Editor's Note: See the correction below this article.
Mason Gaines and the Fulton Hornets cross country team are off to a strong start for a highly anticipated season.
Gaines, a senior, took first place individually and the Hornets collected top team honors as Fulton hosted the opening Callaway County meet Saturday at the high school athletic complex.
Gaines - who took fifth place at last year's Class 3 state championships - triumphed Saturday with a time of 11 minutes, 12.6 seconds. The Hornets, coming off a third-place team finish in Class 3, had all five of their runners place in the top 10 Saturday as they prevailed with 24 points.
In the girls' division, North Callaway freshman Kaleigh Moore was the individual champion in 13:50.2 to direct the Ladybirds to a first-place finish with 25 points.
Also placing for the Fulton boys were junior Brock Fisher, third in 11:50.1; senior Nathan Quick, fifth in 11:50.7; senior Gabe Luebbert, seventh in 12:05.0, and senior Haydon Windsor, eighth in 12:14.7.
Junior Robert Morningstar came in second in 11:49.4 to guide the New Bloomfield Wildcats to a second-place finish with 40 points. Senior Payton Culwell took fourth in 11:50.4, freshman Caleb Distler was ninth in 12:18.7, senior Kyle Emerson placed 12th in 12:39.0 and sophomore Chris Stone followed in 13th in 13:11.4.
Junior Khobi Kellerman tallied an 11th-place finish in 12:29.6 as the North Callaway Thunderbirds were third with 85 points. Junior Ean Rohrbach came in 17th in 13:39.8, junior Josh McCowan finished 18th in 13:53.1, freshman Grant Eichman was 19th in 14:35.3 and junior Josh Craghead placed 18th in 13:53.1.
Freshman Dustin Russell logged a 14th-place time of 13:25.7 to guide the South Callaway Bulldogs to a fourth-place finish with 85 points. Sophomore Nathanael Shuler was next in 16th in 13:36.2, junior Gabe Williamson took 26th in 16:02.2, freshman Raife Evans came in 27th in 18:34.5 and junior Austin Loucks finished 29th in 21:08.5.
Senior Kyla Bertschinger was right behind Moore in second place with a time of 13:53.9 for the North Callaway girls. Senior Alyssa Rinehart was eighth for the Ladybirds in 16:42.7, freshman Olivia Isaacks took ninth in 16:45.3 and sophomore Brianna Douglas placed 11th in 16:46.3.
Freshman Kayana Gaines came in third in 14:23.6 to pace Fulton to a second-place team finish with 30 points. Senior Nicole Efferson was next in fourth place for the Lady Hornets in 15:17.2, junior Mary Schnoebelen took seventh in 16:27.8, senior Adrea Shadbolt finished 10th in 16:45.8 and freshman Kalyn Wolfmeier placed 12th in 17:07.4.
Senior Elizabeth Luebbert - the lone South Callaway runner - was fifth in 15:28.6. Sophomore Kylie Quinn came in sixth in 15:56.6 for New Bloomfield and freshman Kara Beckett took 16th in 22:35.4.
Fulton and South Callaway both compete at the Jim Marshall Invitational in Jefferson City at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26. North Callaway also runs that day in the Mexico Invitational at 9 a.m.
New Bloomfield competes in the New Haven Invitational at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 2.
Correction
Due to incorrect, transposed statistics provided for the story on the Callaway County cross country meet in Sunday's edition, it was incorrectly reported that North Callaway freshman Kaleigh Moore won the girls' race and senior teammate Kyla Bertschinger finished second. Bertschinger took first place in 13 minutes, 50.2 seconds, and Moore came in second in 13:53.9.