Wells wins, two more Owls qualify for state

After five second-place finishes, Lady Owls sophomore Katie Wells broke through to win the district meet and return to the MSHSAA Class 3 Championships. (Chris Allen/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

However, after being the runner up in five of her nine previous cross country meets this season, the Marshall sophomore was finally first across the finish line Saturday during the Class 3, District 5 Championships at Moberly.

Wells covered the 3.1-mile course in 20:29.18, 23 seconds ahead of Warrensburg junior Abby Ersland and over one-and-a-quarter minutes faster than her second-place time at the Moberly Invitational on Oct. 2.

Unlike a year ago, when Wells finished 55th out of 165 entries at the MSHSAA Class 3 Championships, she won't be running alone.

Sophomore Stormy Morrison, in her first year competing in cross country, knocked 35 seconds off her personal record to qualify in 11th place with a time of 22:04.64 -- an improvement of more than two-and-a-half minutes from her time on the course a month earlier.

Freshman Lauren McGrath (23:39.38) cut a minute off her previous time, but wound up 20th instead of the needed top 15 to advance to state.

Sophomore Katie Arends (26:41.74), junior Jennifer Simmons (26:42.16) and sophomore Chanelle Koehn (26:50.31) took the 41st through 43rd positions.

Marshall was third in the team standings with 104 points, well behind champion Warrensburg (32 points) and the host Lady Spartans (50).

The shame for the Lady Owls was that freshman Arozo Shahabzada -- who medaled in seven of her first eight races, including three third-place showings -- wasn't able to compete due to a hip injury.

She was fifth at last month's Moberly meet, with a time (22:07) which would have landed her in 14th place -- even assuming that she didn't follow the rest of the team's trend of significantly improved performances.

On the boys' side, only senior Matt Bledsoe wound up in the top 15, knocking close to a minute off his course time with a 17:54.63 for 10th place. It will be Bledsoe's second trip to state.

Senior Phillip Perkins (18:13.86) was also a minute faster than last month, but wound up 17th, one place ahead of sophomore Damon Thompson (18:19.40) -- who got to state last year, but won't go this season despite slicing 41 seconds off his time on the circuit.

Senior Alex Jenkins (19:03.78) was 27th, junior Patrick Todd (19:12.78) came in 31st and sophomore Bryson Fergison (19:35.5) placed 37th -- all improving their times on the course.

The Owls (103) were fourth as a team, Helias (33) beating out Warrensburg (70) for the title behind the gold-medal running of senior Will LePage (16:21) -- finishing nine seconds ahead of Kirksville senior David Huskisson, the Marshall Invitational champion.

Bledsoe will race at 9 a.m. Saturday at Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City, with Wells and Morrison starting at 10:05 a.m.