Cross country, soccer playoffs approaching

Cross country runners from 26 teams will flock to Jackson City Park on Saturday to compete in the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 1 and Class 2 District 1 meets.

The meet, hosted by Saxony Lutheran High School, will begin at 10 a.m. with the Class 1 girls division. The Class 1 boys are scheduled to follow at 10:35 a.m. Advance, Chaffee, Delta, Meadow Heights, Oak Ridge, St. Vincent and Zalma are among the local schools that will participate. Rounding out the list of teams in Class 1 are Bunker, Crystal City, Kingston, Marquand-Zion, Ellington, Valle Catholic and Viburnum.

Class 2 is slated to start with the girls race at 11:10 a.m. before the boys take the course at 11:45 a.m. Host Saxony Lutheran will be joined by local teams Kelly, Scott City and Woodland. Other teams competing in Class 2 include Arcadia Valley, Carnahan, Grandview, Hancock, Herculaneum, Jefferson, St. Pius and Valley Park.

Notre Dame and Dexter will be the only two teams from Southeast Missouri that will run in the Class 3 District 1 meet on Saturday. The Bulldogs and Bearcats, however, will have a much longer haul ahead of them as they travel to St. Louis for the meet, which will be held at Jefferson Barracks. Notre Dame and Dexter will run with the St. Louis-area teams of Affton, DeSoto, Festus, Hillsboro, Lutheran South, North St. Francois County, Notre Dame (St. Louis), Potosi, Ste. Genevieve and Windsor.

In Class 4, Jackson and Central will particiate in a sectional meet this Saturday on the campus of Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, Mo. The meet, which runners qualified for at last Saturday's district, is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. with the girls' race followed by the boys at 10:35 a.m.

Both the Jackson boys and girls teams that advanced to the sectional out of its district. The Indians also had numerous individual runners who qualified. In Class 4, the top four teams and top 30 individual runners in districts advance to the next level of sectional competition, which will be no cakewalk, according to Jackson head coach Andrea Talley.

"Our sectional is incredibly tough," she said. "We've got some awesome competition. When our sectional has nationally-ranked runners, you know how tough it's going to be, especially in Class 4, it's a beast. It's a really tough sport to advance in."

Talley also expressed her concerns about the course itself at Parkway Central.

"It's pretty congested, really tight, and has some really narrow openings and trails in the woods," she said. "We ran there last year for sectionals. We go up the day before just to look at the course so that we can get a feel and plan a strategy. ... It has rocks and holes. That's the part that worries me about this trail."

The Indians will be joined by Oakville, Lindbergh and Mehlville in the boys' division while the girls will be running with Cor Jesu Academy, Lindbergh and Rockwood Summit.

"It's going to be very tough," Talley said. "We just have to be mentally and physically ready and go up there and do our best."

The top 15 individual finishers and top two teams from the Class 1, 2 and 3 district meets will advance to the state meet on Nov. 9. The top 30 individuals and top 4 teams from the Class 4 sectional will advance to state.

SOCCER

The Saxony Lutheran boys' soccer team will kick off Class 1 District 1 tournament play this weekend at St. Pius High School in Festus, Mo.

The third-seeded Crusaders (4-19) will face No. 2 Hancock (11-11) at 11 a.m. Saturday in a semifinal. The other semifinal will feature top-seeded host St. Pius (13-7) against fourth-seeded Fredericktown (3-14-1) at 1 p.m.

The winners of each semifinal will return to the field on Wednesday to play for the district title, which is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.

The Class 2 District 1 Tournament will start on Monday with fifth-seeded host Central (11-14) taking on No. 4 Sikeston (14-9-1) at 6 p.m. for the fourth time this season. The Bulldogs have prevailed in two of the three encounters. The eventual winner will face top-seeded Perryville (21-4) on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in semifinal action. Tuesday's other semifinal will immediately follow with second-seeded Farmington (16-4) and No. 3 Notre Dame (13-10-1) battling it out for the right to play in the district championship, which is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

The Class 3 District 1 Tournament will also start on Monday at Seckman High School in Imperial, Mo., as fourth-seeded Fox (9-14) plays No. 5 Poplar Bluff (8-13-1) at 6 p.m. The winner will take on top-seeded Oakville (13-7-1) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in a semifinal to follow after the other semifinal between second-seeded host Seckman (18-6) and No. 3 Jackson (9-12-1) at 5 p.m. The district championship game will be played on Thursday at 6 p.m.