More than 400 runners participated in the Mud Mountain Run on Saturday at the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Cross Country Course. (Photos by Dan Brannan)

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Some of Edwardsville High School cross country and track alumni who participated in Mud Mountain.EDWARDSVILLE – Even the most successful athletic programs have to have a little help from people in the community.

The Edwardsville cross-country and track programs are no exception.

The programs, along with the programs at Liberty and Lincoln Middle Schools, have been the beneficiary of the annual Edwardsville Cross-Country and Track Booster Club's Mud Mountain Run, the 20th edition of which took place Saturday morning at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville cross-country course. The event was run under somewhat humid but overcast conditions, which made for somewhat ideal running conditions, and it was reflected in the winning times for the five-kilometer (3.1 mile) race, which attracted an entry list of 386, with more than 400 participating in the race and a one-mile fun run following the main event.

Luke Padesky, originally from the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa who has run for SIUE's cross-country and track teams, came away as the overall winner in a time of 16:04.41, while Petersburg native Claire Brown, who also ran for the Cougars and now lives in Edwardsville, was the overall women's winner in a time of 18:41.21. Both ran for the RunWell team on the day.

“It was a bit humid, but overall a good day to run,” Padesky said. “The course was pretty smooth and I just adjusted for the humidity (temperatures were in the mid-70s for the early-morning start of the event).

“I hadn't run for awhile and I haven't done a lot of speed work,” Padesky, who will run for the Cougars indoor and outdoor track teams this year, added. “Basically, I went out there to see where I'm at right now, and overall, I'm doing all right.”

“It was a challenge for me,” Brown, who hadn't run on the course in some time, said. “It was my home course when I was going here, but I forgot how tough it can be.”

This was Brown's first Mud Mountain event, and her sister Kayla finished behind her in the overall women's standings. “We ran together today and we decided to go out and see what happened,” Brown said. “I hadn't run a lot after graduating, so I decided it was time to get back out there. It was a great event; I really enjoyed it here today.”

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Lori Cashdollar sings the national anthem.

The Tiger runners took part in the festivities; rising sophomore Lorie Cashdollar, in fact, sang the national anthem prior to the start of the race and Keith Dudding, an Edwardsville resident and booster who is also the host of the popular music program “Down Yonder” at St. Louis community radio station KDHX-FM and whose son Devin once ran for the Tigers, was the public-address announcer and host for the day's events.

“I can't say enough about the support we get from the community,” said Tiger cross-country coach George Patrylak, who also served as race director and ran in the race with his son Geordan. 'We had a record number of sponsors this year and seeing everyone have fun here was really great.”

As mentioned, the race is a fund-raiser for the cross-country and track programs for Edwardsville High and the middle schools. “We support 12 programs through this race,” Patrylak said. “It's great to see people helping out and supporting the programs.”

Age-group winners in the men’s competition included Geordan Patrylak (11-and-under), Ross Busher (12-13), Kevin Koester (14-15), Aaron Dugan (16-18), Padesky (19-24), Travis Lavin (25-29), Justin Wieduwilt (30-34), Peter Kim (35-39), James Baca (40-44), John Roth (45-49), Daniel Feder (50-54), Wayne Skigen (55-59) and Keith Timmins (60-and-over).

Women’s age-group winners were Ana Keller (11-and-under), Abby Korak (12-13), Honor Dimick (14-15), Lizzy Lynn (16-18), Claire Brown (19-24), Kayla Brown (25-29), Lisa Johnson (30-34), Denise Hale (35-39), Roxanne Patrylak (40-44), Tracy Johnston (45-49), Rebecca Bradley (50-54), Sue Schlepman (55-59), and Donna Sommars (60-and-over).

First to the Finish won the men’s overall team competition with four-runner total time of 1:07:50.47, while MDXC won the overall women’s team race with a time of 1:22:23.19.

 

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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