SLUH cross country kicked off their season last Saturday at the rain-soaked Granite City Invitational, on a day where the roster’s extraordinary wealth of talent was put on full display.

Since 2016, SLUH has begun its season in Granite City, where a 3-mile course winds its way through the pancake-flat Wilson Park and typically produces very fast times. This year was unlike previous years, however, as rainstorms doused the St. Louis metro area for most of Friday night and Saturday morning, turning the course into a muddy, water-logged mess. The silver lining, however, turned out to be unseasonably low temperatures the rain brought with it, which provided relief for a team that had to spend much of the previous two weeks training inside due to intense heat.

Despite only placing one runner in the top ten—senior  Justin Glass, who finished tenth with a time of 15:53—the Jr. Bills took home the team title in the varsity race for the third straight year in commanding fashion, beating runners-up and Illinois state title contenders Edwardsville by a score of 60 to 91. This low score was made possible without any standout individual performances due in large part to SLUH’s ability to run as a pack, something that the team has put a heavy emphasis on in past seasons.  

In the end, there was only a 30-second gap between SLUH’s highest finisher, Glass, and the fifth finisher, junior Nolan Meara (21st, 16:23), with seniors Baker Pashea (11th, 16:00), Sean Kellogg (19th, 16:18), and Joe LaBarge (20th, 16:22) rounding out the scoring quintet.  

Junior Tim Greiner (28th, 16:40) and senior Grant Brawley (29th, 16:44) rounded out the finishers, finishing less than a minute behind their teammates and putting the final touch on what was an exceptional day for the varsity squad.

“It was very good,” said head coach Joe Porter, “We talked a lot about focusing our race plan and not worrying too much about Edwardsville and what they do in the race and not adjusting our plans.  We just wanted to focus ourselves and close our gaps, and find each other in the field, which had 41 teams, so it was pretty difficult (to navigate).”

The Jr. Bills’ success was not only limited to the varsity race, however, as strong showings in the freshman/sophomore race and the open JV race would go on to showcase the immense depth of the program.

In the freshman/sophomore race, SLUH came away with 52 points, enough to secure a comfortable victory over second place finishers Mt. Vernon, who garnered 75 points.  Sophomores Charlie Murray (17:09.3) and Mason Scargall (17:09.6) crossed the line at practically the same time, finishing in sixth and seventh place, respectively, and were followed by sophomores Anthony Zangara (9th, 17:28) and Gabe Sullivan (17th, 17:44).  

Freshman Gus Talleur (23rd, 17:48) rounded out the scoring five, with sophomores Noah Evers (41st, 18:59) and Charlie Gray (42nd, 19:00) also running strong races for the Jr. Bills.

In the Open JV race, the SLUH contingent embarked on a display of pure dominance, placing six runners in the top 10 and finishing with a rare perfect score of 15, the lowest possible team score in cross country.  Juniors Wyatt Seal (1st, 16:54.3) and Will Riggan (2nd, 16:54.8) put on a show, running together at the front, and securing the top two places by a margin of nearly a minute.  Juniors Carter Lowe (3rd, 17:44), Lucas Rammacher (4th, 17:54), and Cody Cox (5th, 18:10) ensured that the top five would be exclusively a Jr. Bill affair, with junior Brendan Jones (7th, 18:23) and senior Alex Mittendorf (12th, 18:36) making up the remainder of the top seven.  

This remarkable show of talent has the team’s morale at near-atmospheric levels heading into Saturday’s Forest Park XC Festival, a meet that consistently draws in some of the top teams in Missouri and Illinois, an event that SLUH has not won since 2009 despite being the meet hosts. This year, FPXC, as it has been dubbed, features a course change from its previous location centered around Forest Park’s Aviation and Archery fields, which is sure to make for an interesting race.

Said Porter, “It’s going to be crazy, which is always what we want. I mean, we call it a festival for a reason, we want a festival atmosphere with announcers and music playing and all the craziness that comes with that. We’re talking about over 2500 athletes from four states competing across three divisions, and we’re in a new part of the park.”