After the Division Three MHSAA Cross Country State Finals Nov. 2, the St. Louis boys’ cross country team received their all-state awards.
There are many awards associated with being all-state in cross country: One specification to determine these awards can be whether it’s an academic achievement or if it’s an award based on placement; also, whether the award is for an individual or the entire team for the all-state honors is the other form of specification.
With this in mind, one Shark to achieve individual All-State honors at the state meet was Landon Pestrue. He placed 19th in the Division Three race, which is in the top 30 of the race field, granting him this award.
Aside from individual awards, multiple Sharks also were accompanied by an academic award from their outing at the state meet. Colin Kuhn, Hayden Shattuck, and Pestrue were the boys who received this academic honor. All three of these runners ran at the state meet with no lower than a 4.0 GPA.
Additionally, the entire St. Louis boys’ cross country team also earned the team all-state academic award with a combined GPA of 3.809.
As the coach for this achieving team, Coach PuffPaff stated he was “… very proud of our athletes as it’s a tremendous honor to earn academic all-state individually and as a team in cross country. It is a true testament to their hard work on the course and in the classroom. They epitomize what it means to be student athletes.”
Shattuck, upon receiving his award said, “It is a very awesome achievement. For the past three years, I’ve received this award and I’m proud to say that I’ve kept on top of my grades while doing this sport. As for the team, it is a pretty cool thing to achieve. We’ve been doing this for a while now, and I think it shows that our team does great things in the classroom as well.”
