Three Trophies And Four Medals For St. Peter Cross Country

On another beautiful evening for cross country, the St. Peter Rockets fought hard in their third meet in eight days and came home heavy with three trophies and 4 individual medals. It was the first annual Royal/Cadet Invitational featuring 5/6th grade 1.5 mile races and 7/8th grade 2 mile races. 

To start the afternoon, 6th grader Isabelle Koester stayed strong and hung on to 8th place with a time of 11:23 in her 1.5 mile race, edging Caitlin Conrad from conference rival St. Mary Sycamore.

Led by 6th grader Aden Morvice in 8th place with a time of 10:09 (a personal best for Morvice) the St. Peter 5/6th boys team placed 3rd overall with 87 points, beating 4th place All Saints Academy with 93 points. Wredling Middle School won the race with 47 points followed by St. Mary Sycamore in a close second with 54 points.

Now it was time for the 7/8th grade girls to shine. While they were no match for the strong team from Yorkville Middle School (winner of the 7th grade race and 3rd in the 8th grade race at Saturday's Troy Invitational), the St. Peter girls beat the rest of the field by placing second with 56 points to Immanuel Batavia's 79 points. Yorkville scored a nearly perfect 18 points to secure the win. The team was led by 8th graders Sarah Woodford and Rachel Tork in 6th and 7th place with personal best times of 13:04 and 13:05 respectively.

Finally, in a race dominated by the Yorkville and Wredling Middle Schools, the St. Peter 7/8th grade boys managed to secure 3rd place with 114 points beating 4th place Cowherd Middle School with 127 points. Yorkville scored 16 points to bring home the win (one point from perfection) while Wredling scored 66 points for 2nd place. The St. Peter team was led by 8th grader Sam McEnery with a personal best time of 12:26 in 15th place.

The St. Peter Rockets catch a little break with their next race scheduled for next Thursday at Sycamore Park in Sycamore where they'll face their conference rivals and attempt to outrun the dominant St. Mary Sycamore 5/6th grade team. Then they turn right around and head north to Arlington Heights for the annual Fred Martin Invitational on Saturday.