WILLOW SPRINGS — St. Vincent junior Carter Henneman turned in the second-best overall time Thursday in the boys’ 5,000-meter division of the Steve Waggoner Invitational at the Willow Springs Golf Course, finishing in 17 minutes, 48.9 seconds, earning the gold medal in the small-school division along the way.
Henneman’s time was only one second off the boys’ top overall time, turned in by Landon Fawcett of Logan-Rogersville, who finished in 17:47.9 to win the large school division.
On the girls’ side, St. Vincent sophomore Anna Welker finished fourth in the small-school division with a time of 23:44.6. Hannah Marcum of Lighthouse Christian Athletics finished first in 22.58.9, followed by teammate Ruth Millsap, who finished in 23:08.6. Jessica Suit of Gainesville was third in 23:10.0.
“It went OK, all things considered,” said St. Vincent coach John McClain. “It was a pretty hot day. I think temperatures were right around 90 when the girls started running. And for the boys, it cooled off a little bit. We kind of knew that going in that the times weren’t probably going to be impressive, but as I told the kids, the way cross-country works, the times don’t really matter. It’s all places. It doesn’t matter whether you beat somebody by a millisecond or a minute — point-wise, you’re one place ahead of them.
“We just really focused on competing and just trying to beat some of the schools that were there that we know we’re probably going to have to match up with at some point later in the season, and so in that sense, I thought they pushed hard and competed well.”
As a team, the St. Vincent girls finished third overall and third in the small school division with 58 points behind Lighthouse Christian (29) and Gainesville (35).
The boys’ team finished fifth with 112 points, behind Van Buren (48), Fordland (53), Thayer (82), Dora (107).
St. Vincent standout Reagan Meyer, who set a course and school record at the recent St. Vincent Invitational, had a bit of a rough time Thursday, pulling out of the pack near the midway point because of overheating.
McClain praised Meyer for making the smart decision to stop rather than pushing through and risking her health.
“She owned it, you know, that she probably didn’t do the best job of hydrating throughout the day,” McClain said, “especially on the bus ride and leading up to the meet. She knew she’d kind of have to have that dialed in to perform well and avoid some issues, and as soon as we started running, she realized that she probably hadn’t done that to the best that she could have. About two miles in, she was in pretty bad shape and ended up stopping there, and then she wanted to finish, and so we kind of said, ‘That’s fine.’”
Adding weight to her decision was the desire to help a teammate, who was also struggling, to finish the race.
“We had another girl on our team, [Audrey Amschler], who was also sick that day and was a race-time decision whether she was even going to go,” McClain said. “Reagan ended up popping back in with her to help her finish and so they could support each other to the end.”
Amschler ended up finishing 26th in 29:44.7, and Reagan was 27th in 29:45.0.
“I think Reagan made the right decision,” McClain said. “It takes a lot of courage, because she was in second place at the time when she did it — and I think she was first amongst the small-school division. To recognize that things are not in a good place and knowing to make that smart choice to go ahead and stop rather than pushing it and end up in a heat exhaustion, heat stroke situation or something like that, that could put the whole season in a bad place.
“I was proud of her and impressed that, given the circumstances at that point — to make that decision, to stop — I think it was the right decision.”
Rounding the girls side for St. Vincent, 30 Adeline Carlton was 30th in 30:24.7, Jocelyn Weibrecht was 32nd in 31:03.2, Sybina Nations was 46th in 36:27.5, Sybella Nations was 47th in 37:36.6, and Sydney Taylor was 48th in 39:03.4. For the boys, Jackson Strattman was 27th in 21:48.9, Caden Hadler was 35th in 22:40.9, Collin Tilley was 38th in 22:53.2, Bo Burgin was 44th in 23:42.0, and Tristin Anders finished 69th in 28:34.3
