SEE PHOTO GALLERY BELOW:
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
EDWARDSVILLE – Area boys and girls cross country teams seem to be rounding into good shape to soon make the post-season bid to get to Peoria for the IHSA state finals.
Edwardsville cross county coach George Patrylak has boys and girls teams that seem to be peaking at the right time of season.
This weekend, Edwardsville competes in a meet at Centralia Invitational and he is hoping both the boys and girls continue to fine tune things to get ready for the post-season push.
He said the boys closed ground this past Tuesday with the Madison County Meet at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville course.
“Frankie Romano is in his first year of cross country and he is getting better and better each meet,” the coach said. “I am glad Dan Powell chose to have a big race, we had three runners, including Roland Prenzler, in the top five. Max (Hartmann) and Sam (McCormick) also ran well too. I am proud of the way the boys ran this week and the future is very optimistic. We have had a history of great cross country runners and I think that will only continue.”
Patrylak knows his girls team is going to make history this year with so many runners already cracking into the 19-minute mark for a 5K, but he hopes to post a top 15 overall finish with the girls and he said this weekend’s meet is important to make that next jump.
“Colleen (Corkery), Melissa (Spencer) and Payton (Flowers) ran very well in the Madison County Meet,” he said.
The Tigers had five of the top nine spots in the girls race, while the boys took five of the top eight spots as both teams won the large-school division of the event. The Tiger girls had 26 points to take the team title, with Triad second at 56 points and Highland third at 67 points, followed by Collinsville (112), Granite City (117) and Alton (148). The boys had 27 points to take their competition, followed by Granite City (46), Triad (90), Alton (103), Collinsville (108) and Highland (131).
Civic Memorial won the boys small-school title with 35 points, with East Alton-Wood River second with 38 points, Metro East Lutheran-Madison 61 and Roxana 91. The girls small-school title went to Roxana, who had 19 points, with CM second with 43 points. McGivney Catholic, Marquette and the EA-WR girls did not have enough runners for a team score.
The girls large-school Top 10 were Triad's Abigail Richter (19:46.53), Edwardsville's Colleen Corkery (20:14.75), Edwardsville's Melissa Spencer (20:17.54), Triad's Maddie Keller (20:19.69), Edwardsville's Payton Flowers (20:21.53), Highland's Sarah Beth Wiegman (20:29.53), Edwardsville's Julianna Determan (20:34.46), Highland's Breann Wernle (20:38.58), Edwardsville's Maddie Miller (20:43.30) and Edwardsville's Lorie Cashdollar (20:46.00).
The boys large-school Top 10 were Granite City brothers Will (16:42.27) and Andrew O'Keefe (16:52.65), Edwardsville's Frankie Romano (16:56.08), Dan Powell (17:23.58) and Roland Prenzler (17:26.45), Alton's Arie Macias (17.36.21), Edwardsville's Max Hartmann (17:47.86) and Sam McCormick (17:48.34), Highland's Jacob Plocher (17:49.32) and Triad's Adam Lawson (18:06.94).
The girls small-school Top 10 were EA-WR's Haley Kerpan (20:12.14), Roxana's Kyrston Scifres (20:45.17), CM's Alex Singleton (21:32.02), Marquette's Natalie Halladay (21:40.40), Roxana's Shalyn Edwards (22:22.44), Michaela Tarpley (22:51.86), Victoria Tarpley (23:21.12) and Alexis Stumpf (23:34.64), McGivney's Mira McAtee (24:12.14) and Roxana's Sarah Stover (24:27.41).
The boys small-school Top 10 were EA-WR's Brendon Springman (17:51.84), MEL-Madison's Javon Watkins (18:08.61), CM's Cohl Callies (18:12.11) and Frank Trost (18:22.11), MEL's Madison's Darion Brooks (18:45.30), EA-WR's Matthew Shea (19:09.32), CM's Jarrett Lacquement (19:09.75) and Weihua Li (19:24.29) and EA-WR's Ryne White (19:40.30) and Chase Wallendorf (19:40.48).
More like this:
