EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville boys cross country team showcased its talent in its first of hopefully three post-season races on Saturday at the Southern Illinois University course.
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Edwardsville won the IHSA Class 3A Regional with 30 points, followed by Belleville East with 65 points, O’Fallon with 105 points, Granite City 110 points, Collinsville with 133 points, Belleville West with 192 points and Alton with 195 points.
O’Fallon sat out some of its top runners; Edwardsville’s Todd Baxter, Jack Pifer and Alexander Valdez also did not run.
The qualifying for sectional is relatively easy with the top six teams, plus the top five runners not on qualifying teams, moving to the Quincy Sectional. The sectional is set for 11 a.m. this Saturday.
The Tigers’ Roland Prenzler blazed to a win with a first-place time of 15:49.53, ahead of Quincy’s Fiker Rosen. Edwardsville’s Max Hartman was third in 16:02.89 and Andrew O’Keefe of Granite City ran a 16:15.60.
Zach Walters ran an excellent race for Edwardsville, placing fifth in a time of 16:29.91, Henry Gruben followed in 10th with a time of 17:09.22 and Wyatt Erber recorded an 11th place finish (17:12:59), then came Colton O’Brien, 17th (17:33.94); and Drew Stover, 19th (17:42.41).
Alton had two boys qualifiers Cassius Havis, who was sixth in 16:47 and Jav’ion Harrison, 35th in 18:52.
Edwardsville sat out three of its top varsity runners — Jack Pifer, Alexander Valdez and Todd Baxter — for the regional. They should be back in the lineup for the sectional.
“I thought our entire boys' team ran extremely well,” Edwardsville head cross country coach George Patrylak. said. “We approached things a little bit differently for this regional and gave some of the boys the option to not run. Some athletes feel benefit from the week in between races and some want to keep going to stay in focus. Jack Pifer, Todd Baxter and Alexander Valdez were held out. Ultimately, Henry Gruben was able to earn the seventh spot with his race today. I thought Stover, O’Brien, Erber and Gruben all ran excellent races.”
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