Trojans, Hunters and Tigers are headed to State

By DONN ADAMSON
Daily Journal Sports Editor

The District cross country boys and girls races were held on Saturday with the top two qualifying teams and the top 15 runners in each race earning All-District honors and the right to run in the State Meet this Saturday in Jefferson City.

Three  MAAA schools will have teams in the state meet as the Potosi Trojans, the Ste. Genevieve Hunters and the Arcadia Valley Tigers all took second place in their respective races. Five individual runners also earned passage to the State Meet.

Class 3, District 1

FARMINGTON — The Potosi Trojans placed second behind the Cape-Notre Dame Bulldogs in the boys race at Farmington’s Engler Park. The Bulldogs had four runners finish in the top 15 to record a team point total of 39. Potosi’s runners took first and second to aid the team score of 45, just three points ahead of third-place Festus.

For Potosi, Jacob Swearingen set what was believed to be a course record with a time of 15:33. Nick Niggemann was second with a time of 15:54. Freshman Justin Doss came in 10th at 16:51, Devin Hampton was 18th at 17:23, and Jacob Mathis came in 19th at 17:25.

Notre Dame’s first runner was Wynn McClellan, placing third at 16:17, Logan Davis came in sixth at 16:47 and Dillon Klaffer was one second later for seventh. Ryan Johnson took ninth with a time of 16:51, just a step ahead of Potosi’s Doss.

Festus also had four runners in the top 15. Cole Allison was fourth at 16:33, Blake Darnell was fifth at 16:43, Christian Moore was 14th at 17:09 and Shane Brown edged out his teammate Zach Abernathy to take 15th at 17:10.

Erich Diesel placed eighth for Ste. Genevieve with a time of 16:50, and Corey Samples came in 12th at 17:01. Farmington’s Colton Wooldridge placed 11th with a time of 17:00, and St. Mary’s Joel Lindquiust was 13th at 17:03.

 There were eight teams entered in the boys race with a total of 57 runners. Area school runners not in the Top 15 were: Farmington - 20. Ryan Hathaway 17:37, 23. Ben Schwalenberg 17:51, 28. Corey Pinkley 18:04, 32. Derrick Scales 18:17, 41. Alex Rhodes 18:46. North County - 25. Alex Leutzinger 17:54, 29. Garrett Degonia 18:05, 33. Steven Nowicki 18:22, 42. Corey Pratte 18:52, 43. Gary Bennett 19:15, 45. Cody Anderson 19:23, 47. Justin Whaley 19:41. Ste. Genevieve - 30. Ryan Oberle 18:13, 46. John Inman 19:27.

Girls Race —

Festus finished with a total of 31 points just six ahead of Ste. Genevieve’s 37. Both teams had five runners finish in the Top 15.

Alyssa Allison was the banner runner for the first-place, Festus Lady Tigers with a first-place finish of 18:51, just 17 seconds ahead of Potosi’s Sarah White, who was her school’s lone qualifier in the girls’ race.

Allison was joined in the Top 15 by teammates Sadie Darnell, third at 19:37, Tiffany Smith, fifth at 20:17, Nichole Beffa, 12th at 20:45, and Lainey Foltz, 14th at 20:54.

Top 15 finishers for the Hunters were 4th- Lydia Huelskamp 19:48, 6th- Nicole Rottler 20:24, 8th- Ashley Brewster  20:30, 9th- Jennifer Bauman 20:31, and 15th- Linzie Bauer 20:56. Ste. Genevieve’s Holy Schilly was 21st at 21:55, and Paige Samples was 23rd at 22:14.

The last four qualifying spots went to North County’s Alissa Dickey who came in at 20:51 for 13th place, Tara Chronister of De Soto - seventh place at 20:30, Tori Pfau of Cape-Notre Dame 10th place at 20:41, and Ashlie Ketcherside of Hillsboro - 11th at 20:43.

There were eight schools entered with a total of 55 runners. Area school runners not in the Top 15 were: Potosi - 18. Nikole Johnson 21:48. Farmington - 16. Justine Allison 21:08, 20. Angela Turner 21:49, 29 Jacqueline Wolf 22:43, 34. Taylin Persons 23:01, 39. Cassidy Whitener 23:20, 41. Alexis Kiefer 23:40, 42. Alexis King 23:56. North County - 28. Whitney Welch 22:41, 30. Kelsey White 22:44, 33. Taylor Weible 22:57, 36. Chelsea Vogelsang 23:05, 37. Keila Nesler 23:09, 47. Karley Monroe 25:13.

Class 2, District 1

ST. LOUIS — The Arcadia Valley Tigers placed second (54) behind the Herculaneum Blackcats (22) in a race the Blackcats dominated by having all seven of their runners finish in the Top 10. Alex Mason won the race for the Blackcats.

The trip to state will be the first time a cross counry team from Arcadia Valley has made the trip.

Arcadia Valley’s Jeff Kostedt placed second at 17:26 , Caleb Sutton came in fourth at 17:42, and Alvon Poole finished in 11th at 18:36 with all three receiving All-District honors. Drake Ackley came in 17th at 19:42, and Jimmy Morey was 25th at 21:05.

The Kingston Cougars had two runners in the race with Justin West placing 23rd and Joe Sulzer finishing 31st (times were not available).

Girls Race —

The Arcadia Valley Lady Tigers and the Kingston Lady Cougars had one runner each in the girls race. Katia Barzowski placed 30th for Arcadia Valley with a time of 28:06, and Megan Thebeau came in 33rd for Kingston with a time of 31:37.