Ste. Genevieve will send both CC teams to state

ST. LOUIS —  Ste. Genevieve’s boys and girls teams both earned the right to run in the Class 3 State Meet held this coming Saturday in Jefferson City.  The Lady Hunters finished first in the girls District 1 race, and the Dragons won second place in the boys race. The races were run on the Jefferson Barracks Park’s course.

Ste. Genevieve —

The opening race of the meet quickly became a two-girl race as Ste. Genevieve freshman Taylor Werner and Potosi senior Sarah Jacobsen braved the sub-40’s temperature to leave the rest of the field behind early in the  3.1 mile race.

Werner gained a 15-second edge on Jacobsen after one-third of the race had been covered, and she would keep widening the gap at the same pace until at the finish line she crossed in 18:15.3, forty-five seconds ahead of Jacobsen, but it would be nearly another full minute before Shelby Werner of Ste. Genevieve crossed the finish line in third place.

Breanna Conklin of Cape-Notre Dame  placed fourth with Kaitlin Elbl of Festus taking fifth. At 20:33, for the next seven seconds it was a sea of green crossing the finish line as Mia Jerman, Rachel Huck, Morgan Grither and Mallory Koller placed sixth through ninth in that order for the Lady Hunters. Senior Molly Huck finished 21st with a time of 22:22.4.

The block of four Ste. Genevieve girls helped concrete the first-place, 21-point finish for the team as immediately following were four Festus runners. Festus placed second with a score of 46.

Andrew Moore, a junior, took top honors for Ste. Genevieve as he crossed the finish line in 16 minutes and 23.4 seconds to win the boys race, twenty-three seconds ahead of Festus’ Michael Karls in second place.

With the exception of a seventh-place Hillsboro runner and two Cape-Notre Dame runners who came in 14th and 15th, the 15 qualifying spots for the boys were all Ste. Genevieve, Festus and Potosi runners.

Tyler Uhrich placed fourth and Jacob Pinkley came in 11th for the Dragons. Senior Joshua Daugette finished 19th and sophomore Travis Operle finished 27th. Blake Engel placed 51st with a time of 20:44.9

Festus won first-place as a team with 25 points by having their first five runners finish in the top 10. Ste. Genevieve finished with 62 points, and Potosi placed third with 76.

Potosi —

Jacobsen’s second place finish at 19:00.9 qualified her to make her third trip to the State Meet. Freshman Clarice Casner, Potosi’s only other girl runner, placed 22nd with a time of 22:28.3.

Potosi was able to field a full team with five runners participating. Junior Thomas Gross led the squad with a time of 17:07.6 to finish in eighth place. Freshman Austin King took 10th with a time of 17:12.1, and Jacob Reese placed 12th at 17:18.8.

Sophomore Austin Smith missed qualifying for State by one place as he finished 16th at 17:32.0, and freshman Chris Smith placed 31st with a time of 19:47.2.

North County —

Junior Emilee Pierce recorded North County’s best finish as she placed 24th with a time of 22:49.5. Kristin Godier finished the race in 26:21.3 for 43rd, and Martha Peacock came in 45th at 27:02.1

Sophomore Jacob Stahlman ran the course in 19:43.2 to take 30th in the boys race. Kevin Tinker came in 36th at 20:17.4, and senior Kipp Landers finished his high school career with a 62nd-place finish of 23:14.5