BETHALTO - Father McGivney Catholic's Elena Rybak and Katlyn Hatley went one-two in the small school race as the Tigers won the large school team title and McGivney won the small school crown, at the Madison County Girls Cross Country Meet Tuesday afternoon at the Bethalto Sports Complex. Edwardsville's Olivia Coll and Emily Nuttall took the top two spots in the large school division.
Edwardsville won the large school championship with 21 points, with Highland coming in second with 64 points, Triad third with 67 points and Granite City was fourth with 152 points. The Griffins won the small school title with 38 points, with Civic Memorial coming in second with 48 points, Marquette Catholic came in third with 73 points, Roxana was fourth with 76 points and Metro-East Lutheran came in fifth with 117 points.
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The girls race followed a similar pattern to the boys race, in which the results were closer than one might think, and although the Griffins didn't have a team score, their top runners of Rybak and Hatley made a very positive impact on the race itself.
"It was similar to the boys race, in that Father McGivney's top two runners were extremely impressive," said Edwardsville head coach George Patrylak. "Elena's the real deal."
The race strategy for the Tigers was a little bit less aggressive and concentrated on more of a pack race, which worked very well for Edwardsville.
"With the girls, after two hard weekends of racing, we switched up our strategy," Patrylak said. "We were a little less aggressive at the start, and tried to pack it in together for the first half of the race. Some of the girls worked together and moved up nicely, and enabled us to accomplish our goals."
Nuttall wasn't the number one runner for the Tigers for the first time this season, and things worked out nicely for Edwardsville, as Coll was able to come out on top.
"This was the first meet she (Nuttall) wasn't our number one," Patrylak said. "and that was due to the way we approached the race. Olivia's top end speed closed out, so overall, I was pleased with the girls' performances."
Six of the top ten runners in the large school race were from Edwardsville, with Coll winning with a time of 19:05.4, Nuttall was second at 19:06.7, Highland's Taryn Keeney third with a time of 19:32.4, with the next four runners from the Tigers. Madison Strotheide was fourth at 19:39.2, Whitney Dyckman was fifth with a time of 19:41.3, Emma Patrick was sixth at 19:46.2 and Maya Lueking was seventh at 19:50.9. Three Triad runners, Blaire Cunningham, Kennedy Bowman and Ana Keller, rounded out the top ten, with Cunningham coming in at 19:54.7, Bowman having a time of 20:07.9 and Keller's time was 20:08.1.
The other Tiger runner was Dylan Peel, who came in at 21:09.3. Outside of the top three, Triad had Chloe Gough in at 20:30.4, Kailey Peterson was in at 20:52.2, Amanda Bagwell had a time of 21:11.4 and Claire Schaft came in at 21:11.8. Lauryn Fenoglo led the way for Granite City with a time of 20:19.5, with Emilee Franklin in at 21:05.4, Lillian Harris' time was 22:40.0, Madison Tanksley had a time of 24:49.3, Lydia Harris was in at 25:03.3, Kyla Gerhardt was clocked in 29:58.9 and Rowan Wallace was in at 30:28.5
Sophia Paschal was the only runner for Alton, with her time being 20:38.5, while Collinsville's Selah Hart was in at 22:10.4, Kassidy Rea's time was 23:49.0 and Morgan Laing came in at 24:34.7.
Rybak won the small school race with a time of 18:04.5, with Hatley coming in second at 19:03.8, Hannah Meiser of the Eagles finished third at 19:15.4, Roxana's Riley Doyle was fourth with a time of 20:22.8, fifth place went to CM's Alyssa Mann at 20:46.9, in sixth place was Kailey Vickrey of Marquette, who came in at 21:02.2, Izzy McLeod of Metro-East was seventh at 21:11.0, coming in eighth place was the Shells' Gabrielle Woodruff at 21:14.7, the Griffins' Claire Stanhaus was ninth at 21:15.6 and CM's Eliza Donaldson rounded out the top ten with a time of 21:21.0.
Along with Rybak, Hatley and Stanhaus, McGivney had Jane Cummins in at 21:51.4, Amelia Beltremea was clocked in 22:28.8, Emma Martinez was in at 23:55.7 and Sofia Luna had a time of 24:57.4. Along with Meiser, Mann and Donaldson, the Eagles had Katelyn Hallstead in at 22:18.3, Allison Hallstead's time was 22:54.7 and Shelby Quick came in at 23:19.5.
In addition to Doyle and Woodruff, Roxana had Zoey Losch in at 23:15.8, Paige Lohman had a time of 24:13.5 and Lexi Ryan came in at 25:58.3. Besides Vickrey, the Explorers had Katie Johnson in at 22:00.7, Paige Rister had a time of 22:04.9, Hudson McCowan was in at 23:48.6, Jaimie Jarzenback came in at 25:52.3 and Ava Certa had a time of 27:00.0.
Outside of McLeod, Metro-East had Allison Waller in at 25:57.0, McKenna Getta had a time of 26:43.5, Claire Sherfy came home at 31:50.4 and Ashleigh Esker had a time of 35:14.2.
The Tigers lineup for the postseason looks to be set pretty solidly, and Patrylak is looking for a seventh runner to break through for the upcoming state series.
"I believe the top six have separated a little bit, but due to some variants, we're trying to figure out that last spot," Patrylak said. "The girls are continuing to improve, and I'm looking forward to leading them into the postseason."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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