DISTRICT NEWS & PR |
CROSS COUNTRY: Manley paces Collinsville qualifiers; Flyers edge
October 29, 2009
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Scott Fitzgerald
Collinsville Herald
October 28, 2009 |
The Collinsville girls couldn't have come any closer.
As he waited for the team scores to be computed Saturday at Wilson Park in Granite City, Kahoks coach Darryl Frerker was pretty optimistic.
"The girls were fifth at the conference meet," said Frerker, whose team needed to finish in the top five in Saturday's regionals to move on to sectionals. "If we just maintain our position, we're there."
The Kahoks, however, weren't counting on an improved performance from East St. Louis. The Flyers, paced by a 14th place finish by Janelle Williams, ended up with a total score of 121 points. O'Fallon finished first with 34, followed by Belleville East (55), Edwardsville (63) and Belleville West (114).
The Kahoks got another strong performance from sophomore Jackie Mink (10th, 20:11.81). Two East St. Louis runners wound up coming in between Mink and Collinsville's next best finisher, freshman Sophia Popov (25th, 21:22.52). Though they won't run as a team at sectionals in Normal this Saturday, the aforementioned Kahoks, along with senior Shorrae Nichols (27th, 21:25.37) and sophomore Maggie McCarthy (28th, 21:25.80) will run as individuals.
On the boys side, there was no such drama. But Frerker and Co. were elated about the way Dominique Manley stepped up at crunch time. The senior finished in 11th place in a personal best time of 16:39.70, just five seconds away from a top 10 finish.
"Dom was really focused today," Frerker said. "He likes being in meets with these elite runners from Edwardsville, O'Fallon and Belleville East. It helps push him to faster times."
Manley will be joined at sectionals in Normal by sophomore teammate Chris Reed, who was 25th (17:20.18). The top five runners not associated with a qualifying team move on. The other three to qualify are from Alton, led by Daniel Parham (16th, 16:29.43).
Triad edged Waterloo 38-46 for the girls team title during the Class 2A Triad Regional on Saturday. For the Knights, Lauren Maurer, Christine Cunningham and Lauren Ewart placed fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, while Megan Doty (ninth) and Jillian Luensman (11th) rounded out the top five for coach Andy Brendel's squad.
"Our No. 1 runner (freshman Megan Grantom) was sick this morning and she wasn't even here, so the other girls knew they had to rise to the occasion, especially Lauren Maurer and Christine Cunningham," Brendel said.
In the boys race, Triad took first place by a 58-66 margin over Cahokia. Highland (70), Mascoutah (89) and Jerseyville (94) rounded out the top five. Jerseyville's Ryan Todd won the race with a time of 16:21.87 while Triad senior Brett Conway (16:24.38) placed second.
"The last time I raced against Todd on my home course, it didn't go so well," Conway said. "Two times ago, we had our own invite and he had a pretty good distance on me. When I went to kick, he had such a good distance, he was resting for the whole time and when I finally tried to catch him, I didn't have a chance."
The other top runners for Triad were Nathan Armes (sixth), Justin Krause (ninth), Dylan Faulkenberg (18th) and Brandon Rose (23rd).
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