GRANITE CITY – Jersey’s Ben Flowers has wanted to win this race since he first entered high school.
His wish came true Saturday, as Flowers, a junior, won the varsity boys’ division of the 42nd Granite City Cross Country Invitational, one of the area’s – if not Illinois’ – top early-season meets along a three-mile course that wound its way through parts of the Granite City High School campus and Wilson Park, located across the street from the GCHS campus.
Flowers’ efforts helped the Panther boys finish sixth as a team; Chatham-Glenwood swept both the boys and girls varsity team titles on the day.
“It’s a good course,” Flowers said. “It’s pretty flat, no hills at all, though there’s some pretty sharp turns around it. It’s still very nice.”
Flowers’ winning time of 15:32.43 was a bit slower than he would have liked, but thought the high humidity – the race took place with temperatures in the low 70s but the humidity about 70-75 percent and little to no breeze – played a role in what happened.
Edwardsville coach George Patrylak had mixed feelings about his Tigers’ effort on the day. “We did finish second, but I thought we were a bit off today,” Patrylak said. “How we ran was no indication how good we can we; we can definitely run a lot better than we did today. The heat today was a small factor, but we’re definitely looking to be faster than we were today.
“As far as the boys go, we had three freshmen running for us and a sophomore who hadn’t run in an event this big before run today, and the freshmen ran like freshmen. There may had been some anxiety today, running in an event this big.
“It’ll be good experience for the race we have next weekend in Peoria. Everyone works hard and we’ll keep going and keep learning.”
Granite City coach Rich Skirball was pleased with the effort of his teams. “We’ve been banged up a bit on the girls side; we’ve had kids who have been hurt and weren’t able to run today,” Skirball said. “Our boys ran well and we’ve got some young talent to work with. We’ll also get Jake Roustio back next week as well (Roustio had been out with a rib injury suffered over the summer).
“I’m pretty ecstatic about how things went today. We had a kid (Will O’Keefe) finish second and the way we competed, I’m excited about the season. Kori Nesbitt ran well and we’ve got girls who are really improving. The main thing about our kids is that they’re resilient. We’ve taken a few hits, but we’ll be fine.”
The Titans scored 103 points to cart away the boys title, with DeSmet of St. Louis taking second with 118 points, Salem was third at 172, Fort Zumwalt West was fourth with 215, O’Fallon fifth with 220, the Panthers sixth with 227, Edwardsville seventh with 233, Springfield eighth with 234, the host Warriors ninth at 266 and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin 10th at 295.
Other area teams participating included Alton, 13th at 408, and Civic Memorial, 23rd at 573. Schools who entered individuals included Piasa Southwestern and East Alton-Wood River.
The top 10 individuals included Flowers; Granite City’s Will O’Keefe (15:36.20); O’Fallon’s Joey Black (15:46.27); Chatham’s Landon Skelly (15:50.42); Carbondale’s Micha Cherry (15:52.78) and Atlantis Green (15:52.83); DeSmet’s Joe Reed (16:02.32); Belleville West’s Brian Gichuru (16:04.75); Freeburg’s Charlie Parrish (16:05.13); and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin’s Nate Fierstos (16:05.76).
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
