After a slow start to her sophomore campaign, Madelyn Marschel is peaking at the right time. 

The Warrenton cross country runner is making a return to state following an eighth-place finish at the Class 4, District 4 Meet held in Washington Saturday. She completed the 3.1-mile race in 22 minutes, 48.40 minutes. 

She will be the lone Warrenton representative at state, as only the top 15 individual finishers and the top two teams qualify. The Class 4 state meet will be held this Friday in Columbia. 

Marschel is eager to best her state appearance. As a freshman, she placed 105th in 21:27.90.

“Madelyn had a slow start to the season as she was recovering from a knee injury from the summer,” Warrenton coach Jeremy Collins said. “As the season went on and with the hard work she put into the workouts, she started to gain confidence. State is a fast course and last year she ran a personal best at state, so I think she is ready to run a personal best and go under 21:00 for the first time.” 

Freshman Camryn Petersmeyer fell seven spots shy from advancing. She placed 22nd in 25:07.90, followed by sophomore teammate Mattison Halter in 28th in 26:20.10. 

Also running for the Warrenton girls were Gabby Scruggs (41st, 29:51.80), Briana Grooms (42nd, 30:55.70), Dacey Woodruff (43rd, 31:25.10) and Audry Shaw (44th, 31:42).

As a team, the Warrenton girls placed fifth out of six schools with 130 points. St. Dominic and Moberly qualified for state by finishing in the top two with 48 and 54 points, respectively. Anna Brakefield of Union won the girls race in 21:14.60.

The Warrenton boys did not have any state qualifiers but did gain some experience for the future. Coalton Hill, a junior, had the fastest time for the Warrenton boys. He placed 25th in 20:26.60, his second fastest time of the season. Freshman Wyatt Claiborne was the next fastest in 47th in 22:51.50. Rounding out the Warriors were Mark Thomas Diller (51st, 23:17.60), Thomas Hale (52nd, 23:45.60), Gus Klaustermeier (56th, 25:37.90) and Jacob Lange (57th, 28:08.50).

In the team standing, the Warriors finished last in eighth place with 215 points. Kirksville and Fulton advanced as a team to state with 35 and 83 points, respectively.

Moberly senior Antonio Rivera won the boys district title in 18:04.60.

Despite having only one state qualifier, Warrenton will return a strong nucleus of underclassmen who gained considerable experience this year.

“I tell them that racing a 5K is different than running a 5K, and that takes time to figure it out,” Collins said. “On the boys side we lose one senior and there are some freshmen that could really help us out next season. On the girls side we had eight girls out and three were seniors. We will have a good group back for the girls next year and I am hoping we can add a couple more runners to fill in the spots from the seniors we lost.

“If we continue to work hard and run tough, both teams can definitely improve from this season.”