GRANITE CITY – Civic Memorial’s Hannah Meiser was second, while Emily Nuttall of Edwardsville was fourth as the Tigers team finished third in the girls’ race at the 49th annual Pete Robinson/Harry Lang Granite City Invitational cross country meet Saturday morning at Wilson Park in Granite City.
As the boys’ team did, Columbia, Mo., Rock Bridge won the team championship with 73 points, with Chatham Glenwood right behind in second with 78 points, the Tigers came in third with 106 points, just ahead of fourth place Waterloo, who had 107 points, O’Fallon was fifth with 142 points, in sixth place was Breese Mater Dei Catholic with 193 points, Farmington, Mo. came in seventh with 200 points, eighth place went to Quincy, who had 226 points, ninth place went to Springfield, with 251 points and Triad rounded out the top ten with 272 points.
Roxana was 11th with 298 points, Highland came in 12th at 309 points, the Warriors were 17th with 443 points and Marquette Catholic was 20th with 506 points. Alton, CM, East St. Louis and Jersey also had runners who competed in the race but didn’t have enough for a team score.
Although the Tigers finished third, the feeling was that the runners didn’t give their best performances on the day and an illness ran throughout the team during the week, which may have helped contribute to the sub-par performances.
“We finished third, but we didn’t quite run up to our full expectations,” said Edwardsville head coach George Patrylak. “We dealt with a lot of sickness this week and we had some tough workouts.”
Nuttall was fourth, but felt like it wasn’t her best performance of her career.
“Emily Nuttall was fourth, dropping a minute off her time last year,” Patrylak said. “I know after the race, she wasn’t satisfied with her performance and I know that she’ll jump back with a nice performance next week in Peoria.”
The other runners who ran on Saturday took advantage of an opportunity to run well and the Tigers also welcomed back senior Riley Knoyle, who missed the entire 2021 season due to injury.
“Riley hadn’t had the opportunity to run a cross country meet since the Shazam meet in 2020,” Patrylak said, referring to the unofficial state meet that was ran after the IHSA cancelled its state meet due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “So we expect to see her progress and to be a key part of our team.”
The individual champion was Carolyn Ford of Rock Bridge, who came in at 17:16.56, while Meiser was second at 18:16.42. The Bruins’ Mae Walker was third at 18:20.06. while Nuttall was fourth at 18:34.44, Rachel Behrens of Glenwood came in fifth with a time of 18:45.16, Eris Nelson of Belleville Althoff Catholic placed sixth at 18:46.72, in seventh place was Olivia Schuering of Quincy at 18:49.18. eight place went to Isabella Marcum of Arnold, Mo., Fox, who had a time of 18:52.75, Britney Brown of O’Fallon was ninth with a time of 18:53.67 and Ashlyn Chopra of the Titans completed the top ten with a time of 18:54.26.
To go along with Nuttall’s time, the Tigers had Olivia Coll in at 19:45.8, Madison Popelar finished with a time of 19:46.3, Maya Lueking had a time of 19:48.4, Emma Patrick’s time was 20:21.3, Knoyle’s time was 20:28.1 and Dylan Peel cam in at 20:42.0. Triad was led by Blaire Cunningham’s 19:15.4, with Morgan Mason in at 21:09.5, Mikayla Niehaus had a time of 21:32.0, Chloe Gough was in at 21:37.2 and Amanda Bagwell had a time of 21:56.3.
Roxana, who came in 11th with 298 points, had Gabrielle Woodruff in at 19:35.4, Raelee Kimbro and Riley Doyle both had times of 20:20.4, Zoey Losch was in at 22:45.4, Ridley Miller was in at 26:13.2 and Taylor Partridge was home at 26:34/5. Highland came in 12th with 309 points and was led by Payton Frey, who came in at 19:56.9, Maddie Dortch was in at 21:14.3, Ava McPherson had a time of 21:33.4, Elley Seger was in at 21:43.5, Maddie Molitor was in at 22:53.1 and Vivian Marron had a time of 22:54.9.
Emilee Franklin led Granite with a time of 20:16.0, with Lauryn Fenoglio coming in at 21:19.8, Lydia Harris had a time of 23:11.2, Mercedez Daniels was in at 26:49.3, Olivia Davis had a time of 26:49.7 and Madison Tanksley was in at 27:07.9. Paige Rister led the Explorers with a clocking of 22:25.1, with Katie Johnson coming in at 22:45.0, Hudson McGowan’s time was 23;04.7, while Claire Antrainer was home at 23:12.2, Cassidy Eccles had a time of 25:44.6, Ava Certa was in at 28:17.8 and Isabella Downey was home at 28:56.6.
Katie Stark led the Redbirds with a time of 22:01.2, with Monica Klockemper having a time of 22:19.0 and Alayna Rabozzi’s time was 22:28.3. To go along with Meiser’s second place finish, CM had Alyssa Mann in at 20:23.1 and Shelby Quick had a time of 22:08.8. The Flyers had two runners in the field, Bailly Graham and Courtesja Williams, while Jersey had both Chloe Kallal and Kate Heitzig in the race, but no official times were available. 
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
