Gibson paces Jackson in winning effort

~ The sophomore finished first for the second straight year, as the Indians won that division.

Jackson sophomore Greg Gibson and Central sophomore Brittany Moreland highlighted a strong day for local runners at the Jackson Invitational cross country meet with a pair of individual championships Saturday at Jackson City Park.

Gibson covered the 2.35-mile course in 12 minutes, 49 seconds, bringing home his second straight title at the Jackson Invitational.

Moreland, who finished second last year, won in 14:49.

The meet follows the unique format of breaking up the boys and girls divisions into four groups blased on year in school. There is a team champion and individual champion for each class. The top-20 finishers in each race medal.

Unlike a typical meet which covers 3.1 miles, Saturday's meet was shortened to 2.35 miles for grades 10 through 12 and 1.95 miles for freshmen.

On the boys side, area teams accounted for 37 of the 80 medals, including 10 in the freshman division. Area girls competitors did not do as well, but in the junior division nine local finishers medaled.

"It's a good mix of small, medium and large schools, it runs the whole gammit," Jackson coach Andrea Talley said. "With it separated the way it is, it levels the playing field a bit."

The host Indians finished with two team championships in sophomore boys and junior girls divisions.

Cody Green (seventh), Caleb Statler (14th) and Jared Foust (20th) joined Gibson in the top 20 in the sophomore race.

Amy Sterling (fourth), Casey Hatton (eighth) and Beth Barton (ninth) finished in the top 20 for Jackson's junior girls.

"We expected the sophomore boys [to do well], but because of injuries we were pleasantly surprised with our junior girls," Talley said.

Central was the only other area team to bring home a title, finishing first in the sophomore girls. Along with top-finisher Moreland, Veronica Schabbing finished fifth, and Jessie Hahn finished 24th in the sophomore race.

Notre Dame's boys, Class 2 state champions last season, had three runners place second. Freshman Wynn McClellan ran 11:15, sophomore Logan Davis finished in 13:06 and junior Neil Kanneberg finished in 13:03. Dillon Klaffer was third for the Bulldogs in the sophomore race.

"We thought we had a chance going in to win [individually] the freshman, sophomore and junior races," Notre Dame coach Bill Davis said. "Second in all three of those, I thought we did pretty good."

The Bulldogs, who had just run Wednesday in their season-opening meet, as a team finished second in the freshman division and were third in both the junior and senior races.

Kanneberg's time was the fastest any Notre Dame runner has ever posted in the meet.

Jessica Banda finished third in the junior race to lead Notre Dame's girls, and sophomore Tori Pfau was fourth.

"Overall, I was very pleased with what we did," Davis said.

Two-time defending Class 1 boys champion Saxony Lutheran had six medalist, led by senior Brandon Etzold in second. Fellow senior Peter Winningham was eighth, and junior Max Wieser also finished eighth in his race.

Central senior Tyler Yeargain was third for the Tigers' top boys finish.

Woodland, making its cross country debut, had four medalist. Cardinals senior Nicole Balzer had the top finish in ninth.

Oak Ridge and Kelly each had three medalists, and Advance had one. There were 21 schools in all at the meet.

"There was a lot of good competition, a lot of good athletes and a lot of them were from Southeast Missouri," Saxony Lutheran coach Larry Cleair said.

Delta's junior high boys finished second while the junior high girls won behind the top-10 finishes of Renee Bartels, Neelye Blue and Lisa Henderson.

Girls

Freshmen

Team scores (winner and locals) -- 1, Kirkwood 17; 7, Jackson 66; 8, Notre Dame 107.

Individuals (local medalists) -- 14. Diane Strong (J) 14:55, 18. Erin Owens (OR) 14:59, 19. Jordan Whitener (J) 15:00.

Sophomores

Team scores -- 1, Central 30; 8, Notre Dame 82; 10, Jackson 129.

Individuals -- 1. Brittany Moreland (C) 14:49, 4. Tori Pfau (ND) 16:08, 5. Veronica Schabbing (C) 16:10, 16. Tara Johnson (K) 17:18

Juniors

Team scores -- 1, Jackson 21; 34, Central 39; 8, Notre Dame 72.

Individuals -- 3. Jessica Banda (ND) 16:04, 4. Amy Streling (J) 16:21, 7. Jenny Huo (C) 16:44, 8. Casey Hatton (J) 16:46, 9. Beth Barton (J) 16:48, 10. Deanna Dippold (SL) 17:04, 15. Rachel Burchyett (C) 17:33, 17. Alyx Waterman (C) 17:47, 19. Charlotte Schaffner (C) 17:53

Seniors

7, Central 62.

Individuals -- 9. Nicole Balzer (W) 16:37, 10. Emily Ponder (C) 16:49, 11. Ashley Miller (J) 16:57, 15. Mandy Craven (J) 17:53, 16. Emily Elaine Jetton (W) 18:00, 20. Kayla Setters (W) 18:12.

Boys

Area medalist (top 20 medal)

Freshmen

Team scores -- 1, Kirkwood 31; 2, Notre Dame 48; 3, Central 108; 4, Jackson 114.

Individuals -- 2. Wynn McClellan (ND) 11:15, 3. Cody Kern (K) 11:33, 5. Garrett Light (OR) 11:46, 9. Logan Duley (J) 12:18, 11. Michael Bohn (ND) 12:28, 13. Matt Hale (A) 12:19, 15. David Willems (ND) 12:41, 17. Tyler Lappe (OR) 12:46, 20. Ryan Johnson (ND)

Sophomores

Team scores -- 1, Jackson 42; 3, Saxony 57; 5, ND, 80; 8, Advance 136; 9, Central 167.

Individuals -- 1. Greg Gibson (J) 12:49, 2. Logan Davis (ND) 13:06, 3. Dillon Klaffer (ND) 13:19, 7. Cody Green (J) 13:46, 10. Ross Gage (SL) 14:04, 11. Andrew Etzold (SL) 14:09, 14. Caleb Statler (J) 14:25, 15. Bryant Steffens (SL) 14:27, 20. Jared Foust (J) 14:55

Juniors

Team scores -- 1, Lindbergh 31; 3, Notre Dame 55; 4, Jackson 78.

Individuals -- 2. Neil Kanneberg (ND) 13:03, 7. Tanner Cline (J) 13:39, 8. Max Wieser (SL) 13:41, 11. Ben Beussink (ND) 13:50, 12. Blaine Davis (J) 13:56, 13. Cole Bradley (C) 13:57, 16. Richie Bohn (ND) 14:01, 17. Josh Roberts (K) 14:17, 20. Shawn Owen (C) 14:24

Seniors

Team scores -- 1, Fox 28, 3, Notre Dame 78; 4, Central 83; 6, Woodland 111.

Individuals -- 2. Brandon Etzold (SL) 12:25, 3. Tyler Yeargain (C) 12:27, 8. Peter Winningham (SL) 13:20, 12. Jonathan Ramsey (ND) 13:38, 13. Dale Brannock (C) 13:58, 14. Earl Popp (J) 14:00, 17. Daniel Lewis (W) 14:13, 18. Geon Gyu Min (ND) 14:15, 20. Greg Sprengel (C) 14:21