From staff reports
sports@joplinglobe.com
College Heights Christian claimed a pair of district cross country championships on Saturday.
East Newton won a Class 2 district girls title and finished second in the boys race, with each team qualifying for the state meet.
Carl Junction’s girls also qualified for state in Class 3.
The state cross country meet will be held Saturday in Jefferson City.
Area highlights:
Class 1
College Heights’ boys took the top three places in the District 5 meet held on the Missouri Southern State University soccer fields.
Caleb Hoover took first place with a time of 16 minutes, 25 seconds, which was 23 seconds ahead of defending state champion Trenton Morris, who was second, followed by Joshua Carter in 17:33.
Derek Hoover of College Heights was ninth in 19:03.
The College Heights girls also won the district meet, despite the performance of Clever’s Kelli McNabb, who won in 21:49.
Beth Good of College Heights placed second in 22:57, followed by Savannah Beaver, who was seventh, Sarah Calandro, who was ninth, and Hannah Sparlin, who was 12th.
Class 2
East Newton’s girls District 7 champions at Ash Grove were led by Haley Patterson, who finished second in 20:12, 14 seconds behind winner Maggie Tennal of Lamar. East Newton also took the next three places with Arielle Miller, Hannah Selby and Melissa Adams.
Caitlin Mann of East Newton was ninth and teammate Magen Lobitz was 12th.
Two other Lamar runners — Sarah Davis, who was eighth, and Tai Thrasher, who was 15th, also qualified for the state meet.
James Selby of East Newton won the boys’ district meet in 16:34. Teammates Jared Hopkins and Josh Martin finished 12th and 15th, respectively.
Two Lamar runners — Chase Burgess and Drew Buckner, also qualified for the state meet.
Class 3
Carl Junction’s girls qualified for the state meet with a second-place finish in the District 7 meet at Swope Park in Kansas City.
Chelo Falkner, Casey Keeling and Lauren Clement led Carl Junction, while Bethany Roy of Webb City also qualified for the state meet with a sixth-place finish.
In the boys’ race, Cameron Pittman of Carl Junction and Andrew Lane of Webb City qualified for the state meet.
In the district meet at Bolivar, McDonald County’s boys qualified for the state meet with a second-place finish behind West Plains. Michael Bridenstine led the Mustangs with an eighth-place finish in 17:39. Jordan Nofssinger was 11th and Spencer Paul was 12th.
Chris Renteria of Monett also qualified for the state meet by finishing 13th.
In the girls’ meet, won by West Plains, state qualifiers included Jessica Barrientos of Cassville and Hannah Martin of Monett.
Class 4
Jessica Jackson of Neosho won the girls’ sectional meet at Camdenton in 19:02, beating teammate Courtney Wood, who finished second, by 23 seconds.
Neosho’s girls were fourth in the team standings behind champion Springfield Kickapoo.
Kickapoo was second in the boys’ division even though Danny Thater of Kickapoo won the event in 16:03.
Columbia Rock Bridge was the boys’ sectional champion.
