Steelville High School’s cross country team spent their Halloween morning competing in the Class 2 District 3 Tournament Meet in Owensville, and a pair of Cardinals finished amongst the District’s best.

Freshman Andrew Jensen and sophomore Adalei Perkins each qualified for the Class 2 State Tournament Meet, which will be held Friday, Nov. 6 at Gans Creek in Columbia, by finishing in the top-30 of their respective races in the District Meet. The specific start times for each race in the State Meet are still TBD as of this week’s publication deadline. 

Jensen earned 12th place in the boys 5k race with a 17:55 time and finished in fourth among freshmen competitors.

Perkins completed the girls 5k race in 20:56, taking 14th place to qualify for the State meet for the second time in as many years. After finishing 15th in last year’s District meet and taking 52nd out of 173 runners in the State meet, Perkins will look to achieve All-State status in this year’s go around. She has already significantly improved throughout her sophomore campaign, shaving off 2:13 from her time from the Sept. 17 Steelville Invitational compared to her finish in Districts.   

Steelville freshmen Brantley Booker and Wyntr Yates and sophomore Elizabeth Warden narrowly missed qualifying for the State meet during the District meet in Ownesville.

Booker came in 32nd place after running a 18:38 time, which was just 16 seconds behind 30th place finisher Grant Smeltser of Clark County High School, the final qualifier for the State meet. 

Wyntr Yates and Warden came in 38th and 39th place, respectively. Yates crossed the finish line in 22:33, which was 21 seconds away from qualifying for states. She also drastically improved her time throughout the season, completing the District race in 3:42 faster than her results from the Steelville Invitational earlier in the season.

Warden completed the District race in 22:51, ending her strong sophomore campaign which had multiple medal winning performances.

Sophomore Stormee Yates was the fourth and final Lady Cardinal to complete the district race with a 21:11 time. Yates continued the trend of vast improvement from the team, running 4:13 faster in her final meet compared to her time in the Steelville Invitational.

Steelville senior Owen Rutledge, junior Colin Orick and sophomores Kaden Rulo, Lucas Garms and Andrew Riley also competed in the state meet.

Rutledge, who has battled an injury throughout the back half of the season, finished in 48th place with a 19:20 time. He is expected to be back to full strength for the spring track and field season.

Garms completed the race in 19:43, finishing in 64th place. His time in the District Meet was 2:14 faster than his time at the Steelville Invitational. 

Rulo took 71st place with a 20:06 time, Riley finished in 100th with a 21:21 time and Orick earned 116th place with a 21:55 time. Riley and Orick also improved their times by multiple minutes, compared to their results in the Steelville Invitational.