ALTON – Civic Memorial cross country and track coach Jake Peal led a group of Eagles runners that finished in the top five of the 65th annual Great River Road Run, presented by the Alton Road Runners Club, held on Saturday morning along the Alton Riverfront.
Peal won the race with a time of 58:43.6, with Eagles runner Max Weber finishing second at 58:45.1, and Jacob Cranford was third at 1:00:00.9 in the race, one of the highlights of the local running season.
It was a cold morning, with snow coming in later in the day, but a total of 130 runners competed in this year’s run, a 10-mile run along the River Road of Alton.
In fourth place was Joshua Cranford, who had a time of 1:00:53.3, while Landon Kearbey rounded out the top five with a time of 1:01:59.2. In sixth place was Alexander Schenk of Godfrey, who had a time of 1:02:01.7, with Justin Wieduwilt of Collinsville coming in seventh at 1:02:38.9. Logan Kearbey of CM was eighth at 1:02:49.9, with ninth place going to Victor Humphrey of Godfrey at 1:06:59.3, and rounding out the top ten was Josh Niebruegge of O’Fallon at 1:09:08.8.
Benjamin Wahle was 11th at 1:11:57.6, with Steve Christy of St. Louis coming in 12th at 1:12:30.4. In 13th place was Austin Viano, coming in at 1:12:33.4, with Eric Carerra coming in 14th at 1:12.55.4, and in 15th place was Zane Grummel at 1:13:46.3.
In the age group results, Weber won the 19-and-under age group, with Jacob Fromme winning the 20-29 division at 1:14:18.5, Peal won the 30-39 age group, with Wieduwilt taking the 40-49 group, the 50-59 group winner was Cory Gallivan of Alton, with a time of 1:16:37.8, the 60-to-69 age group winner was Thomas Mroczkowski of Manchester, Mo., who came in at 1:24:09.9, and Robert Holiday of Lake Bluff, Ill. was the winner of the 70-and-over category, having a time of 1:27:42.4.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
