District cross country

Centralia boys state-bound for first time ever, girls return after 25 years

This season, the Centralia boys and girls have consistently finished within the top four at meets.

This kind of success for the program hasn’t been as consistent as, on Saturday in Fulton at th Class 3 District 3 meet, the Centralia boys qualified for the state meet for the first time in school history while a Lady Panther team will be heading to the state meet for the first time since 1996. Three boys earned all-district honors by finishing in the top 30, including JR Lesher, Carter Moss and Landon Moss, and four girls met the same requirements, namely Jozelynn Bostick, Kenedee Moss, Shelby Lewis and Annie Robinson.

The boys finished third with 108 points to fall within the top four teams qualification requirement and the girls were second with 88 points behind winner St. Charles West’s 70 points. Father Tolton won the boys district championship by finishing with 49 points. Southern Boone swept the individual titles as Conner Burns won the boys race with a time of 16:19.2 — holding off runner-up Bowling Green’s Ben Chance’s time of 16:21 — and Alexandra Volkart had a first-place time of 18:53.8.

For the Centralia boys, Lesher was seventh out of 116 runners with a time of 17:13.9, Carter Moss was 12th with a time of 17:47.1, Landon Moss was 18th with a time of 17:57.7 and Rohan Holiman missed all-district by one spot with a time of 18:14.2 — Fulton’s Kai Foster had a 30th-place time of 18:06.9. On the girls side, Bostick was fifth out of 104 runners with a time of 19:54.9, Kenedee Moss was 11th with a time of 20:33.7, Lewis was 15th with a time of 21:09, Annie Robinson was 29th with a time of 22:15.5 and Rylee Palmer had the next best finish with a 41st-place time of 23:11.1.

At the Class 3 state meet on Saturday at Gans Creek Cross Country Course, the girls are scheduled to run at 11:15 a.m., and the boys should start at noon.

Peuster, Ramsey to represent Mexico at state meet

Thomas Peuster and Maggie Ramsey have been leading Mexico cross country all season long and are now the final Bulldogs standing.

The senior Peuster qualified for this third straight state meet after finishing 14th with a time of 17:53.47 in the Class 4 District 3 meet at Parkway Central in Chesterfield, and the freshman Ramsey placed 22nd with a time of 22:06.76. The top 30 runners were named all-district and advanced to the Class 4 state meet on Friday at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.

Three Mexico boys finished within the top 50 out of 95 runners, and four girls placed in the top 50 out of 95 runners. For the boys, Guy Fairchild finished 46th with a time of 18:58.36, and Andrew Peuster placed 50th with a time of 19:07.61. On the girls side, Sidney Turlington finished 35th with a time of 22:51.49, Viviana Benjamin was 41st with a time of 23:01.43, and Kalea Henneberry raced to a 46th-place time of 23:12.09.

The boys finished eighth out of 13 schools with 220 points, and the girls were seventh out of 13 schools with 205 points.

Ramsey is scheduled to run in the girls race at 11:15 a.m. on Friday, and Peuster’s race should start after that at noon.

North Callaway’s Schmauch going to state third straight year

Pressley Schmauch is in her junior year at North Callaway High School. In that time, she is a three-time state runner.

Schmauch qualified for the Class 3 state meet for the third time after finishing 25th with a time of 21:49.7 on Saturday at the Class 3 District 3 meet in Fulton. She will be the lone North Callaway representative at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia for the second straight year as the top 30 individual runners were all-district and earned the honor.

Behind Schmauch, Grace Rasmussen was 46th out 104 runners with a time of 23:21.6 for the next best Lady finish. Brendan Reinhard had the top North Callaway boys’ time in 55th place out of 116 runners with a time of 19:08.8, and Tristan Young was 75th with a time of 19:53.8. Southern Boone swept the individual titles as Conner Burns won the boys race with a time of 16:19.2 — holding off runner-up Bowling Green’s Ben Chance’s time of 16:21 — and Alexandra Volkart had a first-place time of 18:53.8.

Schmauch is scheduled to run at 11:15 a.m. Saturday in the Class 3 girls race.

MMA’s Powell to go for two all-state nods in a row

After Bryson Powell finished 21st last year to earn all-state honors for Missouri Military Academy, the senior will have the chance to do it again.

On Saturday morning in Fulton, Powell finished seventh with a time of 17:51.7 to earn all-district honors in Class 2 District 3 and qualify for the Class 2 boys race at 9:45 a.m. Saturday at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia. The Colonels finished seventh out of 16 schools to improve on their ninth-place finish at last year’s district meet, with five total in the top 40 out of 120 runners.

Following Powell, Gerardo Quiroga had the next best finish with a 40th-place time of 19:30.2, Wayland Evans was 55th with a time of 20:23.7, Albert Ogutu finished 64th with a time of 20:55.4 and Alex Snyder was 69th with a time of 21:05.9.

Paris to send first-ever runners to state meet

In Paris’ first cross country season, the first three Coyotes are heading to the state meet.

For the girls, Mairyn Kinnaman and Alexandra Tullius finished fifth and eighth, respectively, with times of 22:12.1 and 23:18.4 at the Class 1 District 3 meet on Saturday morning in Fulton to fall within the top 30 all-district runners. Landen Chapman qualified in the boys race by finishing ninth with a time of 19:15.7.

