Perryville and St. Vincent competed in the 2026 Jefferson County Athletic Association conference meet on Oct. 17 in Festus.
The St. Vincent boys were the only team who brought enough runners to place in the team standings, but both schools had several runners set personal best times in the meet.
The St. Vincent boys finished fourth as a team, and as a whole, 16 of the 18 athletes the Indians brought across both teams achieved new personal best times.
The fastest Indians runner on the boys side was Carter Hennemann, who set a new personal best time of 16 minutes and 46.21 seconds, breaking the school record he set himself earlier in the year, and finishing 0.01 seconds short of being the first athlete in program history to make First Team All-Conference. Hennemann’s time was good enough to earn him second team all-conference honors.
Luke Ryan finished 22nd at 17:59.38, Jackson Strattman finished 24th at 18:27.95, Caden Hadler finished 29th at 18:56.91 and Collin Tilley finished 40th at 20:06.76.
The Lady Indians lone runner in the meet was Anna Welker, who finished with a time of 20:14.99. Her time moves her into 2nd all time for girls in the St. Vincent program, and their fastest junior ever. Welker earned second team all conference honors.
Perryville brought just seven runners, all boys, across JV and Varsity, but six of the seven achieved new personal bests in the meet.
The Varsity team was led by Easton Blechle, who finished 27th with a time of 18:47.66. Colton O’Keefe was 47th at 20:44.37, Cale Austin was 48th at 21:41.51 and Jonathon Randolph was 50th at 22:36.51.
Saxony Lutheran competed in the Farmington Invitational. The Crusaders girls team finished 4th, and the boys team finished 8th.
The Lady Crusaders were led by Briley Meyr, who finished 13th at 21:21.30. Emmy Bengston was 17th at 21:45.95, Raylee Matthews was 26th at 22:52.92, Adalyn Brandhorst was 29th at 23:14.63, Eva Williamson was 36th at 24:16.46, Muriel Brummel was 42nd at 25:45.29 and Lydia Hitt was 44th at 26:06.51.
The Crusaders boys team was led by Nicolas Chambless who finished 25th at 18:10.42. Brady Keys was 41st at 18:54, Evan Ward was 47th at 19:05,10, Jacob Schupp was 63rd at 19:42.43, Samuel J Petzoldt was 64th at 19:46.34 and Kade Schubert was 81st at 21:00.44.
Perryville and St. Vincent will both compete in one final regular season meet this Thursday at the North County Invitational, both will then compete in districts on Oct. 31.
The Crusaders competed in the 2026 Heartland Conference Championship on Wednesday Oct. 21. Full results will be found in next week’s edition.
