News

Saturday, October 1
Living Word United Methodist Church (17315 Manchester Road, Wildwood, MO 63038)

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

On a beautiful October morning at Living Word, we earned three first place and one second place team finishes, and two individual race champions, in the four divisions Parkway West Dale Shephard Invitational. This result continues what has been a fantastic season for the program.

Varsity raced first, and they went toe to toe with a great team from O'Fallon. Despite putting four runners in the top 10 overall, we fell 4 points short of the Panthers, who had been missing a few runners the previous times we raced them at Granite City and Forest Park. Three of their runners finished before our first, and that deficit proved to be too much for our strong pack to overcome. Senior Nolan Meara led the way in 5th, and all seven of our athletes medalled in the varsity race.

Despite Gus running up in the varsity race, the sophomores had themselves a day. A race-winning effort from George Donahue and a huge charge up the final hill from Ethan Bognar secured our perfect score of 15 points. Our pack led from the start and never looked back. The result was so lopsided that we placed six runners before the second place team even had their first finisher. The sophomores' average scoring time of 17:52 would have placed them around sixth in the varsity race. This was our fourth consecutive sophomore division championship at Parkway West and George's first ever XC race championship.

Enjoying their first chance to run in the morning since Granite City, the freshmen rose to a challenge put before them by a very good squad from Fort Zumwalt West. The first half of the race made it clear we had a challenge on our hands, and through the race each of our scoring runners edged in front of their FZW counterparts. This was the program's third straight freshman championship at Parkway West. Nick Ahlheim was again our first finisher, finishing in 4th place. Jake Fitzpatrick and Tristan Kujawa also had top 10 finishes, and Preston Eash and Hendrix Fyvie finished hard to close out our team score. These first five finishers all ran under 20 minutes, a great feat for a freshman squad on a technical course. Martin Miller and Ben Schnieder ran PR races to help secure the win as our 6th and 7th finishers. Behind them were a number of other PRs, including a tremendous one from Alex Juan, whose sprint-to-the-finish with Jerry Frantz provided great excitement and drama. Titus Zeigler and Ben Bundschuh also earned PRs of over a minute.

The junior and senior Junior Varsity division closed out the day, and they overcame a stiff challenge from a good Webster Groves JV team to earn the program's third consecutive JV championship at Parkway West. Charlie Gray and Anthony Zangara led the charge early in the race, and shortly before the two-mile mark Anthony pulled away for what would be his first ever XC race championship. In addition to the first two, Brendan Jones and Noah Evers also finished before Webster's second runner, and Tyler Barks, Matthew Musial, and Nicholas Purschke also finished in the top 12 to secure the win. In particular, Matthew Musial contines what has been a fine season of growth. Joel Miller was our final medalist in the JV race in 18th place. There were no PRs in the JV race, but Paul Caso did run his fastest race of the year to date.

We now turn our attention to our MCC rivals for Thursday's conference championship meet at Jefferson Barracks Park.

TEAM RESULTS:

• Varsity - 2nd of 22 teams
  • Seven medalists, Top 25
    • Nolan Meara (5th), Tim Greiner (6th), Carter Lowe (7th), Charlie Murray (8th), Jaden Elgin (12th), Gus Talleur (18th), Wyatt Seal (23rd)
  • Scoring spread: 0:21
  • Average time: 16:56
  • PRs: none
• Junior Varsity - 1st of 18 teams
  • First-time XC Race Champion! Anthony Zangara, 17:26
  • Eight medalists, Top 25
    • Anthony Zangara (1st), Brendan Jones (3rd), Charlie Gray (4th), Noah Evers (5th), Tyler Barks (8th), Matthew Musial (10th), Nicholas Purschke (12th), Joel Miller (18th)
  • Scoring spread: 1:20
  • Average time: 17:59
  • PRs: none
  • SBs: Paul Caso
• Sophomore - 1st of 15 teams
  • First-time XC Race Champion! George Donahue, 17:17
  • Nine medalists, Top 25
    • George Donahue (1st), Alex Bendaña (2nd), Gavin Smith (3rd), Patrick Jones (4th), Ethan Bognar (5th), Logan Phillips (7th), Rowan Lemp (10th), Otto Reitenbach (15th), Jesse Heater (22nd)
  • Scoring spread: 1:20
  • Average time: 17:52
  • PRs: Will Martin (:21), Joshua Schmidt (:02)
• Freshman - 1st of 18 teams
  • Six medalists, Top 25
    • Nick Ahlheim (4th), Jake Fitzpatrick (8th), Tristan Kujawa (10th), Preston Eash (15th), Hendrix Fyvie (17th), Martin Miller (23rd)
  • Scoring spread: 1:28
  • Average time: 19:26
  • PRs: Titus Zeigler (1:20), Alex Juan (1:03), Ben Bundschuh (1:00), Joseph Nowak (:50), Logan Rammacher (:48), Rafa Seitz (:31), Colton Eikermann (:24), Brady Vogt (:22), Martin Miller (:20), Ryan Wingerter (:05), Parker Stone (:02)
• *UPDATED* Living Word sub-17 times