Perryville senior Clayton Bauwens ran a solid race Monday.
He finished the boys 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes, 28.4 seconds — nearly a full 90 seconds off his personal best – but it was a good way to mark Senior Night for the PHS cross country team and more than enough to claim first place at the annual Perryville XC Cutlass Invitational at City Park in Perryville.
“He set his personal best last year at [17 minutes] flat,” said PHS coach Shadrick Shafer. “He’s still a ways off of that, but he’s tracking very well. Last year, he just couldn’t seem to stay healthy. This year, he’s staying healthy. His time was about [1:06] faster than it was at this race last year. As far as tracking forward, it’s looking really good.”
Bauwens wasn’t alone in the top 10, as teammate and fellow senior Micah Brown turned in an eighth-place finish in 20:01.8.
Altogether, four Pirates earned medals for finishing in the top 25 spots, with freshman Easton Blechle finishing 15th in 21:00.8 and senior Brandon Roth finishing 17th in a season-best time of 21:38.0.
Those four top 25 finishes — along with a 31st-place time of 23:17.5 for senior Rodney Rauh, were enough to lift Perryville to a third-place finish in the team standings with 70 points.
Seckman won the boys’ team title with 44 points, followed by Windsor with 66. Meadow Heights (72) was fourth, Kelly (110) was fifth, and a short-handed St. Vincent (138) was sixth.
“There were some great teams there,” Shafer said. “I’d like to see them finish a little bit higher. That freshman, young Easton Bleche, is starting to develop some consistency— we call it getting a race smarter — and understanding what the race is going to demand of you. So it’s very exciting to watch him run. Brandon Roth had his best time of the season by far. He was running really, really well.
“That was exciting to watch on the guys’ side. We had several very, very talented seniors graduate last year. And this year we’ve got some guys who are making strides. We’ve just got to stay healthy.”
Seckman’s Benjamin Spears finished second in 19:05.4, followed by Windsor’s James Schlarman (19:27.3) in third, teammate Nathan Akers (19:34.4) in fourth, and Seckman’s Trevor Terrill in fifth at 19:41.2.
Rounding out the list for Perryville were Colton O’Keefe in 32nd 23:28.3, Aidan Unverferth in 36th 24:07.0, Cale Austin in 39th 25:14.9, and Lucas Fritsche in 4th 27:35.8.
For the St. Vincent boys, Jackson Strattman was 19th in 21:41.9, Collin Tilley was 23rd in 21:58.3, Caden Hadler was 24th in 22:00.5, Bo Burgin was 43rd in 25:44.0, and Tristin Anders was 45th in 27:14.1.
St. Vincent coach John McClain explained his team was running shorthanded at the Perryville meet, mostly because of the team’s busy schedule and the rapidly approaching district meet.
“We had that meet [Sept. 25] and then the Perryville meet,” McClain said. “We’re at Notre Dame this Saturday. Generally, my preference is to try and not race anybody more than about once a week. Three meets in about a 10-day stretch, that’s kind of a lot for most runners. We’re getting late in the season and you just don’t want to over race somebody and then be fatigued and at greater risk for injury and just for performance. We kind of split up the three races to where everybody’s pretty much running two out of the three.”
Seckman dominated the girls’ competition, with the Lady Jaguars claiming 13 medals, led by 1 Grace Andrews, who finished first in 20:38.8, and Harper Goddard, who was second with a time of 23:42.8. All told, Seckman entered 17 runners in the girls’ 5K.
Seckman easily claimed the girls’ team title, finishing with 21 points, Windsor was second with 55 and Perryville was third with 62. St. Vincent only fielded four runners and did not place.
Shafer said moving the Cutlass Invitational to a Monday late in the month was a likely reason local runners saw so much Seckman blue.
“They brought a bunch of kids down,” said Shafer. “We moved this race to a Monday out of necessity — our timer had a conflict. Usually it’s the last Tuesday in September. We pulled it back to Monday, and we had a few teams who couldn’t make it as a result. With Seckman being here, their girls constituted about half the field, if not a little more. So they kind of overwhelmed everyone.”
Perryville’s third-place effort was led by Anna Rehagen, who finished ninth in 25:57.9, followed by Alexa Hagan in 13th in 27:07.5, Addelynne Kirn in 18th in 27:57.0, Grace Buchheit in 21st at 28:08.4, and Esveidy Antonio Garcia in 22nd at 28:21.0. Katie Baggett was 24th in 28:26.4, Eloise Bollinger was 29th in 31:28.2, and Irma Camaja Raymundo was 36th in 33:05.4.
“We just had the three in the top 20,” Shafer said. “Still, it’s fun to watch. There’s three freshman girls, Addy, Grace, and Esveidy there who are getting a little bit smarter every race, understanding the race and what these different courses will demand of them. They work hard. They show up. That’s what we need from these younger kids.”
Jocelyn Weibrecht was St. Vincent’s only medalist, finishing 23rd in 28:23.5, followed by Adeline Carlton in 26th at 28:32.0, Sybina Nations in 28th at 30:57.0, and Sybella Nations in 34th at 32:33.0.
“[Weibrecht and Carlton] have been running together most of the year,” McClain said. “Jocelyn’s a senior and then Adeline’s a freshman and Jocelyn has kind of taken Adeline under her wing. At the 2-mile mark, they were 25th and 26th, you know, and so I kind of was trying to tell them, ‘You’re both getting the medal. You’re doing this together.’ And It was actually a girl from Perryville that was in, I think, 24th. She moved up a little bit further after that. Jocelyn caught a new wind and kept going, but Adeline was having a little trouble. Katie got past her and finished 24th, so that was kind of a bummer.”
