Some familiar names led Southern Boone's boys cross country team back to state as a team for the first time since 2013.
Competing at the Class 3 District 3 meet at Fulton High School on Saturday, junior Brian Burns (above right) won the race for Southern Boone in 16:31.63. Freshman Sean Burns (above left) was second at 16:40.51.
For Brian Burns, it was a fourth straight win.
The duo are two of the three younger brothers of current Oregon runner Connor Burns, one of the best high school runners in MSHSAA history.
The 1-2 punch helped the Eagles take second overall with 82 points. Centralia won the district title with 42 points.
The top 30 runners and top four teams move on to the state championship this weekend in Columbia.
Centralia had three runners in the top 10: Nolan Spickert (3rd), Carter Moss (4th) and Dryst Bostick (6th).
Fulton (third) and Priory (fourth) were the other team qualifiers.
In the girls race, sophomore Brianna Krueger continued her winning streak for St. Charles West. She won in 18:49.44 -- the fourth win in a row. She posted a winning margin of nearly 15 seconds ahead of runner-up Ilene Limberg of Owensville
St. Charles West won the team title with 37 points. Along with Krueger's win, Miley Jackson was third, Claire Horstmann took sixth and Genevieve Wacker was 10th. The average time was 20:08 and a 2:26 split between the first- and fifth-place runners for St. Charles West.
Lutheran St. Charles, Owensville and Fatima finished second through fourth, respectively.
Madalyn Mahoney and Grace Schaff were fourth and fifth for Lutheran St. Charles. Fatima had two runners in the top 10: Brie Massman and Heidi Struemph.
Class 2 District 3
Hermann's Nolan Kopp will head back to state with his first district title on his resume. The junior, who was 10th last year in Class 2, won the Class 2 District 3 race on Saturday.
Kopp has broken 17 minutes in the last four races and this was his second best time of his career.
His teammates will join him at state as the Bearcats took second overall.
South Shelby took home first with 55 points behind the 8th place finish by Beau Mason and ninth by Cooper Seaton.
Elsberry was third and Russellville was fourth in the boys team standing. Jedidiah Heras was third and Nolan Wilson was fourth for Elsberry.
Veritas Christian Academy, the former Christian High School in O'Fallon or O'Fallon Christian, won the team title with 84 points. The next three teams were separated by only five points. Whitfield took second with 110, followed by Monroe City at 114 and Hermann was fourth.
Sophomore Audrey Hoffman (above) was the winner in 20:23.08 for Duchesne.
The top 10 featured only three runners from qualifying teams: Chloe Hartnell (below) was sixth for Veritas; Bradi Keller took seventh for Monroe City and Alaina Heaney was 10th for Hermann.
Class 1 District 3
Landen Chapman defended his district title by winning the Class 1 District 3 meet in Fulton.
The junior from Paris ran 17:04.07 and easily cruised to the title as second-place finisher Jacob Snyder from Brashear finished in 17:40.19.
Paris will head to state as a team after taking second with 63 points. Vienna had a team average time of 19:26 to claim the team title with 57 points. Vienna sophomore Hunter Schwartze (below right) was third and senior Cooper Auten (below left) was seventh.
Schuyler County was third and Chamois, buoyed by Caleb Keilholz's fourth-place finish, took fourth in the team standings.
Brunner (right) and Barringhaus finished 1-2
Classmate Madelynn Sprengel took sixth to help the Lions take third in the team race.
Paris took the team crown with 49 points, seven better than Glasgow. Mairyn Kinnaman was third for Paris, while Glasgow had the runner-up in Addison Barringhaus and Maylen Parks, who was fifth.
New Haven was fourth overall to punch the final ticket to state. Janelle Cronin was seventh for the Shamrocks.