By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
PLATO, MO – During Saturday’s Class 2 District 2 cross country team championship, the Stockton girls held serve as a pre-race favorite, while a young Alton boys squad stepped up and pulled off a surprise upset.
GIRLS RACE
Following a fourth-place finish at the state last year, the Stockton girls had reason to be confident heading into the district meet.
A confidence that proved to be warranted, as the Tigers placed all five runners in the top ten en route to a decisive 25-71 victory over Alton in the team competition.
Zoe Rains (2 – 21:52.76), Lydia Bahr (3 – 21:55.46), Lillie Burchett (4 – 21:58.52), Jenna Black (7 – 22:15.31) and Camryn Lubeski (9 – 23:11.76) paced Stockton with a textbook display of pack running throughout the race.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GIRLS RACE
“We kind of focus on pack running,” Stockton head coach Ryan Pate said. “We have a big group of girls that are all around the same talent level, so we figure we might as well use each other as much as we can. It really helps in the second half of the race to go to battle whenever you have teammates around you, so that’s kind of the mentality we have.”
Pate believes the performance and preparation has his squad positioned in the title mix headed into next week’s state championship meet.
“There’s a few really good squads out there, but I guess we’ll figure it all out next week,” Pate said. “I think we’ll be right there fighting for a title, hopefully. We’re definitely contenders.”
Pierce City (78) and Spokane (105) finished third and fourth, respectively, to qualify for the state championship, as well.
Pierce City’s Emma Hunt captured the individual crown with a time of 19:49.42.
BOYS RACE
Heading into Saturday’s race, Alton head coach Michael Cockrum believed his team was more than capable of pulling off a victory.
Chaska Shearin (3 – 17:36.50), William Mueller (7 – 18:38.31), Cameron Hardwick (10 – 18:56.79), Haylin Adolphson (27 – 19:41.37) and Justus Waltz (36 – 20:26.34) did their part on the course to prove Cockrum right.
The Comets prevailed by a razor thin margin, 83-88, over second-place Stockton in the day’s closest battle in the team standings.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE BOYS RACE
“We did better than I was expecting,” Cockrum said. “I was hoping to get maybe third, but we’re young. We’ve got one junior, two sophomores and two freshmen. I just told the kids, ‘you’ve trained, and you have the right to be here – let’s go see what happens.’”
New Heights Christian Academy and New Covenant Academy each scored 105 points to round out the state qualifying teams.
New Heights’ Colton McMillan won the individual overall with a time of 16:55.52.
