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Results: Freshmen | Sophomores | Split Sheet
Photographs: Freshman Race | Sophomore Race
Race Videos: Here

On Wednesday evening, the freshmen and sophomores had their opener at the O'Fallon Futures Invitational. After three-plus weeks of training, the meet is a nice low-pressure opportunity for our younger runners to learn what it means to prepare for and execute in a race setting.

Cross country races are scored by adding up the finish places of a team's first five finishers. The sixth and seventh runners on a team are "displacers" who can increase the score of other teams by finishing ahead of their scoring five. In unlimited entry races (such as both races at O'Fallon) any additional finishers beyond the first seven don't factor into the team scoring.

Though no team scores were officially kept, we scored the races on our own. The freshman placed second of six teams, placing only behind a tough Edwardsville squad. As far as dramatic debut races go, Jaden Elgin had quite a run in his first race wearing a SLUH XC singlet. Storming to the front from the opening gun, Jaden ran away from the field and won going away. Jaden's three mile time of 16:17 was 35 seconds quicker than the previous freshman race record and the fastest time any SLUH freshman or sophomore has had in nine seasons at this meet. Jaden wasn't the only one to have a quick debut. Last year, we had three freshmen dip under 20 minutes in their first race; this year, we had six. Joining Jaden under 20 minutes was a quintet between 19-20 minutes: Jake Fitzpatrick, Hendrix Fyvie, Nick Ahlheim, Tristan Kujawa, and Preston Eash. Aidan Smith was our seventh finisher on the day, sealing our second place score. Congratulations to all the freshmen for completing their first official race as a member of the SLUH XC program!

The sophomores, fresh off a strong summer of training, claimed an emphatic victory in their race, placing first of six teams. Much like we had in the freshman race, Gus Talleur went to the front and won after leading wire-to-wire. As well as being a new PR ("Personal Record" – a big thing in cross country!), his time of 16:28 over 3 miles set a new sophomore race record by 24 seconds. After one runner from Mascoutah High School came a parade of Junior Billikens. George Donahue (16:33), Gavin Smith (16:36), Alex Bendaña (17:01), and Patrick Jones (17:22) rounded out the scoring 5, with Ethan Bognar and Logan Phillips also medalling and finishing as our final scorers. Taking a look at the growth of all these sophomores from this same race at O'Fallon last year until only a year later is striking. Great racing!

O'Fallon PRs (Personal Records) - adjacent time equals size of PR

• Micah Doherty 2:04
• Alex Keuss 1:50
• Gavin Smith 1:31
• Alex Bendaña 1:30
• George Donahue 1:22
• Otto Reitenbach :47
• Jens Istvan :46
• Andrew Moritz :45
• Gus Talleur :41
• Ian Kuehner :38
• Patrick Jones :29
• Ethan Bognar :12
• Jesse Heater :08
• Rowan Lemp :08

Other notes:

• We believe Jaden's time is the fastest XC race result ever recorded by a SLUH freshman.
• Jaden Elgin, Gus Talleur, George Donahue, and Gavin Smith now have the four fastest times ever run by a SLUH runner at O'Fallon Futures since we started attending the meet in 2014.
  
  • Jaden Elgin, Fr., 16:17, 2022
  • Gus Talleur, So., 16:28, 2022
  • George Donahue, So., 16:33, 2022
  • Gavin Smith, So., 16:36, 2022
  • Reed Milnor, So., 16:44, 2016
  • Mason Scargall, So.., 16:50, 2021
  • Anthony Zangara, So., 16:57, 2021
  • Daniel Hogan, So., 17:05, 2018
  • Ryan Kramer, So., 17:06, 2018
  • Baker Pashea, So., 17:15, 2019
  • Charlie Murray, So., 17:15, 2021