Area cross country yields three district champions

By DONN ADAMSON
Daily Journal Sports Editor

District meets for high school cross country were held across the state on Saturday and the area high schools fared very well. Saga Barzowski of Arcadia Valley and Jacob Grass of Valle won their respective meets to join Potosi’s Sarah Jacobsen as district champions (See Sunday’s Daily Journal for results of the Class 3 District 1 meet held at Farmington).

Class 2, District 1

ST. LOUIS — Saga Barzowski, a freshman, has won nearly every meet she has been entered in and on Saturday she added a district championship to her medal collection. Barzowski ran the muddied course at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis in a time of 20:01, to beat out second-place Kaitlyn Fischer of Herculaneum by 27 seconds.

Barzowski will be joined by teammate Mary McGill who placed 13th at the state meet this Saturday in Jefferson City.

In the boys meet, Caleb Sutton of Arcadia Valley placed second with a time of 20:28, just eight seconds behind Alex Mason of Herculaneum. Also qualifying from Arcadia Valley for State with Sutton was teammate Jeff Kostedt in 8th place. Arcadia Valley’s Eric Bennett (32), Jimmy Morey (41) and Matt Lubbers (44) along with Ross Politte (50) also ran in the district meet.

Class 1, District 1

JACKSON — Valle’s Jacob Grass passed Oak Ridge’s Ethan Seyer in the last half-mile of their 3.1 mile race, and Grass was able to hold on, finishing with a time of 18:57, to best Seyer by six seconds and win his and Valle’s first district champion medal.

The Warriors will have three runners participating in the State Meet. Jeremy Abts placed 11th, and Andrew Naeger came in 12th to join Grass in winning a medal at Districts. Valle’s Andrew Bauman  and Parker Davis finished in 34th and 35th places.

This is Valle’s first year of having cross county as a varsity sport and they placed third in the meet  with 93 points, behind Oak Ridge (38) and Valley Park (71).