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EDWARDSVILLE – Both of Edwardsville's cross country teams had good days at Saturday's IHSA Class 3A Edwardsville Regional meet at SIU-Edwardsville's cross-country course, a five-kilometer (3.1-mile) layout.
The Tigers, led by second-place finishes by Rachel Schonecker and Franky Romano, won both team titles on the day, the Tiger girls scoring 24 points to easily outdistance O'Fallon's 41 points, while the boys 38 points to defeat the Panthers' 70.
Other qualifying teams on the boys side (the top six teams and top five runners not on qualifying teams advanced to next week's Normal Community Sectional) were Belleville East (99), Belleville West (103), Granite City (107) and Quincy (138). Alton finished in seventh with 143, while Collinsville was eighth in the field at 207. The Redbirds, however, did advance four runners to the sectional as individuals.
The other qualifying teams on the girls’ side were Belleville East (96), Quincy (104), Belleville West (140) and Collinsville (155). Granite City just missed out on qualifying as a team with 155 points, but the Warriors did advance four runners as individuals; Alton only had two runners, who competed as individuals; one advanced to the sectional as one of the top five runners not on an advancing team.
“I was very pleased with both the guys and the ladies,” said EHS coach George Patrylak. “Going into today, I was talking with the O'Fallon coaches; I knew they were going to sit a few of their top runners, rest them knowing they would move on to next week, so that shifted some of our goals, especially on the boys side, to look at some personal goals and performances.
“But I think overall, we ran well. The scores are very deceiving...next week is going to be a battle at the sectional between the teams. On the boys side, I know coach (Jon) Burnett sat his top five, so it may have helped out guys look a little bit better than we truly are, but we did a good job.”
Granite City's boys team had a big finish from brothers Will and Andrew O'Keefe; Will O'Keefe won the race in 16:25.26, with Andrew taking third in 16:33.77, a development that made Warrior coach Rich Skirball pretty happy.
“They've really earned it,” Skirball said. “We went over a statistic where the O'Keefes were running and how many Top 10 finishes they've had, and I think for Andrew, the only race that he hasn't finished in the top 10 was the Granite City Invitational, where he was 11th, and then the Peoria Invite, which is a big, big meet, and Will, the only meets were the Peoria and the First to the Finish (an early-season meet); he was a top 10 finisher in all the other meets as well.
“They've worked really hard an
d they earned it.”
Schonecker was pleased with her race and psyched up for what is ahead at sectional and hopefully state. She said, “This is my home course and I couldn’t think of a better way to finish here.”
Will O'Keefe felt he had earned the win as well. “We worked on hills in practice this week,” O'Keefe said. “I'm feeling it right now.”
To see his brother finish third behind him, though, made Will O'Keefe even happier than his own first-place finish. “I knew he could do it,” O'Keefe said. “There's been times where, if I ran great, he did as well.”
“I had several kids step up and a couple of other kids who were injured and I had to pull them out at the last minute,” said Alton coach Vernon Curvey. “I had Zak Wilson, my No. 10 or 11 runner who was No. 7 today, and he was racing and beating people, so you do what you can. Now we just cross our fingers and hope.”
The Redbirds' Arie Macias was certainly happy; he finished seventh overall in 16:50.56 to lead AHS' four individual qualifiers. “I felt I did well today,” Macias said. “I don't think I ran the race I really wanted to, but at this point, it's definitely do or die.
“It's a tough course, and I had to deal with a headwind coming down the final stretch, but things went well enough.”
On the girls side, O'Fallon's Brooke Witzel won the race with a time of 19:32.72. Edwardsville was led by Schonecker, who took second in 19:47.54, with Maddie Miller third in 20:05.24, Colleen Corkery fourth in 20:10.21, Juliana Determan seventh in 23:31.64 and Kiara Delgado eighth in 20:31.79 to finish the scoring. Melissa Spencer took ninth in 20:33.67 and Victoria Vegher 14th in 21:01.74.
Alyssa Comer led the four Granite City girl runners who qualified as individuals with a time of 22:11.62, followed by Kori Nesbitt at 22:52.96, Alexandra McLaren at 23:45.90 and Tara Khousana at 23:53.51. Mariah Vaughn, at 26:00.26, and Jaden Myint, at 32:54.91, missed the cut.
Comer said she felt “good” about her race on the day and looks forward to running in the sectional.
Alton's runners were Tayton Kuebli, who advanced to the sectional with a time of 23:47.67, and Savannah Durr, who missed the cut at 24:47.48. The rest of the top 10 were O'Fallon's Hannah Nabb, fifth in 20:21.33; Belleville West's Sarah Dintlemann, sixth in 20:26.29; and O'Fallon's Danna Jenkins, 10th in 20:34.59.
Kuebli said the key for her on the day was not to think of the pain of pushing so hard and continuing to drive to the finish line.”
“I think I did better than the last time I ran here,” Kuebli said.
On the boys' side, Romano led the Tigers with a 16:31.62, with Dan Powell fifth in 16:44.44, Roland Prenzler sixth in 16:48.30; Max Hartmann eighth in 17:10.80 and Sam McCormick 17th in 17:32.13 to finish the scoring. Jacob Schoenthal was 29th in 18:04.69 and Matt Swanson 32nd in 18:13.82.
Outside of the O'Keefes, the Warriors got performances of 17:48.40 from Leo Nikonowicz (good for 21st), 18:26.56 from Jake Roustio (35th) and 19:29.94 from Aiden Sampton (47th) to finish the scoring. Granite also had Tyler Tindall (53rd in 20:02.65) and Tramel Ellis (54th in 21:12.81).
For the Redbirds other than Macias, Jett Durr (31st in 18:12.72), Sam Gentelin (33rd in 18:18.21) and Kelvin Cummings (34th 18:27.11) also moved on as individuals. Ethan Grassle, 38th in 18:45.45, James Steinman (43rd in 19:08.19) and Wilson (50th in 19:34.09) missed the cut.
Collinsville's Jacob Sewell (30th in 18:04.91) also advanced as an individual. Other Top 10 runners on the day included Belleville West's Brian Gichuru (fourth in 16:34.98), O'Fallon's Joshua Kolb (ninth in 17:16.17) and Belleville West's Hunter Cason (10th in 17:16.28).Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
