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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville’s Abby Korak edged out some tough competition in Waterloo’s Jenna Schwartz in the 3.1-mile Tiger Invitational girls race Saturday.
The Tiger girls scored 40 points to nose out Columbia (Mo.) Rock Bridge by eight points for the girls’ crown; Nerinx Hall of Webster Groves took third with 91 points. Korak covered the five-kilometer (3.1 mile) course in 18:58.18, defeating Waterloo’s Jenna Schwartz by nearly six seconds (19:03.99) on the day while Hannah Stuart finished fourth in 19:51.67, behind third-place Kylie Goldfarb of John Burroughs of St. Louis County; Goldfarb covered the course in 19:32.71.
Edwardsville head cross country coach George Patrylak said: “I know both guys and girls sides were a little bit down in terms of our runners; one of our top ladies, we had to pull from the middle of the race. “We were kind of curious to see, first off, a lot of quality, quality competition; whenever Nerinx Hall is here, there’s going to be competition on the girls’ side. Rock Bridge (of Columbia, Mo.), a new addition to our invitational – a fantastic, fantastic team on both the guys’ and the ladies’ side, so I’m really appreciative of the turnout we had today.”
Korak edging out Schwartz at the wire was one of the highlights of the day for EHS. “It’s bittersweet; I’m proud of Abby that she fought,” Patrylak said. “Abby of last year would not have given herself that opportunity, let alone followed through on it; with Abby, she got the win – I’m proud of her – but keep in mind that Jenna is not the same Jenna as last year right now; she’s been battling illness all season, but I would have like to see Abby with her a little bit more early so it didn’t come down to the final 100 meters.
“Jenna’s a great runner and for Abby, that’s her goal, to work towards being one herself.”
The top girls finishers among area teams included Collinsville’s McKenna Laing (36th in 23:19.14), CM’s Kati Wells (29th in 22:56.86), Southwestern’s Laina Wilderman (52nd in 24:23.75), MEL’s Olivia Thoelke (76th in 27:04.44); Marquette’s Riley Vickrey (ninth in 20:48.84), Carrollton’s Lilly Baumgartner (54th in 23:48.54), McGivney’s Mira McAtee (92nd in 26:36.48), Jersey’s Hannah Tonsor (34th in 22:45.72) and Alton’s Jessica Markel (51st in 23:33.01).
In the JV competitions, Rock Bridge took the boys team title with 18 points, followed by Edwardsville (66) and Collinsville (81), while Rock Bridge won the girls crown with 32 points, followed by Farmington, Mo., (37) and Nerinx Hall (61).
