RENSSELAER | As runners crossed the finish line at Tuesday's Rensselaer Sectional, Michael Fauser made it a point to shake everyone's hand.

It was the closest that many of the runners got to the Boone Grove junior.

Fauser took first place with a time of 16:22.68, holding off Jacob Carden (Kouts) by eight seconds. The two were the only runners to finish under 17 minutes.

"I have been doing a lot more workouts, but I am also getting over a cold," Fauser said.

Boone Grove sophomore Jordan Chester continued her dominance in cross country with a first-place finish in the girls race, crossing the line in 19:25.47 and then immediately heading off to a soccer match.

Chester's first-place finish helped the Wolves qualify for Saturday's New Prairie Regional. Last year Boone Grove didn't even field an entire team.

"We had a lot of freshmen try out for the team this year and we had a junior come out after having only three girls last year," Boone Grove coach Joy Swan said. "I think we'll be pretty good for a couple of years."

Kankakee Valley captured both of the team championships, holding off Kouts in the boys race and Rensselaer on the girls side. The boys title marks the fourth year in a row that the Kougars have won the sectional.

"We knew after our conference meet that both the boys and girls had a chance to win their respective titles," Kankakee Valley coach Lane Lewallen said. "It takes all five scores to win a sectional and we got that today."

The Kouts boys nearly captured their first sectional title in school history by tying the Kougars with 56 points apiece, but the tiebreaker went to the sixth-place finisher for each team and Kankakee Valley freshman Trevor Overstreet beat Kouts freshman Matthew Bradley by five seconds.

In addition to the Kougars and Mustangs, Rensselaer, Hebron and Boone Grove all qualified for Saturday's boys regional.

Joining the Wolves and Kankakee Valley at the girls regional will be the Bombers, Hawks and West Central.

"Our main focus was to get out of here today and we did that," Hebron coach Mike DeFries said. "We could finish first or fifth and it wouldn't have mattered, we move on."