EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville High School senior-to-be Emily Nuttall won the individual women's race and her team, The Skids, won the team championship at the 26th annual Mud Mountain 5K and one-mile fun run race Saturday morning at SIU-Edwardsville's Mud Mountain cross country course.
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The race serves as a fundraiser for the Edwardsville High School cross country and track teams, as well as the teams at both Lincoln and Liberty Middle Schools in the Edwardsville School District.
In the women's team competition, race director and Tigers head cross country coach George Patrylak felt the race was more tactical than anything else, with Nuttall in fifth at the mile mark while working her way towards the front as the race went along.
"She steadily closed the gap in the last mile," Patrylak said, "before taking the lead and separating herself from the field in the last 600 meters."
Nuttall's win helped her team, The Skids, which also consisted of Emma Patrick, Olivia Coll and Madison Popelar, win the team championship over a pair of SIUE-oriented teams, Mud Mountain and The Cougars.
In the individual race, Nuttall won with a time of 20:18.5, with Danielle Mudd second at 20:24.6, Melissa Spencer was third at 20:32.4, Alexis Edgar was fourth at 20:36.8, Hannah Meiser was fifth, coming in at 21:30.2, Julianna Deiterman was sixth at 21:35.0, seventh place went to Maddie Keller at 21:39.6, Coll was eighth at 21:43.8, Blare Cunningham came in ninth at 21:46.5 and rounding out the top ten was Maggie Dust at 22:16.3.
In the age group competition, Alli Merrick was the 11-and-under winner with a time of 31:03.0, Sophie Shapiro won the 12-13 race with a time of 23:32.3, the 14-15 winner was Popelar, who was in at 22:30.4, Meiser was the 16-18 age group winner, while Edgar won the 19-24 age group, Becca Starrett won the 25-29 group with a time of 28:57.6, Dust was the winner in the 30-34 age group, Casey Jones won the 35-39 age group with a time of 32:28.8, the 40-44 winner was Kit Donald at 28:31.8, Andrea Cope won the 45-49 race at 35:08.5, Anna Knoyle was the winner in the 50-54 category with a time of 27:19.8 and Rebecca Bradley won the 55-59 category at 25:03.3.
The race went well for everyone involved, with an early start time to avoid the heat that has invaded the area for the past few days and heat advisories still in effect for the area. Still, the turnout for the race showed that the race is a much-anticipated event for the area every year.
"The event went very well," Patrylak said, "we had a lot of support from the community and the sponsors and we're on pace to set new records for sponsorship. The fact we had that many runners come out to compete, with heat indices in the low 90s at race time, it just shows the community and local runners are supportive and dedicated to our event. Thanks to our sponsors and our community of runners and congratulations to our winners."
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