News

Race Results: Varsity | Junior Varsity | Freshmen
Photographs: Varsity | Junior Varsity | Freshmen
Meet Videos: Varsity | Junior Varsity | Freshmen
Team Split Sheet: Here

Varsity - 1st of 28 teams; 141 total finishers

• Medalists - all seven! Jaden Elgin, George Donahue, Lucas Rammacher, Charlie Gray, Gavin Smith, Alex Bendaña, Gus Talleur
• Jaden Elgin (17:42), George Donahue (17:58) Lucas Rammacher (18:01) and Charles Gray (18:01) each ran the fastest times by SLUH runners at Sioux Passage since Ben Ford ran 18:06 in 2009.
• Jaden is our first regular season varsity invitational race champion since Tim Rackers in 2010 at the First Capitol Invitational. This does not include any MCC, District, and/or Sectional champions we've had since then.

Junior Varsity - 1st of 28 teams; 230 total finishers

• Medalists - Noah Evers, Patrick Jones, Lucas Strohmeyer, Ethan Bognar, Nicholas Purschke, Logan Phillips, Matthew Musial, Jesse Heater, Rowan Lemp, Clark Davis, Joe Stoeckel

Freshmen - 1st of 15 teams; 113 total finishers

• Medalists - Nick Ahlheim, Jake Fitzpatrick
• PRs - Brady Vogt, 2:26; Titus Zeigler, 0:07

At the Hazelwood Central Paul Enke Invitational, run on the famous Sioux Passage course, the program had a day for the history books, winning on all three levels - including our first varsity team championship at the large invitational since 1993, and first regular season varsity invitational race champion since 2010.

The meet has a long and rich history in Missouri Cross Country, largely because of its legendary and challenging hills that has it universally regarded as among the most difficult courses in Missouri. On a sunny and warm day, we earned first place team titles in all three race divisions - even while holding out nine of our top runners to allow them an extra week of training between races. The seven that took the line at Hazelwood Central were fierce, each of them medalling, and as a team triumphing over 27 other school's school's primary varsity teams. In combination with what we've seen the last couple of weeks, this result gives this particular group of seven runners a safe claim as being the best varsity team in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. This team depth is an amazing testament to the goals we've set out for the program and the hard work of so many in the program to bring them to life.

In the varsity race, the result wasn't even particularly close. By placing four of our five scoring runners in front of runner-up Kirkwood's first runner, the result wasn't in doubt from the middle of the race on. All seven runners packed together closely and earned varsity medals, and our top four of Jaden Elgin, George Donahue, Lucas Rammacher, and Charlie Gray each ran the four fastest times that the program has seen at Sioux Passage since 2009. Additionally, winning the race in 17:41, freshman Jaden Elgin is our first regular season varsity invitational race champion since 2010 (not including any MCC, District, and/or Sectional champions we've had in that span). Simply amazing!

On the JV level, we scored 23 points to defeat the next closest challenger in a 28-team field by 18 points. For the second week in a row, Noah Evers and Patrick Jones were our top two JV finishers, finishing in second and third place overall in a race of 230 runners. Behind them were five more in the top 10 and three in the top 25, with a total of 11 of our athletes earning JV race medals. There were many personal triumphs in the JV race, but a special shout out to senior captain Nicholas Purschke for his remarkable grit and determination, and sophomore Rudy Reitenbach for batting through some bad and bloody luck!

When the time came for the freshman race, the heat and discomfort of the day reached its peak. Batting on a brutal course and tough conditions, the freshmen claimed their first team victory of the season, scoring 54 points to defeat second-place Kirkwood (65 points) and the other 13 teams. Their championship is a perfect example that speaks to the team-oriented nature of cross country. Though we only had two of the ten medalists (Nick Ahlheim and Jake Fitzpatrick), and Kirkwood placed three of its five scoring runners before our first finisher, our team depth was too strong. All of our scoring runners finished before Kirkwood's 4th and 5th finishers, pushing their score up high enough to give us the victory. Amazingly, two freshmen even ran PRs - kudos to Brady Vogt and Titus Zeigler!

The coaches know there were many tough days experienced at Sioux Passage and are proud of the maximum effort and support offered by all team members, whether they raced or not.