St. Louis cross country completely dominated again at the annual Bluejay Invite Saturday, Sept. 28, in Shepherd. The Sharks finally got to enjoy some cooler weather, and it was a difference-maker for their performances. In fact, 18 runners ran career PRs, and seven ran season bests as well!

Mikenna Borie shared, “The course was great, and many people had huge PRs. There was good competition, and everyone stayed super positive throughout the day. It was a muddy day, but other than that the weather was good.”

The girls’ varsity team took second out of 13 teams in the Gold Division race with an excellent score of 74. Libby Munderloh finished in first place with a time of 19:05.0! Next up was Mikaila Borie (20:46.1) in 11th place, Mikenna Borie (21:03.3) in 19th place, Sela Delgado (21:13.4) in 21st place, Jenna Abell (21:17.5) in 22nd place, Payton Kuhn (21:25.3) in 26th place, and Zoe Dickman (21:27.1) in 27th place.

The guys’ varsity team also finished as runner-up in the Gold Division race with a score of 64, trailing only the current top division four team in the state from Breckenridge. Aaron Bowerman led the Sharks in seventh place with a time of 17:06.4. Next up was Joe Erickson (17:15.0) in ninth place, Nate March (17:19.7) in 10th place, Thomas Zacharko (17:57.3) in 17th place, Dylan Marr (18:02.0) in 21st place, Austin Aldrich (18:20.4) in 25th place, and Craig Bebow (18:37.1) in 30th place.

The girls’ JV team also performed extremely well. Brooke Erskin took first place out of 175 girls in the JV race with an amazing PR of 21:29.1! Following for the Sharks were: Reyna Rojas (22:26.9) in 24th place, Laney Pestrue (22:51.2) in 25th place, Larissa Delong (23:24.5) in 42nd place, Avery Ellison (23:27.1) in 45th place, Gracie Shattuck (25:49.7) in 91st place, Rylee Koutz (27:01.3) in 115th place, Mackenzie Allbee (27:03.9) in 117th place, and Beth VanderHart (27:11.3) in 119th place.

For guys’ JV, Alex Lawhorne led the pack with a time of 18:47.4 in 23rd place! Next was Will Erickson (19:13.6) in 35th place, Robert Long-Terwilliger (19:25.1) took 41st place, Walker Aldrich (19:56.5) 66th place, Keegan Honig (20:08.2) 79th place, James McDonald (20:10.5) 80th place, Alex Davis (20:25.8) 92nd place, Matt Haag (20:27.5) 94th place, Alex Baxter (21:26.1) 138th place, and Dominic Gilman (23:55.6) 188th place.

Alex Baxter shared, “The race felt good throughout the first and second mile. [It was] very smooth and [there was] nice weather. And both our teams got runner up, so it was a pretty good day.”

The Sharks will be competing again Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Imerman Park for the third and final TVC West Jamboree hosted by Valley Lutheran.