The St. Louis cross country team did what they do best, and that’s running real far, real fast; Saturday, Sept. 30, at Shepherd High School. The Sharks demonstrated their skill at the Shepherd Bluejay Invite.
Attendees of the meet saw excellent performances from both the boys and girls teams. For the male runners, the team was led by Ben March with a time of 15:46, Landon Pestrue with a time of 16 minutes flat, and rounding out the top three was Alex Rodriguez with a time of 17:34. For the female runners, Jaiden Dickman who ran a time of 19:39, Abby Dice with a time of 21:52, and last but not least, technically most, Lilly Mann with a time of 22:34.
Many people speculate why the SLHS cross country team is so successful, but the real secret is that the Sharks have a kind of chemistry that makes them almost feel like family. The team’s coach, Jay Puffpaff stated, “One of our three chambers of our strong hearts and fast feet philosophy is connection. A connected team is an unstoppable team, and if we can be a tribe with and for each other, it will allow us all to reach greater heights.” This sense of closeness and connection allows the team to grow in ability every year and accomplish goals. Puffpaff elaborated with, “Our goals are still ahead of us this season. We always want to be performing at our best in the championship phase of the season and we have been working to make that happen.” Puffpaff said he pushes his athletes to be the best versions of themselves both on and off the course, and he does this by letting the team make themselves comfortable with who they are as people. He said, “It is always the goal of our program that we are running our best and being the best version of ourselves at the end of our senior year and we take a long term approach to try and make that happen.”
The Sharks run again Tuesday, Oct. 10, at the TVC 10 Jamboree hosted by Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw. The event starts at 4:30 p.m. at Imerman Park.
