Continuing one of the finest seasons in program history, the St. James High School cross country team advanced its entire boys’ squad as well as two Lady Tigers to the Missouri Cross Country State Championships through their performances at the Class 3 District 3 Meet, held Saturday, Oct. 31 at Owensville.

St. James’ boys’ squad advanced to the Missouri Class 3 State Meet as an entire team. And moving on to the state meet for the St. James girls are senior Katherine Strackeljahn and freshman Tara Murphy.

The top four teams as well as 30 top individuals moved on from district competition to the Class 3 State Meet, to be held Friday, Nov. 6 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course. The Class 3 State girls’ race is to begin at 11 a.m. while the boys’ race at 11:45 a.m. Award ceremonies for Class 3 is set for 13:30 and 12:45 p.m.

The Class 2, 3 and 4 boys’ and girls’ state races are scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6 while the Class 1 and Class 5 state races are slated for Saturday, Nov. 7.

There is a $12 admission fee for spectators at the state venue. Gates open at 8 a.m., and parking is available at Gans Creek on a first-come, first-serve basis.

It is the 78th boys’ Missouri Cross Country State Championships, and 48th for girls.

In the boys’ District 5 Meet Saturday, the four team qualifiers were host Owensville, who won with 97 points; Lutheran St. Charles second with 108; Jefferson City Helias Catholic third with 112, and St. James fourth with 145.

Leading the way for the Tigers was junior Ashton Moreland, who finished third overall with a 5,000-meter time of 16:31.7. The boys’ meet medalist was Nolan Spickert of Centralia at 15:54.1.

Other St. James runners who would have been individual qualifiers if not part of a team qualifier were sophomore Kylar Hodge, who was 14th at 17:18.1, and sophomore Tristin Barton, who was 15th at 17:26.4.

Also for the St. James boys, junior Ryder Byfield was 53rd overall at 18:58.6, sophomore Eric Bolte 60th at 19:16.9, sophomore Isaac Siders 71st at 19:34.1 and sophomore Kypton Earney 77th at 19:42.8.

For the Lady Tigers, Strackeljahn finished 25th overall at 22:06.7 while Murphy was 27th at 22:07.4.

Centralia’s Katelynn Asbury was the girls’ individual medalist at 19:32.5. Helias won the girls’ team title.

“We had a great day!” said St. James coach Bri Hodge. “The boys knew they all had to have a great race in order to qualify as a team, and they followed through. Ashton, Kylar and Tristin all qualified individually and Ryder, Eric, Isaac and Kypton gave everything they had in order to get us the points need to qualify as a team. All of our girls ran well. Kate and Tara qualified and Addy Hash wasn’t too far off from qualifying as well. I’d say it was one of the best races of the year for all three of them.

“I am extremely proud of every single one of our 14 kids. They put in the work all season and it shows. That’s what I love about cross country, you get out of it what you put into it and you have to have some mental toughness to run in these races. These kids have run in about every kind of weather, early mornings, late evenings and they have done it all together. Even though this is an individual sport, they have really come together as a team and embrace each other’s successes. The boys talked about how watching the girls have such a good race really motivated them to do well, too.”

Oct. 31 at Owensville

Class 3 District 3 Meet

5,000-Meters

Boys

Team Standings: 1. Owensville 97*, 2. Lutheran St. Charles 108*, 3. Jeff. City Helias 112*, 4. St. James 145*, 5. Centralia 184, 6. Blair Oaks 187, 7. Eldon 189, 8. Bowling Green 195, 9. Mexico 257, 10. Fulton 267, 11. Wright City 280, 12. St. Francis Borgia 284, 13. Southern Boone 300, 14. St. Clair 321, 15. Hallsville 415, 16. Versailles 418, 17. California 450, 18. Moberly 467, 19. Salem 569.

*-Team State Qualifiers

Individual Top-3: 1. Nolan Spickert, Centralia, 15:54.1; 2. Zachary Holtmeyer, Owensville, 16:29.5; 3. Ashton Moreland, St. James, 16:31.7.

Other St. James Results: 14. Kylar Hodge 17:18.1, 15. Tristin Barton 17:26.4, 53. Ryder Byfield 18:58.6, 60. Eric Bolte 19:16.9, 71. Isaac Siders 19:34.1, 77. Kypton Earney, St. James, 19:42.8.

Girls

Team Standings: 1. Helias 86*, 2. Lutheran St. Charles 106*, 3. Moberly 112*, 4. Bowling Green 124*, 5. Blair Oaks 172, 6. St. Francis Borgia 173, 7. Southern Boone 183, 8. Fulton 194, 9. Versailles 207, 10. St. Clair 221, 11. Centralia 234, 12. Mexico 254, 13. Owensville 299, 14. Salem 361.

*-Team State Qualifiers

Individual Top-3: 1. Katelynn Asbury, Centralia, 19:32.5; 2. Paige Loethen, Helias, 19:45.5; 3. Victoria Riggs, Wright City, 20:19.6.

St. James Results: 25. Katherine Strackeljahn 22:06.7**, 27. Tara Murphy 22:07.4**, 49. Adalyne Hash 23:43.5.

**-Individual State Qualifiers