Strong Start For St. Peter 7/8th Grade Cross Country

After 6 long weeks of training and one postponed meet the St. Peter Rockets cross country team finally got their chance to compete last Tuesday at Leroy oaks Forest Preserve in St. Charles. The hard work paid off as both the boys and girls had a strong showing in their first conference outing.

8th grader Sarah Woodford, in the first cross country race of her short running career won the girls 2 mile race in 13:24 with teammates Rachel Tork (8th grade) and Caroline Zimmer (7th grade) following close behind in 2nd and 3rd. Megan Cahill (7th grade) and Toriana Turk (8th grade) rounded out the top 5. Overall the St. Peter girls ran a perfect race taking the first 7 spots.

For the boys 8th grader Sam McEnery led the entire 2 mile race finishing in a time of 12:48 with 7th grader David Peterson 4 seconds behind him in 2nd place. The 7/8th grade overall score was 17 points with St. Catherine of West Dundee in second with 67 points. 

The 5/6th grade team had one of their strongest first meets in recent memory yet were no match for the talented team from St. Mary Sycamore who scored 26 points for the win. St. Catherine of West Dundee placed second with 36 points with St. Peter in 3rd with 43 points.

The Rockets boys were led by Sam Barton and Aaron Beck, both 6th graders finishing the 1.6 mile race in a time of 11:12 in 6th and 7th place respectively. The girls team, with only two 5/6th grade runners were led by 6th grader Isabel Koester who finished in a strong 3rd place in a time of 11:44, her best finish to date at a conference meet. 

St. Peter will be running Saturday at the huge 50 team Troy Invitational in Shorewood on Saturday followed by the Royal Cadet Invitational at Marmion Academy in Aurora on Tuesday where they will be competing against their conference foes again among others.