ST. CHARLES • The Francis Howell girls cross country team is at it again.
One week after sweeping to a convincing district title, the Vikings returned to McNair Park and expanded their reach in claiming the Class 4 Sectional 2 title by an equally wide margin.
Howell placed four runners in the top 10 to easily claim the team title ahead of Nerinx Hall.
The four qualifying teams for the state meet from the sectional were Howell (30 points), Nerinx Hall (57), Holt (85) and Fort Zumwalt West (89).
"This feels great because I work really hard; we all do," said Howell's Kirsten Adams. "This is nice because it shows the effort we all put into this."
Adams won in 19 minutes 4.9 seconds, which bested the time of runner-up Sophia Racette of Nerinx Hall by more than 12 seconds.
"My legs are tired, but everything else is pretty good," Adams said. "The first mile felt pretty easy and then it gradually got harder."
After Adams and Racette, the rest of the top 10 was Howell's Leah Krause (19:56.1) and Whitney Adams (20:00.4), Nerinx's Claire Minnick (20:08.7), Holt's Hannah Lucas (20:13.2), Howell's Valseka Halamicek (20:16.4), Incarnate Word's Maddie Orf (20:24.8), Zumwalt West's Katie Wright (20:31.8) and St. Joseph's Lexi Boschert (20:32.8).
Howell coach Nate Tower took pride in having four runners in the top 10. In the coach's eyes, his team is peaking at the right time.
"It was a beautiful race by them today, it really came together," Tower said. "That's what we were hoping to see out of them. They ran much better this week than last week. At this point, I just want us to (go into state and) run our best."
The boys sectional race was much more of a cliffhanger.
After having a St. Louis U. High runner lead most of the way, McCluer North's Nicholas Stewart snatched the race away in the final 800 meters.
His time of 16:25.3 was more than nine seconds ahead of SLUH's Nathan Rubbelke, who finished in 16:34.9.
"This really felt great," Stewart said. "I kicked it in and passed (Rubbelke) up, and he was really on my back, so I just kept on pushing it. It ended up working for me. It gives me a little boost in getting ready for state."
Rounding out the top 10 were Howell Central's Josh McKinley (16:49.1), SLUH's Michael McLaughlin (16:56.7), Hazelwood West's Anthony Riggs (17:02.5), SLUH's Matt Nicholson (17:02.5) and Joe Archer (17:03.9), Zumwalt West's Eric Rogers (17:04.8), Zumwalt East's Nolan Ryan (17:05.9) and Ritenour's Rashad Harris (17:12.2).
Advancing boys teams were SLUH (25 points), Fort Zumwalt West (80), Webster Groves (117) and Hazelwood West (132).
