Excitement filled the air as the SLUH XC team took on one of the hilliest courses in the whole Midwest last Saturday at the Paul Enke Invitational. They were able to put on quite a show, with some impressive times and the highest team finish in the meet for the team in the last decade.

Coming off of their home meet, SLUH XC traditionally holds out their top 7 runners and instead runs a V2 squad in the varsity race at Sioux Passage. This year, however, coach Joe Porter decided to hold out the top 12, putting the 13-19 runners on the line for the Varsity race. Instead of racing, the top 12 runners did a hard workout on the hilly terrain of Sioux Passage in preparation for the very competitive Palatine meet held next Saturday just north of Chicago. 

Sioux Passage is an unforgiving course that puts runners in a state of awe as they set eyes on the monstrous hills that come along with it. The hills are so daunting that they have been appropriately named, “Manmaker,” “Confidence Breaker,” and “Roller Coaster,” all contributing to a race that the Jr. Bills are sure to remember.

With their 13-19 on the line, the varsity took an impressive third place finish out of 25 teams, most of which ran their top varsity group. Senior Francis Alford (19th) and juniors Carter Lowe (21st) and Lucas Rammacher (24th) all managed to medal in this competitive varsity race. Alford ran 18:43 followed closely behind by his teammates Lowe (18:57) and Rammacher (19:07). Close behind these runners were freshman Gus Talleur who ran 19:34 and finished 37th and junior Cody Cox who ran 19:41, finishing in 42nd. Junior Nicholas Purschke (20:00; 47th) and sophomore Gabe Sullivan (20:29; 71st) rounded out the varsity racers on the day. 

“Being able to hold out our top 12 guys and still being able to take down two teams in our conference in Chaminade and De Smet really speaks a lot to the depth of our team and how hard the guys raced,” said Porter. “It was really good because for a lot of guys that was their first ever varsity race, so it was really good for them to see the change in style from a JV to varsity race especially since these guys could potentially be racing for varsity down the road.”

The varsity team finished third overall, the highest finish for SLUH ever since deciding to hold out the top 7 a decade ago. They scored 130 points and finished behind both Kirkwood and Parkway West, who ran their top varsity squads at the meet.

The JV finished second out of 18, medaling an impressive seven runners. Leading the way for the Jr. Bills was junior Brendan Jones (19:52; 8th) followed closely behind by seniors Flynn O’Connell (20:03; 9th) and Tad Gray (20:13; 11th). Also managing to earn a medal for JV was junior Tyler Barks (20:20; 14th), senior Alex Mittendorf (20:35; 19th), sophomore Charlier Gray(20:57; 26th) and senior Gavin Lawhorn(21:01; 29th). 

“I think sometimes guys feel like they might not be as good, because they see themselves as behind so many of their teammates when in reality when they get put on the line against some top JV runners in the area they are getting medals and running extremely well,” said Porter. 

Across the freshman level, the SLUH team posted another impressive race, taking first place out of the 14 teams racing. Even with SLUH’s top freshman Gus Talleur running up in the varsity race, SLUH was able to blow its competition out with a team score of just 25 points. 

Logan Phillips led the SLUH scoring with a second place finish and a time of 20:45. Gavin Smith (21:08; 5th) and George Donahue (21:25; 6th) finished close behind. Ethan Bognar (21:30; 8th) and Mason Lauber (21:42; 9th) kept the gap small and rounded out the scoring five. All five scorers received medals along with Patrick Jones (11th), Alex Bendaña (13th), and Jens Istvan (20th).

This afternoon, the varsity 3 team will get a chance to face off against fierce competition at the Fox Invitational. The Fox Invitational will be a great way for SLUH to showcase their program’s unprecedented depth as new athletes take over scoring roles. Meanwhile, the varsity  “slushies,” as they are adamantly called by a number of Chicago cross country programs, head north this morning by bus to the CHicago meet. There, they hope to run fast times against competition ranked top 20 in the nation.