GRANITE CITY – The Edwardsville boys cross-country team had a near-perfect day under near-perfect running conditions Saturday morning at the 44th Granite City Invitational meet at Wilson Park.
The Tiger boys had top-25 finishes from all their scoring runners to win the team title with 74 points, with Chatham Glenwood second with 91 points, St. Louis University High third at 111 points, O’Fallon fourth at 146 and Freeburg fifth with 187; Mascoutah (193), Springfield (245), Marion (254), Fort Zumwalt West (277) and Waterloo (314) rounded out the second five.
Among other area teams, Granite City had an 11th-place finish (339), Alton 20th (510), Civic Memorial 23rd (598), Roxana 24th (669) and East Alton-Wood River 27th (762); McGivney Catholic, Jersey, Piasa Southwestern and Triad were not able to field complete teams (five runners) and ran as individuals on the day; Triad won the freshman-sophomore race with 51 points, with Edwardsville fourth (171), McGivney 12th (319) and Roxana 23rd (651); Alton, CM, Granite, Jersey and EAWR had runners competing as individuals in the event.
“For this early in the season, we definitely came out,” said Tiger coach George Patrylak. “This was our first true test – boys and girls – and we wanted to see where we currently stand; for this early, we’re the type of team that, during the summer, we focus on our base mileage – historically this has been one of our worst meets of the year just because we’re not geared up to run fast.
“For the guys and ladies who put up the times they did today with the base mileage is definitely a positive sign and a positive outlook for the rest of the season.”
For the Tiger boys, Roland Prenzler’s third-place finish behind only Granite City’s Andrew O’Keeffe and Freburg’s Charlie Parrish was the highlight of the day. “The race of the day would definitely be Roland Prenzler,” Patrylak said. “We came in – Andrew O’Keefe is a phenomenal runner, top-class person, top-class athlete – and I know Roland’s a little bit worried too much about Andrew, but we knew with Andrew and Parrish – there’s a lot of solid runners here – but our goal was to be in the top three.
“I think the race kind of stalled a little bit in the middle portion, but then picked up at the end, but Roland went (15:15.20) today and finished third. The only athletes I’ve ever had run times like that this early were (Dustin) Davis himself and Garrett Sweatt; for where Roland is right now, we’re really excited about the rest of the season.
“Two years ago, we were not good here; last year, again, we really struggled and in both of those years, we obviously progressed by the end of the seasons; we had a good start and if we can keep the boys healthy and we get the progression we had in the past several years, we can be in a good spot.”
Besides Prenzler, Edwardsville’s boys scorers were Franky Romano (15:35.49), Max Hartmann (15:41.82), Zach Walters (15;47.55) and Jack Pifer (15:48.92); Holden Potter (16:18.31) and Raleigh Brazier (17:11.55) also ran for the EHS varsity. For the Warriors, Harold had a time of 16:41.08, Jeremiah Petty a 17:08.76, Tindall a 17:37.35 and Blomme a 17:47.68 to round out the scoring.
As for the Redbirds, “individually, a couple of boys did real well (senior Kelvin Cummings and sophomore Cassius Havis) finished in the top 25,” said AHS coach Vernon Curvey. “Cassius was 25th and he’s only a sophomore, so that’s pretty good. The girls team, there’s not a senior on the team and only two juniors; a freshman girl (Lily Crader, who finished 59th in the field) was the first girl for me, so the girls team has a bright future.”
Havis and Cummings’ performances (Cummings took 17th in 15:43.97 and Havis was 24th in 15:55.29) stood out on the boys side for the Redbirds. “They’ve run together all summer,” Curvey said. “They put days of 14 miles in and things like that; they’ve done what needed to be done to get ready for the season; the top 25 here is pretty good.
“It was a good test, and we’ll be back here for (the IHSA Class 3A Sectional in October), so we get to start the season here and have one of the last ones here.”
Besides Cummings and Havis, Alton turned had Zak Wilson (18:34.55), Daniel Rojo (19:15.18) and Isaiah Campbell (20:01.22) round out the scoring; Cohl Callies had the best time of the day for CM at 17:26.80, Cree Stumpf led Roxana with a 17:04.69, Chase Wallendorf led EAWR with a 18:30.76, Elijah Burns turned in a 17:55.37 for McGivney, Jersey’s Christian Cazier ran a 17:07.48, Grant Seniker had a 17:56.93 for Piasa Southwestern, Seth Martin turned in a 16:52.62 for Triad and Madison’s Javon Watkins, who ran for the former Metro East Lutheran-Madison coop, had a 16:41.01.
“It was a perfect day (for the race),” said Warrior coach Rich Skirball. “We have not had weather like this for the invitational, I would venture to day, ever, if not for a long, long time (race-time temperatures started in the mid-50s and rose to the mid-60s by the end of the day with clear skies); it was an amazing day to race. Just an amazing weekend and the invitational with 40-plus teams out here – just an amazing feeling to have it in the books.”
For the Warrior boys, O’Keefe’s win in the varsity boys’ competition (the junior covered his home course in 15:05.33) stood out. “Andrew ran phenomenal,” Skirball said, “just looking so smooth and looking so comfortable; he makes it look easy and he’s in great shape, the strength he’s built over the summer and he’s just a great kid.
“The awesome thing about that that just shocked me was just not what Andrew was able to do, but the rest of our varsity guys – you’ve got Tyler Tindall and Jack Blomme (both seniors who stepped up and turned in times of 17:37.35 and 17:47.68 respectively, good for 99th and 107th places). When you graduate as many as we did with (runners like Will O’Keefe and Leo Nikonowicz) and all those guys, when you graduate, you expect to have to rebuild; guys like (Blomme and Tindall) step up as seniors and drop some serious times – Tony Harold (a GCHS junior) dropped an entire minute off of his time from our time trial.
“We finished just outside the top 10 on the guys side and just to see and not have to think about rebuilding – we can compete – and I saw that on the varsity guys.”
