After four weeks into hot and exhausting daily practices, the freshmen and sophomore cross country runners finally showed their hard work at their first meet: The O’Fallon Futures Meet. This meet started the season with some jaw dropping performances and makes an already hyped Granite City debut even more eagerly anticipated. 

“We have a lot of guys that are inexperienced racers,” Porter said of the team's goal going into the race. “We want to learn how to race, and to go out and compete against other people. Let’s see where we're at because it's still very early in the season. We have a long way to go with nine and a half weeks left in the season. So this race is just a nice starting point for us to see where we're going to continue to improve and get better.”

At the meet, the freshmen were led through a proper warmup and drills by the Varsity seven 

in preparation for the race. 

“It's kind of hard to keep 40 guys together in a crazy freshman squad,” said senior team captain Tim Greiner. “But I think they all got it together when it became time to race. They were serious and everyone had a good day.” 

The course, which features a straightaway-laden 2-mile loop that runners complete one and a half times, was almost perfect if it hadn’t been for the dry 85 degree weather. But that obstacle was not enough to stop some of St. Louis U. High’s underclassmen from having excellent races to begin their season. The freshmen dominated the race after filling the line with blue, they got away with a second place team finish.

Their race went out quick off the gun with many freshmen runners making their way to the front. SLUH’s highest finisher overall was freshman Jaden Elgin, who finished first place with an outstanding three-mile time of 16:17, shattering the previous course record. In only his first race for SLUH, he earned a Varsity letter and blue shirt. 

“I felt really high. I felt ready to go. Felt really prepared from a lot of my workouts,” Elgin said about going into the race. “I really wanted to get the course record so that was what my mind was set on. I was thinking about the whole race. That's what kept me going and it finished well.”

Elgin was followed by a five-man pack of sub-20 minute three miles led by Jake Fitzpatrick, who 

earned a top-10 finish with a time of 19:12. And as the rest of the pack came through the finish, the team supported each other with Tristan Kujawa keeping the mood high, singing “Oh When the Bills…” immediately after he finished. 

“I honestly felt a little intimidated by Jaden and his time, but I knew if I trusted myself in all the work we did, I would be just fine,” sophomore race champion Gus Talleur said. “I knew as a team, we were going to absolutely crush everyone.” 

In the end, the sophomores took the win. Along with Talleur’s finish, a big pack of George Donahue (16:33), Gavin Smith (16:36), Alex Bendana (17:01), and Patrick Jones (17:22) were very close behind. 

Tomorrow, the entire team runs at the Granite City Invitational at Wilson Park in Granite 

City, Ill.  Like O’Fallon, Granite City is a three-mile race as opposed to the more common 5K race, which, coupled with a flat course that features virtually no significant elevation change, often results in fast times. 

“We're going to focus on our own team and if we can go out and compete against other people and kind of get used to racing again,” said Porter. “Again, for all this year's seniors, it’s still their first race of the season so there's lots of guys that are getting their chances to go out.” 

After graduating five spots in varsity in the spring of 2022, the lineup was a hard decision with this deep of a team. It looks different with returners Tim Greiner and Charlie Murray coming back and the rest with Nolan Meara, Carter Lowe, Wyatt Seal, Will Riggan, and Lucas Rammacher, while not racing at State 2021, have many Varsity and Varsity 2 races under their belts.

The top seven varsity runners will compete in the Varsity race at 9:10 a.m., which will be 

followed by the freshman/sophomore race, which will feature SLUH’s top seven finishers from O’Fallon. All remaining runners will race in the Open Race at 11 a.m.

SLUH will look to continue a recent pattern of success at Granite City, and hopes to take home 

the team title in the Varsity race for a fourth consecutive year with more outstanding times in each of the races.