AREA CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS WIN SHARE AT JACKSON INVITATIONAL

JACKSON -- It was a perfect day for a jaunt through the park Saturday, and since the Jackson Invitational cross country meet was already scheduled, 15 high school teams took advantage of the weather.

Four area teams came away with team titles in the eight different high school divisions. Divisions were divided by grade (senior through freshmen) for both boys and girls.

For the boys, Perryville's seniors, Kelly's juniors and Cape Central's freshmen all won their divisions. Kelly's Nathan King led the Hawks juniors to first place by winning the 2.35-mile race in a time of 13:22.

"Nathan ran No. 3 for us last year," said Kelly coach Bill Davis, referring to last year's state championship team. "He's stepped up and has done real well for us."

Russ Mothershead (fourth) and Luke Schote (eighth) also placed in the top 10 for the winning Hawks' team.

For the girls, Jackson's sophomores took first and the Lady Indian juniors second. Kelly's freshmen girls placed second also. Julie Wunderlich led Jackson's sophomores to victory, winning her race in a time of 15:14. Three other Jackson runners -- Sarah Schlick (fourth), Lisa Sappington (seventh) and Jodie Brunke (10th) -- placed in the top 10.

"We have a good group of sophomores and juniors and we're pretty excited about them," said Jackson coach Jim Stoverink. "Us and Cape have two good teams that people will have to look out for."

King and Wunderlich were the only local runners to earn first place individually.

Perryville earned its win by placing three runners in the top 10 of the senior boys run. Tyson Brown's second-place finish led all Pirate runners, followed by Ryan Hohnadel (fifth) and Nathan Davis (ninth).

Perryville coach Dean Lewis, entering his first year at the school and as a cross country coach, was ecstatic with his senior runners.

"Taking this home from a meet this size, that just says a lot about the kids," Lewis said admiring the Pirates' first-place plaque. "We've exceeded our expectations already. I didn't expect to come out and have three guys in the top 10 like we did."

Cape Central's freshmen, garnered three top 10 spots for their victory. Mark Stone (fourth), Justin Hawkins (seventh) and Ross Tilghman (ninth) helped combine for the win.

For further results, see today's Scoreboard.