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ST. LOUIS – Nerinx Hall’s Sophia Racette took off the moment she heard the gun Saturday at Forest Park and set out to establish a fast pace that few others would be comfortable maintaining. Francis Howell’s Kristen Adams stayed a couple strides back, and by time the duo hit the second mile it was a two-girl race. Adams and Racette continued to push each other and the pace over the second half of the race. As they completed the third lap around the ball fields and turned toward the finish, Adams pushed past Racette and claimed first place at the Class 4 Sectional 2 race in 18:19. “Me and Sophia are equal so I was going to stay with her and try to go when I felt strong,” Adams said. “I waited it out till the end and it worked out. We pushed each other. I just started speed workouts, and I kept replaying it in my mind what we did.”
Although the two have met several times this year, this was the first time this season that Adams has been able to finish ahead of Racette, who claimed runner-up in 18:22. “I knew that Kristen would be right with me the whole time, and I wanted to set a good pace because I knew this was a possible PR course,” said Racette, who lowered her personal best by two seconds. “ The duo was 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, which was led by a pair of Howell runners – Whitney Adams (18:57) and Arnica Zitting (19:12). With Valeska Halamicek and Danielle Berry crossing the finish in 11th and 12th with identical times of 19:49, Howell had cemented first place at the sectional meet with 29 points and made a statement of their potency heading into next week’s state meet in Jefferson City. “We wanted to go out and have a good race,” Howell coach Nate Tower said. “We trained pretty hard this week, not letting up. We wanted the girls to go out run the best race they could given the hard week, and I think we accomplished those goals. “I don’t think we need to make a statement. I think people know who we are as a team, and the only statement that needs to be made will be next week.” Tower said he could see some of the recent speed work paying dividends. Earlier in the season at the Hancock Invitational, Kristen Adams had led for the majority of the race before succumbing to a wave of four girls at the finish. The opposite was true Saturday when she was able to pull away from Racette over the final strides. Nerinx Hall claimed runner-up with 76 points. Ladue was third with 93 points, and Holt snagged the final state qualifying spot with 110 points. While Racette said she wanted to chase a fast time at Forest Park’s relatively flat course, it was not the same set up the sophomore covered when she was fourth at the Forest Park Cross Country Festival in 18:24 to start the season. Sectional host SLUH instead opted to use the set up that was run for the recent MCC meet since there is less need for a long, wide start because there are fewer participants than at the Festival. The sectional course runs three identical laps around the ball fields before turning toward the finish for the last 160 meters. “It’s very similar; we took out the middle of the field and the long straightaway, mostly because of the size of the meet,” SLUH coach Joe Porter said. “It’s a little bit easier for us to manage in terms of course maintenance and setting it up. It’s a perfect one-mile loop, 1,609 meters three times, with an added on to make a full 5k. It has a couple rolling hills. I think it’s honest and fair and that the kids will like it. “Teams started coming here on Monday, and we had a JV meet on this course Wednesday night. So we had already marked the course Monday during the day and painted it and had everything ready. We’ve had teams throughout the week, and we’ve been around to answer questions when they come by.”
Complete Class 4 Section 2 Coverage |
