Schabbing leads Central to title

~ The Tigers won the Hancock Invitational for the first time.

Central girls cross country coach Mark Hahn thought Saturday's performance may have put his team on the radar.

More likely, the Tigers became a primary target after their victory at the Hancock Invitational in Jefferson Barracks Park in St. Louis County.

The Central girls finished first in the Class 4 race, winning the event for the first time in the program's history. Led by a runner-up finish by Veronica Schabbing and a third-place showing from Brittany Moreland, the Tigers placed four runners in the top 10 and all five scoring runners in the top 20.

The Tigers racked up 43 points, while Rockwood Summit was second with 65.

"It's pretty cool," Hahn said. "What they did, I felt they were all capable of doing. I was pleased with all the performances."

Schabbing finished in 19 minutes, 57 seconds, while Moreland was 27 seconds back. Tiffany Mead was ninth, Mary Dohogne 10th and Rachel Burchyett rounded out Central's scoring with a 20th-place finish.

"For Veronica Schabbing, breaking 20 minutes on this course on this day -- with the heat like it is -- is outstanding," Hahn said.

Aimee Bonte of Summit was first overall in 19:33.

Schabbing left the meet not long after the race to watch her sister, Victoria, play on Central's softball team at the Seckman tournament. She then was headed to Kansas City for a football game and could not be reached.

"I was just trying to stay with Ronny as much as I could," Moreland said. "I tried to go out hard in the first mile and hold the pace. Ronny loves hills, so I guess that was when she pulled away. I don't mind hills, but Ronny is really good at them."

Now Central, which had a streak of five straight district titles ended last season but has never taken home a state trophy, will become a target of other teams for the rest of the season. The approach of identifying teams or runners to watch on the course is one Hahn tends to stay away from.

"As far as my philosophy, at this stage of the season, we never really address that," Hahn said. "There are so many other ways to motivate. We really preach working as a team."

But Hahn was cognizant of Central's finish compared to teams ranked ahead of it in a state poll coordinated by bigriverrunning.com. Central was 10th coming in; Summit was third and Eureka, which finished fifth, was No. 8.

"This probably changes some things on some Web sites," Hahn said. "It definitely puts us on the radar.

"It could add some pressure. That is a definite concern of the coach, and it's part of my job to make sure it doesn't. We'll see if we can pull it off."

Moreland didn't think Central's status would be a problem.

"We just do our best every week," she said.

Notre Dame coach Bill Davis didn't mind the prospects that his team's third-place finish in the Class 3 division could knock his team out of those Internet rankings, though he also wasn't particularly thrilled about finishing a point behind Festus.

Class 3 winning team Potosi (52 points), Festus (108) and Notre Dame (109) all are in the same district with two teams able to earn state berths from that field.

"This could be good for us down the road," Davis said. "Festus is vastly improved.

"This is the best we've run here."

Logan Davis led Notre Dame with an eighth-place finish in 17:15. Dillon Klaffer was 14th, Ben Beussink 18th and Wynn McClellan 19th.

The Bulldogs, Class 2 state champions in 2005, grabbed a top-four trophy in Class 3 last year behind first-place Potosi.

"I don't like the limelight all the time, until the end," Davis said.

Kelly, led by Cody Kern's ninth-place finish in 18:05, finished sixth in the Class 1-2 field.

The problem for the Hawks, who tallied 177 points, is that their glimpse at their Class 2 district competition was not kind: Herculaneum won the division with 30 points and Principia was second with 81.

Saxony Lutheran got a look at the program that edged it for the Class 1 state title last year, Valley Park. While the Crusaders placed seventh with 188 points, Valley Park was fifth with 165.

Saxony, led by Max Wieser's 28th-place finish, was running two days after competing at Oak Ridge, while the many soccer players on the team were in their fourth athletic event in four days.

"We were running tired," Crusaders coach Larry Cleair said. "But we wanted to see some good competition and a tough course. We knew Valley Park would be tough, but we finished ahead of a couple other Class 1 schools.

"We'll try to ease past Valley Park between now and state."

Class 4 boys

Team standings -- 1, Parkway West 54; 11, Cape Central 246.

Individuals

Central -- 22, Cole Bradley, 18:04; 43, Roy Leighton, 19:04; 52, Eric Schott, 19:18; 57, Jordan Pope, 19:37; 78, Alex Crawford, 20:43; NA, Joey Guidos, 21:28;

Class 3 boys

Team standings -- 1, Potosi 52; 2, Festus 108; 3, Notre Dame 109.

Individuals

Notre Dame -- 8, Logan Davis, 17:15; 14, Dillon Klaffer, 17:39; 18, Ben Beussink, 17:52; 19, Wynn McClellan, 17:52; 50, Matt Reinagel, 18:50; 67, Cody Moore, 19:13.

Class 1-2 boys

Team standings -- 1, Herculaneum 30; 6, Kelly 177; 7, Saxony Lutheran 188.

Individuals

Kelly -- 9, Cody Kern, 18:05; 34, Tommy Bridges, 19:28; 36, Blake Wade, 19:35; 46, Mike Warren, 19:57; 60, Sam Nelson, 20:18; 90, Omar Campos, 21:50.

Saxony Lutheran -- 29, Max Wieser, 19:05; 35, Ross Gage, 19:31; 40, Sam Kluesner, 19:41; 44, Chris Roth, 19:53; 50, Andrew Etzold, 20:01; 74, Rhett Obermann, 20:52.

Woodland -- 17, Daniel Lewis, 18:44.

Class 4 girls

Team standings -- 1, Central 43; 2, Rockwood Summit 65; 3, St. Joseph's Academy 90; 4, Fort Zumwalt South 92; 5, Eureka 92; 6, Nerinx Hall 159; 7, Cor Jesu 162; 8, Kirkwood 199; 9, Incarnate Word 213.

Individuals

Central -- 2, Veronica Schabbing, 19:57; 3, Brittany Moreland, 20:24; 9, Tiffany Mead, 20:44; 10, Mary Dohogne, 20:45; 20, Rachel Burchyett, 21:43; 33, Lessley Dennington, 23:01; 46, Ali Yuen, 23:32.

Class 3 girls

Team standings -- 1, Ste. Genevieve 54; 10, Notre Dame 249.

Individuals

Notre Dame -- 28, Victoria Pfau, 22:11; 30, Jessica Banda, 22:22; 67, Jessica Brandon, 24:20; 72, Emily Messmer, 24:36; 73, Laura Castleman, 24:39; 84, Jessica Triller, 25:24.

Class 1-2 girls

Individuals

Kelly -- 13, Tara Johnson, 22:24.

Saxony Lutheran -- 31, Kristen Dippold, 23:35; 33, Lucy Gage, 24:03; 49, Deanna Dippold, 25:14.