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EDWARDSVILLE – The depth of Edwardsville's girls’ cross country team is pretty much unquestioned.
It certainly was on display at Wednesday's Tiger Fall Classic meet at the SIU-Edwardsville cross-country course, where the Tigers took five of the first 11 spots and all seven runners finished in the top 13 to easily win the meet; EHS scored 36 points to easily outdistance Triad, who took second with 104 points. Mount Vernon was third at 105, Breese Mater Dei was fourth with 108 and O'Fallon finished out the top five teams with 112.
The second five consisted of Marion (130), Roxana (173), Belleville East (201), Collinsville (214) and Centralia (257). Granite City, Greenville, East Alton-Wood River and Carrollton did not have enough runners finish for a team score.
The 5K race was won by Triad's Abigail Richter, who covered the course in 20:15.04; Marion's Shelby Kallem was second in 20:15.15 and Edwardsville's Honor Dimick was third in 20:41.23. Other Edwardsville runners who scored were Melissa Spencer, sixth in 20:51.94; Victoria Vegher, seventh in 21:08.92; Julianna Determan, ninth in 21:19.38; and Lorie Cashdollar, 11th in 21:24.57. Colleen Corkery (12th in 21:27.76) and Kennison Adams (13th in 21:36.72) just finished out of scoring range (the top five runners for each team were scored).
“We had a solid day,” said Tiger coach George Patrylak. “Our biggest goal today was to try to figure out who were going to be our top runners for the (First to the Finish meet in Peoria Saturday); it's a meet that we circle on our calendar every year for.
“We did a great job overall; All seven of our runners ran their fastest times today. We definitely showed our depth today.”
“Our girls ran very well today,” said Granite City coach Rich Skirball. “We held Kori Nesbitt out today so she could be ready for Peoria Saturday and Alyssa Comer is getting stronger and stronger. We had some very encouraging results today.”
Other runners in the top 10 included Kate Bushue of Mount Vernon (fourth in 20:46.45), Triad's Maddie Keller (fifth in 20:48.01), Marion's Sydney Kallem (eighth in 21:15.66) and O'Fallon's Hannah Nabb (10th in 21:23.36).
Other area varsity runners who scored included Roxana's Kryston Scifres (17th in 22:27.84), Shalyn Edwards (22nd in 23:01.94), Victoria Tarpley (42nd in 24:43.95), Alexis Stumpf (44th in 24:52.34) and Lette Palen (48th in 25:36.82). Granite City's runners included Comer (24:55.52), Alexandra McLaren (26:34.74) and Mariah Vaughn (29:30.93); East Alton-Wood River's Haley Kerpen covered the distance in 23:14.83; Carrollton's Lily Baumgartner (22:21.77), Maddie Custer (26:09.10) and Ashley Vandersand (28:47.83) represented the Hawks.
Edwardsville swept the top five scoring places and the top nine overall places in the junior varsity race for 15 points, defeating O'Fallon, who had 50 points; Belleville East was third at 84 points and Marion was fourth with 119 points. Metro East Lutheran-Madison, Granite City and EA-WR also had runners taking part.
Katelyn Singh, Lauren Meyer, Haley Allard, Rachel Schoenecker, Caitlyn Scheibal, Savannah Brannan, Emma Hensley, Abby Schrobeglin and Dianna Craig swept the top nine places for the Tigers.
“We're having a rebuilding year on the girls side,” said MEL-Madison (like the football program, the two schools are also in a coop for cross country) coach Ruth Thompson. “We've got a couple of runners, Kristina Robinson and Suze Jezek, who are new to cross country; the fact they were willing to come out is really great.”
Jezek took part in the JV race, covering the course in 35:25.47. Alissa Spears and Jaden Myint ran for Granite City, while Carissa Gilreath and Kaylee Dailey ran for the Oilers.
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