Sorensen, Muckler lead Newton girls to top-10 finish at Forest Park XC Festival

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — A pair of top-25 finishes led the Newton girls cross country team to ninth place at the 20th Annual Forest Park Cross Country Festival on Saturday.

Alexis Sorensen cleared the 20-minute barrier again, and Audrey Muckler continues to close in on that milestone as the Cardinals scored 308 points in ninth place in the 21-team field.

“The athletes could feel the heat of the day starting to unfold, but they pressed against it and all ran amazing,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “The team, as a whole, had great improvement over last year in terms of team placing and times.”

Both Sorensen and Muckler brought home top-30 medals. Sorensen was 20th in the girls’ varsity Green Division 5K race with a time of 19 minutes, 58.1 seconds.

Muckler came across the finish line in 23rd with a time of 20:12.3. Two others were in the top 100 as Talia Friedman (22:22.3) and Alivia Kingery (22:52.1) finished 83rd and 97th, respectively.

Sarah Malow (23:14.8) was the final scoring runner in 115th. Ashlyn Wallace (23:23.2), Meghan Trout (25:04.3), Laek Sullivan (25:21.2) and Mia Van Zante (28:07.1) were non-scoring runners in 120th, 141st, 144th and 152nd, respectively.

“Each athlete contributed to the top-10 finish, and they should all be proud of how they competed,” Tipton said. “Their coach sure is. To have two medalists and two more crack the top 100 in this tough field is outstanding.

“I think I say this every year that we are looking forward to it cooling down, but everyone is going hard and giving their best no matter what.”

Cor Jes Academy won the Green Division championship with 78 points. O’Fallon (128), Parkway Central (134), Nerinx Hall (143) and St. Josephs Academy (147) completed the top five.

Grace Murphy of Nerinx Hall won the girls’ race in 18:18.9. Isabel Burlbaw of Rockwood Summit was the runner-up in 18:25.8.