The Warrenton boys and girls cross country teams are feeling good heading into the Class 4, District 3 Championship meet this Saturday. After competing in their final regular season meet last Friday, Head Coach Jeremy Collins is hoping to have some runners qualify for the state meet. 

Among those runners, Collins is hoping for sophomore Alexis Ruff to return to the state level. Ruff has been dealing with shin splints and took some time off towards the end of the season, but she did run in their last meet at the Clayton Invitational on Oct. 25. 

Ruff was the first Warrior to finish in the girls race. She placed 26th in 22 minutes, 23 seconds. 

“She just went out there, competed and ran a great race,” Collins said. “The race gave her some confidence as she has missed some workouts along with not running at conference.”

Sophie Bennett, Melanie Guerrero and Taryn Sharp also ran in the girls race. Bennett placed 77th in 25:47. Guerrero ended 85th in 27:10 and Sharp finished 98th in 31:35. 

In the boys race, Matt Craven led the Warriors for the second week in a row, after having earned GAC North first-team honors the week prior. Craven placed 17th in 18:10 and tied his personal record time. 

“Matt continues to run well as we go into districts. He is going to be with a pack that is going to be fighting to be in the top 30,” Collins said. 

Dylan Coleman placed 41st in 18:54, which marked a new PR for him. 

In the boys junior varsity race, Jonathan Sweitzer placed seventh with a new PR of 18:46. Coming in right behind him by 0.48 seconds, Jacob Beckemeyer placed eighth. Collins noted Beckemeyer had been sick, so he took it easy and paced some of the guys. 

However, despite taking it easy, Beckemeyer ran his second fastest time of the season.

In addition, this was Sweitzer’s second race in a row where he not only improved his PR, but cut it down by over 40 seconds. 

“It was great to see him have another great race. He looked really smooth and ran pretty much a perfect race,” Collins said. 

Other Warriors such as Korben Johnson and Ken Le also set new PR’s. Johnson ran the 5K in 20:38, while Le ran it in 20:47. Noah Cline finished in 20:21, Trenton Hummel ended with 21:51 and Noah Joens finished in 28:14. 

The Warriors will compete in the district meet this Saturday at McNair Park in St. Charles. The top 30 individuals and the top four teams will advance to the state meet, scheduled for Nov. 9 in Columbia. 

The Wright City boys and girls cross country teams ran in their last regular season meet on Oct. 25 at the Bowling Green Invite. 

In the girls race, Adalyn Ferrell was the only Wildcat to run. Ferrell has consistently led the Wright City girls throughout the season and set a new personal record time right before the district meet. Ferrell finished 16th in 21 minutes, 38 seconds. 

In the boys race, both James Guinn and Marshall Matz ran for Wright City. Guinn placed 129th in 21:13 and Matz finished 162nd in 24:57. 

Wright City will head into the Class 3, District 3 Tournament on Nov. 2 at Fulton High School.