ARNOLD — The St. Vincent cross country teams didn’t win last week, but runners on both the boys’ and girls’ teams turned in a number of personal and season bests, leaving coach John McClain pleased with his team’s performance at the 28th annual Ed White Festival of Races hosted by Fox High School at Arnold Park on Thursday, Sept. 25.
“It was a huge meet,” said McClain. “I think 25 schools, something like that, and they run JV races there too, so you have to figure that some of those schools ran even more high school kids beyond [the 189 varsity runners], so you’re talking a lot of kids running. It was good because a lot of big schools, schools that know how to run well were there, and that’s what we wanted to be matched up with, some quality competition that was going to kind of bring the best out of us.”
In addition to the competition level, McClain noted other positives, including cooler temperatures and good course conditions.
“It did feel a little bit warm, but compared to what it had been like last week, it was it was a nice change of pace,” McClain said. “We were a little worried — the course up there is kind of almost right next to the bridge that goes across the Meramec River there on U.S. 61. I’ve been at that park before when it’s rained, and there’s like standing water, so we kind of went in thinking we might have to basically run through a swamp, but I guess with as dry as it’s been, the ground has soaked it all up. Actually, the ground was soft, but the kind of soft you want, and so it’s nice to kind of not feel like we were running on pavement when you’re running on grass, it’s so hard. The weather was nice and the course was nice. Conditions-wise it was a great day.”
As for the runners themselves, reports varied. Because of various illnesses and injuries, St. Vincent was unable to field enough runners to place in the team competition, but of the runners who competed, four set new personal bests and one set a season-best time.
On the boys’ side, St. Vincent junior Carter Hennemann finished fifth with a season-best time of 16 minutes, 55.5 seconds, trailing first-place finisher Elijah Case of St. Charles (15:39.2) by 1 minute and 16 seconds.
Jayden Metzler of St. Pius X was second in 16:19.6, Oakville’s Lucas Wiegman was third in 16:34.6, and Karl Barthel of Clayton was fourth in 16:37.2.
Rounding out the finishers for St. Vincent, Caden Hadler was 76th in 20:45.2 — a personal best — Bo Burgin was 86th in 22:47.5, and Tristin Anders was 93rd in 26:02.5.
In the boys’ team standings, Clayton finished first with 58 points, Jefferson was second with 96, and St. Charles was third with 112.
There was a bit of drama in the girls’ race, as St. Vincent senior Reagan Meyer had a minor mishap near the end of the race, but quickly got back on track, finishing sixth in 20:08.8, behind Cor Jesu Academy’s Kaitlyn Loeffelman (18:55.3) and Reese Luna (19:54.0) in first and second, Fox’s Sienna Harger (19:55.1) in third, Seckman’s Grace Andrews (19:56.1) in fourth, and St. Dominic’s Piper Wiegmann (20:02.9) in fifth. “There were a lot of switchbacks,” McClain said, “and it’s kind of a wooded area, a lot of trees everywhere. It was the last turn before you went into a clearing where you turn into the finish, and I guess Reagan, she must have taken that last turn a little bit too tight. She was there kind of bunched in with a couple other girls and she ended up running into a tree, basically bit the dust. There was about probably 300 meters or so left to go in the race and she was able to get back up and try to recover. Obviously, when that happens like that close to the end, that knocks the wind out of you.”
Rounding out the list for St. Vincent, Anna Welker was 21st in 21:34.6, Audrey Amschler was 67th in 24:39.4, and Jocelyn Weibrecht was 95th in 27:50.0. All three finishes were personal bests.
“We just focused on that,” McClain said, “on those individual performances and goals and make those happen, and I felt like we succeeded pretty well in that department.”
In the girls’ team standings, Clayton finished first with 58 points, Jefferson was second with 96, and St. Charles was third with 112.
“The good news, McClain said, “is most of the other courses we’re gonna run, like the state course, there’s no trees to worry about. So, it’s not something we’re going to get too preoccupied with.
“It was a good day.”
