CROSS COUNTRY: LADY INDIAN RUNNERS CLAIM DISTRICT CROWN

JACKSON, Mo. -- Jackson's Krista Mouser won the Class 4A, District 1 girls cross country title Saturday.

Not bad for a kid in her first year of running cross country.

Mouser's surprising first-place finish in 20:09 helped lead the Lady Indians to a team title as well.

It was Mouser's personal-best time and her first win of the season.

And her improvement this season is indicative of the team's progress as Jackson beat Cape Central for the first time this year. Central, the defending district champs, settled for third on the girls side (66 points) and took second on the boys side with 66 points.

The top four boys and girls teams and the top 30 individuals advanced to next Saturday's sectional meet at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis.

Oakville (75 points) and Lindbergh (81 points) also qualified for sectionals in the girls competition, while Northwest took first place in the boys race with 56 points, followed by Central, Fox (73) and Lindbergh (124).

But the buzz around Jackson Park was focused on the Lady Indians.

Mouser had been a member of the track team for the past couple of years, but Jackson coach Andrea Talley finally convinced the junior to try out for cross country this year.

"It's just been sheer work on her part," said Talley.

"She had never done a preseason program before and this year she ran during the summer."

Still, Mouser was somewhat shocked that she won.

"I'm very excited," said Mouser. "It was a big surprise." Mouser also admitted she may have been a big lucky too.

Path to nowhere

Near the end of the race, two Oakville runners were just ahead of her, but they started to take the wrong route on the 3.1-mile course. Mouser shouted at them that they were going the wrong way and saved them from disaster. But she also took the lead at that point and won by two seconds.

When asked if she would've won the race if that had not happened, Mouser grinned and said "probably not." Jackson had three runners place in the top 10 and earn medals as the Lady Indians had a score of 55, 20 points ahead of second-place Oakville and 24 points ahead of Cape Central.

Jackson's Carol Koenig took seventh place in 20:51 and Laura Unverferth -- who has battled injury and asthma the entire season -- took 10th in 21:02, pulling ahead of Cape Central's Whitney Pingel at the very last moment and beating her by less than .4 seconds. Nicole Fadler took 13th in 21:21 and Kristin Smith took 27th in 22:28.

"This team should've been beating some of these teams from the beginning, but we've been so beat up," Talley said. "We've really come on strong." Cape Central's girls' team, which figured to challenge for the title, did not have its best day.

Kim Pancoast took fourth in 20:27 but didn't have her normal kick. Lainie Bohnsack took 20th in 22:04, Magin Patrick took 22nd in 22:06, Casey Brennan took 26th in 22:26 and Rachel Sprigg finished 30th in 22:48.

"In a way it's disappointing because we were capable of winning it," said Cape Central coach Mark Hahn of his girls team. "But all of our girls were in the top 30 so that makes you confident in your team going into sectionals. We did run hard, but Jackson ran extremely well. They were tough today."

Cape Central takes second

Mark Stone, Justin Hawkins and Gabe Austin took third, fourth and fifth, respectively. The Tigers finished with 66 points, 10 points behind champion Northwest.

Stone finished in 16:48, Hawkins finished in 17:00, two seconds ahead of Austin.

"The boys ran real well," Hahn said. "Northwest was just a little better today. Those three guys worked hard all summer and have been finishing near the top all year."

Mike Gerber (25th, 18:11) and Jake Knepp (29th, 18:24) rounded out Central's team score.

Jackson's boys team took seventh with 156 points.

Josh Minson took 11th in 17:24, coming less than a second short of earning a medal. Joe Golightly of Jackson took 14th in 17:40.

For further results, see Scoreboard on Page 2B.