EDWARDSVILLE – Roxana cross country coach Scott Edwards was almost beside himself in happiness Saturday morning.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
His Shell girls, thanks to a ninth-place time of 20:30.81 by Kryston Scifres, advanced to next week's IHSA Class 1A state meet at Detwiler Park in Peoria with a fifth-place team finish at Saturday morning's Class 1A Metro East Lutheran-Madison Sectional at SIU-Edwardsville's cross-country course.
The Shells weren't the only ones who made it to the state meet; East Alton-Wood River's Haylea Kerpan also qualified for the event with a time of 20:43.96, among the top seven finishers not on advancing teams who also made it to the state meet (the top five teams won qualifcation to the meet in addition to the top seven individuals).
Roxana took the last team spot with a score of 162; Herrin won the girls team title with a score of 71 points, followed by Breese Mater Dei (81), Freeburg (127) and Carterville (162). No area runners qualified on the boys side; the team title was taken by Pinckneyville with 56 points, followed by Freeburg (98), Nashville (103), Steeleville (156) and Benton (162).
“Outstanding day,” Edwards said. “All seven girls PRed (personal record) the course; you can't ask for anything better than to finish the last race of the year – it's our Super Bowl and everyone PRs the course, and in fact, we had 13 of 14 runners who ran PRs; we peaked at the right moment.
“This is our third time in five years to make it back to state; we hadn't been there in three years and for us to get there three times in five years, our program is so blessed.”
Kerpan reaching the state meet also meant a lot to Oiler coach Russ Colona. “She's had a great year,” Colona said. “She's a great kid; to do all that and be an outstanding person, she's a straight-A student, an honor student and taking honors classes, I've got no complaints.”
Conditions for the meet weren't the most ideal; part of the girls race was run in light showers and strong winds and temperatures in the low 50s, combined with a difficult course, made Saturday's races a test. “Yes, but it's tough for everybody,” Colona said. “I tell them everyone's running in the same things. It's a hard course for everyone.”
“We ran earlier in the week in the rain and I told them you've got to be prepared for anything,” Edwards said. “When we ran in the rain, I told them 'it could be raining Saturday,' and that's exactly what happened. It didn't bother us at all; in fact, it may have given us a bit of a boost.”
“Things ran pretty smoothly; the rain held off during the races, so that was nice,” said MEL coach Ruth Thompson. “It might have been a little cooler than the kids were used to, but you have to expect that this time of the year. It may be a little more colder next week, maybe a little more windier, but that's how it is.”
Besides Scifres, Roxana's girls were led by Shalyn Edwards (21:46.82), Michaela Tarpley (21:57.80), Victoria Tarpley (22:46.26) and Alexis Stumpf (23:14.46) to round out their scoring. Sarah Stover ran a 24:05.73 and Jaidyn Peebles ran a 24.23.42 for Roxana.
Marquette Catholic's Natalie Halladay (22:27.07) and Piasa Southwestern's Ashley Moore (24:39.09) both ran as individuals, but failed to advance to the state meet.
Area teams on the boys side included the Oilers (13th with 344 points), the host Knights (17th with 412 points) and Shells (19th with 466 poinra). The Oilers were led by Brendan Springman (18:20.60), Chase Wallendorf (19:16.59), Matthew Shea (19:32.95), Andrew Novack (19:33.60) and Liam Welch (19:47.33) to round out the scoring. Also running for EA-WR were Ryne White (20:13.62) and Jacob Mustain (20:14.21).
The Knights were led on the day by Javon Watkins (18:26.50), Darion Brooks (19:20.32), Jonah Wilson (19:35.60), Joshua Jacobsen (20:34.92) and Christian Englebrecht (21:22.81) to round out the Knight scorers. Elijah Culbert (22:13.33) and Eli Harding (22:24.42) also ran for MEL-Madison.
James Henseler (18:50.52) led the Shell boys runners, followed by Cree Stumpf (20:10.25), Dakota Stumpf (20:22.88), Will Cotter (20:25.56) and Zach Frey (21:01.39) to close out the scoring; Jazz Richardson (21:15.13) and Devin Thomeczek (22:32.37) also ran for RHS.
Caden Bohn of Piasa Southwestern ran as an individual, but did not advance; his time was 18:19.15.
Herrin's Kara Martin (19:37.73) and Carterville's Harrison Thomas (16:29.98) were the day's individual champions.
