Central shines in district, shifts focus to sectional

Led by a winning performance by Jennifer Pancoast, Central defended its Class 4, District 1 cross country title Saturday at Jackson City Park.

Central qualified both its boys and girls teams for Saturday's sectional meet at Jefferson Barracks Park in St. Louis. Central's boys finished with 83 points to finish behind Fox (57) and Lindbergh (83).

Jackson's boys placed sixth with 126 points, outside the top four teams that qualified for the sectional. Jackson's girls did make the cut, placing fourth with 81 points and winning a tie-breaker with Northwest. Central led the eight-team field with 70 followed by Lindbergh (76) and Fox (78).

Pancoast, a sophomore, continued her strong season by covering the 3.1-mile layout in 19 minutes, 25 seconds.

"She's peaking, and the rest of the team is, too," Central coach Mark Hahn said.

Central's girls won the SEMO Conference meet the previous week.

"That helped today," Hahn said. "They used that as a springboard and have continued to improve a little every week."

Also forming the Tigers' team score were Holly Shaffer (13th), Cassie Kipper (17th), Linnea Woldtvedt (21st) and Mallory Wilson (22nd).

Rachel Lowes finished eighth to lead Jackson's girls. Lowes was followed by Ashley Meyr (12th), Kasey Parrott (18th), Rachel Schmidt (20th) and Chelsea Brown (26th). The Indians' sixth girl, Crystal Hudek, won the tie-breaker with Northwest by placing 30th.

Ross McDonald of Poplar Bluff won the boys' race.

Alex Schneider (17:25) placed eighth to pace the Tigers. Rounding out Central's team score were Daniel Austin (17th), Mike Gerber (18th), Corey Huskey (19th) and Trevor Duncan (21st).

The top 30 individuals also advance to the sectional. That group includes Jackson's T.J. Humphrey (13th) and Joe Golightly (16th).

BOYS' SOCCER

Notre Dame 1, John Burroughs 0

Josh Essner scored an unassisted goal midway through the second half to break a scoreless tie and give the Bulldogs (15-4) a home win.

Both teams had numerous scoring chances in the game but Travis Siebert and David Unterreiner combined for the shutout.

Notre Dame's JV (13-1-3) won 2-1. The Bulldogs' goals came from Elliot Vance and Frankie Ellis.

VOLLEYBALL

Eagle Ridge 2nd in state

Eagle Ridge lost in three sets to rival Southern Missouri in the championship game of the Missouri Christian School Athletic Association state tournament in Joplin, Mo.

Eagle Ridge (25-3) won the first game 17-15, but saw Southern Missouri Christian School of Poplar Bluff, Mo., rebound 15-7, 15-2. Southern Missouri accounted for all three of Eagle Ridge's losses on the season.

Earlier in the day, Eagle Ridge defeated Camden Christian in the semifinals 15-11, 8-15, 15-3. The Eagles also won a three-set match Friday in the first round of bracket play, defeating People's Christian in rally scoring 14-25, 25-21, 25-16.

Eagle Ridge reached bracket play by winning its six-team pool with a 9-1 record.

The Cape Girardeau school had three players chosen for the all-state teams. Tara Ervin and Rachel Carbaugh were selected to the first team and Ashley Hughes was chosen second team.

Ervin had 37 service points in the tournament, including 19 aces. She also had 6 kills. Carbaugh had 30 aces among her 34 service points and had 48 kills. Hughes had 17 aces among her 46 service points and had 193 assists.

-- From staff reports