there, I think they probably would have chosen him anyway.”
The Indians will open their cross country season on Aug. 30 at Jackson.
