ALTON – Marquette Catholic's Riley Vickery had to overcome some difficult conditions to finish fifth in Wednesday's Alton Invitational girls cross-country race at Gordon Moore Park.
Vickery, a sophomore, covered the three-mile course in 22:37.99 to finish ahead of teammate Madelyn Smith, who turned in a time of 23:08.15; Vickery had to overcome temperatures in the mid-90s (St. Louis set a record high of 97 for the date) and a difficult, hill-laden course.
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“The hills are killers,” Vickery said, “I think this is the hottest weather I've had for a meet ever.”
Despite the conditions and the going, Vickery felt the day was a good one. “It was pretty good,” Vickery said of the overall going. “I didn't do as well as last year; at the beginning of the season, I wasn't where I wanted to be, but I guess I'm pretty happy with a fifth-place finish. I thought I could do a little better, like I expected to do better; the conditions are hard, but I love the hills.
“I know people don't like them – even though I didn't get the time I wanted, I still like the hills; I like this course. It's beautiful (at Gordon Moore) – when you're running, there are so many things you can look at.”
Having Smith finish directly behind her was a plus for Vickery on the day. “I didn't see (Smith), but she's having a really good season,” Vickery said. “We have a couple of new additions to the team that are really helping this year. We have four girls; we had one that was injured today,
“I'll take what I learned from this race and put it in to the next race so I can do even better.”
