Metro East Lutheran High School boys dart out at the start of the First To The Finish race on the SIUE course on Saturday. Below Lily Baumgartner and Olivia Richey were Carrollton's top finishers in the meet.(Photos by Dan Brannan)

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St. Anthony's Anna Sophia Keller took the individual title with a run of 18:00.02.CROSS COUNTRY

MIDGETS SWEEP MEL FIRST TO THE FINISH KICKOFF: Freeburg's boys and girls cross-country teams both won the Metro East Lutheran-Madison First To The Finish Kickoff cross-country meet Saturday morning at SIU-Edwardsville's cross-country course.

The Midgets won the boys competition with 61 points, with Mascoutah second with 158, Mount Zion third at 162, Breese Mater Dei fourth at 216 and Herrin fifth at 288. Among area teams, Piasa Southwestern was 19th with 563 points and the host Knights were 28th at 796.

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Freeburg's Charlie Parrish covered the three-mile course in 16:31.30; the Knights' Javon Watkins finished 16th in 18:04.67. Jonah Wilson (21:19.96), Eli Harding (24:14.09), Nathaniel Perry (24:17.17) and Ian Key (30:28.57) all for MEL-Madison; Marquette Catholic's Adam Sanders finished 162nd with a 22:14.72 clocking and Caden Bohn led Southwestern in a time of 18:50.91.

On the girls' side, Freeburg won with 89 points, edging out Cape Girardeau (Mo.) Notre Dame with 90 points. Effingham St. Anthony was third with 126, Mascoutah was fourth with 148 and Decatur St. Teresa was fifth with 185. Southwestern finished 26th with 691.

St. Anthony's Anna Sophia Keller took the individual title with a run of 18:00.02.

Carrollton's Lily Baumgartner was 29th with a time of 22:43.27 and teammate Olivia Richey was 33rd (22:58.17). Nura Freese (28:26.44), Kristina Robinson (32:00.93) and Brynne Wallace (36:40.05) ran for MEL-Madison; Marquette's Riley Vickery, running as an individual, finished 27th in 22:36.34 and Isabelle Wolfe led the Piasa Birds with a 27:21.05 clocking.

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