OAK RIDGE — For the first time in program history, St. Vincent claimed first place at the district meet in both boys and girls cross country in the same season.
The Indians competed in the Class 1, District 1 meet on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Oak Ridge High School.
The girls team was led by Anna Welker, who finished in first place individually in a field of 60 runners. Welker finished the 5,000-meter run in 20 minutes and 55.14 seconds to take the top spot on the board.
“It was good to see her back to health,” coach John McLain said. “She had rolled her ankle a little bit at our conference meet so we wanted to kind of make sure she was at full strength. I think she showed that and then some.”
Adeline Carlton was 6th at 23:54.59, Aubrey Mattingly was 9th at 24:02.84, Kiera Berry was 36th at 26:46.96, Alexsyn Schnurbusch was 38th at 26:57.72, Charlotte Tomlinson was 44th at 28:28.26, and Reese Leible was 45th at 28:32.96.
With only four teams bringing runners on the girls side in the meet, the Indians were guaranteed a spot in the state competition no matter what their result was, but McLain said he did not want to leave any doubt.
“Sometimes people will say, well, you didn’t really earn it, or you just kind of got handed it to you because you were pretty much guaranteed,” McLain said. “So we felt like the easiest way to kind of tell everybody that we belong there and that we did earn it was just to win the whole thing. We did that pretty handily as a team.”
The boys team was again led by Carter Hennemann, who’s final time of 17:39.13 was good enough for second place individually.
“He wasn’t feeling 100 percent, but he gave his all,” McLain said. He didn’t get the district title again like he did last year, but second place is nothing to be ashamed of. And when you get three runners in the top ten, you know you are in good shape.”
Luke Ryan was 5th at 18:23.36, Jackson Strattman was 10th at 19:00.88, Caden Hadler was 24th at 19.21.01, Collin Tillet was 38th at 20:13.55, Trever Walker was 40th at 20:32.06 and Adam Rahn was 52nd at 21:03.01.
Both teams will compete in the state championship meet at Gans Creek Recreation Area in Columbia this weekend, Nov. 6th and 7th.
