St. Peter Girls 5th At Fred Martin Invitational, Tork Places 8th

Neither the muggy morning, the threat of rain, the soft course or the tough competition could stop Rachel Tork and the St. Peter Girls Cross Country team from a gutsy 5th place finish out of a field of 29 teams. Not a team that wilts under adversity, the girls stayed strong in spite of a teammate who 36 hours prior to the race was sick in bed, one who dropped out halfway through the race with an injury, another who's knees were bruised and sore from a rough Friday night soccer match as well as a teammate who survived an asthma attack and still finished the race. After all this, the St. Peter girls, led by 8th grader Rachel Tork in a time of 14:05 on the 2.1 mile course were smack in the middle of 8 large middle schools with a 5th place finish. Eight grader Torianna Turk placed 16th, just out of medal contention while Sarah Woodford (8th grade) finished 25th, 7th grader Caroline Zimmer placed 34th, Therese Hein (8th grade) placed 42nd and Megan Cahill (7th grade) and Abageal Phelan (8th grade) wrapped up St. Peter's scoring finishing 65th and 94th.

The St. Peter boys were also in action placing 11th in the 1.6 mile race and 15th in the 2.1 mile race. The 1.6 mile team was led by 5th grader Patrick Ashbrook in 64th place and the 2.1 mile team was led by Will Klaus in 88th place.

Both the boys and the girls team will test their fortitude and put many weeks of hard training to the test this Saturday at their Class 1A IESA Sectional at Westmont High School in Westmont. There the St. Peter Rockets will face a tough field of 13 teams including Clarendon Hills Notre Dame, the 2012 Boys Class 1A State Champions as well as their conference rivals from St. Mary Sycamore. The boys look to qualify for the IESA State Meet for the second year in a row while the girls will work to defend their 3rd place finish at the 2012 IESA State Meet.