David Elzea was the fourth Coyote to run as he took 62nd out of 89 runners with a time of 19:15.7.

Glasgow’s Addison Barringhaus won the girls individual title after racing to a time of 21:02.5, and Stoutland’s Bradley Shaw came in first in the boys race with a time of 17:57.6.

At the Class 1 state meet at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Kinnaman and Tullius are scheduled to run at 1:30 p.m., and Chapman should start at 2:15 p.m.

Van-Far’s Childs finishes 34th at district meet

Van-Far sophomore Erin Childs missed the state meet by seconds on Saturday morning.

Childs finished 34th with a time of 25:43.7 in the Class 1 District 3 meet in Fulton, trailing the 30th-place time owned by Glasgow’s Kaitlyn Monnig by 31 seconds. The top 30 runners in each race were named all-district and qualified for the state meet Saturday at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.

On the boys side, Richard Hayden was Van-Far’s lone runner, and he finished 69th out of 89 runners with a time of 24:01.8.

Community R-6’s Jennings runs fastest two-mile split at districts

Community R-6’s Callie Jennings finished 73rd out of 80 runners on Saturday morning in the Class 1 District 3 meet but capped her sophomore year well.

Jennings ran her fastest two-mile split of the season on the 5,000-meter course at the Fulton Athletic Complex. She raced to a time of 31:18.7.

Look for the full stories in the Nov. 2, 2022, edition of The Mexico Ledger or on the website on the same day.

District boys soccer

Mexico defeats Wright City 3-2 in rematch to advance to district semis

For the Mexico boys on Saturday, they thought they should “go for goal.”

That’s what head coach Bill Gleeson told defender Marcos Matuz before he booted a free kick in No. 6 seed Mexico’s 3-2 victory against No. 3 Wright City in the Class 2 District 4 Tournament at Chris Hotop Field in Mexico. Matuz’s goal gave the Bulldogs (8-15) the 2-1 lead at the time before midfielder Gage Walker scored the go-ahead goal at point blank range within the final 10 minutes.

Bulldogs advance to district semifinals

Wright City, after being beaten by Mexico 4-2 in the regular season meet after allowing three second-half goals, outshot the Bulldogs 23-15 while doubling Mexico in shots on goal at 14-7. Despite that, the Bulldog back line, led by defender Declan Gleeson, beefed up the defense in the second half.

Bill Gleeson said it is always difficult to beat a team twice, and Saturday was no different as Wright City (11-9-1) “came off kicking.” On six different instances in the first half, the Wildcats popped a pass over or through the Mexico defense to set up a solo breakaway for, oftentimes, Ricardo Uribe. Uribe scored the game’s first goal in the seventh minute, but Wright City didn’t score its next goal until the 60th minute.

“We talked about how we need to play a little more aggressive in the midfield to take away that ability,” Gleeson said. “They were just trying to chip it over and then run it in. Defense-wise, we talked about keeping the back line solid because I had one of my JV players (freshman Jace DeVault) who is just playing districts now as one of my backs. He was playing a little far back, and he’d leave them on. We just talked about, ‘Hey, make sure you are even with the middles or even a little bit ahead of the middles.’”

Declan Gleeson took a long boot that almost moved past the goalkeeper only for it to be knocked in by Keegan Koons on the rebound to tie the game at 1 in the 35th minute. Eight minutes into the second half, Matuz was awarded a free kick and was wondering what he should do.

“He asked me, ‘Do you want me to go for goal or you want me to make the pass,’” Gleeson said. “I said, ‘Go for goal.’”

From almost midfield, the shot arced over the keeper into the net for the 2-1 Mexico lead. Wright City tied the game at 2 after Andrew Reynolds scored off a cross pass in the 60th minute.

From that point, the game seemed to become even more physical. This didn’t faze Declan Gleeson as his coach and father says he isn’t afraid of a little contact, whether it be from the ball to prevent a goal or from an opposing player to fight for possession or clear the ball.

“It was a very physical game,” Gleeson said. “When you have players that can play physically, which Declan plays a very physical game, that helps out a lot.”

Emille Scanavino finished with 11 saves, and Gleeson had several of his own after throwing his body in front of a shot.

The goalkeepers, including Scanavino weren’t immune to the contact displayed in the game as the Mexico goalie slid down to halt a Wright City breakaway before a Wildcat could record a shot. The Wright City goalkeeper tried to do the same against Walker in the 72nd minute, but Walker executed a juke to the left before pushing in the close-range goal.

“They answered back and then we would answer right back,” Gleeson said.

In the district semifinals at 7 p.m. Monday, Mexico faces No. 2 Southern Boone (10-10-1) for the second time this season after the Eagles defeated Moberly 6-1 on Saturday. A win would match Mexico’s best win total for a single season in seven years and advance the Bulldogs to their first district title game since 2019.

Gleeson said playing on Southern Boone’s grass field in the team’s regular season meeting might have contributed to the 5-0 loss in late September, but more importantly, Mexico needs to maintain physicality to better compete with the Eagles this time.

“That was also a very physical game, and we couldn’t adjust to the physicality of that,” Gleeson said. “I think they’ll see a different team. I hope they kind of take us a little bit for granted because we’re good at playing at that underdog kind of position coming in.”