GRANITE CITY – Junior Wyatt Erber won his first race in nearly two years on Friday as Edwardsville boys’ cross country team swept the first eight spots on its way to a 15-50 win over Granite City in a dual meet on Saturday morning at Wilson Park in Granite City.
The Tigers used the meet as a warmup for next week’s Granite City Invitational meet at the same site, and by all indications, Edwardsville was able to meet all of their goals for the season opener.
“There were a couple of things we accomplished,” said Tigers head coach George Patrylak. “We got our first meet in, and we had some guys earn spots for the Granite City Invitational next week.”
It was very successful in the case of Erber, who rejoined the Tigers after spending his sophomore year playing soccer in Germany.
“The goals for the meet were to get the top four a good workout and pace the other guys, and help the varsity run the fastest times they could,” Patrylak said, ” so we were successful. Wyatt was hoping to be a little faster, but next week, we’ll turn the top four loose, and hope Wyatt can run a little faster.”
As it was, Erber’s time of 17:00.58 was very good, with Ryan Luitjohan coming in second at 17:01.07, Drew Stover third at 17:01.69, Geordan Patrylak was fourth with a time of 17:02.58, and Ryan Watts rounded out the top five with a time of 17:02.92.
Jacob Grandone earned a spot in the varsity lineup for next Saturday with a sixth-place finish at 17:22.95, and Jack Draper earned the final spot with a seventh place time of 17:29.54. Brandon Battle came in eighth with a time of 17:44.61, while Randy Gardner was the only Warrior runner to finish in the top ten with a ninth place finish at 17:47.81.
“We definitely saw a lot of good things today,” Patrylak said, “and as a coach, it was exciting to see the kids in their singlets doing what they love.”
Patrylak is looking ahead to next Saturday’s Granite Invitational, and it’ll be run in a unique format forced by restrictions due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“It’s going to be interesting, running in classes, due to COVID,” Patrylak said. “But it’s still going to be nice running against six other teams. It’s going to be a good indicator of where we stand as a team.”
