The St. Louis High School cross country teams ran in their third and final Tri-Valley Conference (TVC) meet Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Wickes Park, the same course as the first TVC meet earlier in the season. The Sharks performed well and finished strong in the final conference meet. The boys’ team finished first overall, and the girls finished second!

The boys’ team dominated to earn another win, with a score of 31, beating second-place Ithaca by 17 points! Nate March led the Sharks in second place with a time of 17:32.83. Next up was Joe Erickson (17:42.22) in fourth place, Aaron Bowerman (17:56.66) took fifth place, Austin Aldrich (18:26.08) took ninth place, Thomas Zacharko (18:35.22) was 11th, Dylan Marr (18:39.29) took 12th place, Alex Lawhorne (18:41.08) finished 13th place, Craig Bebow (19:08.28) in 17th place, Will Erickson (19:22.08) in 19th place, Robert Long-Terwilliger (19:24.97) took 22nd place, Walker Aldrich (20:06.66) in 30th place, Keegan Honig (20:14.24) in 31st place, Matt Haag (21:29.48) in 44th place, Dominic Gilman (21:29.62) finished in 45th place, Alex Davis (21:43.47) took 46th place, James McDonald (22:10.35) took 52nd place, and Alex Baxter (23:37.19) finished in 65th place. The team took first place in all three TVC meets to easily take the conference title.

Alex Davis shared, “It’s exciting because we beat them [Ithaca] every time…it was great to win.”

The girls’ team also performed extremely well, taking second place with a score of 44. Libby Munderloh led the charge in second place with a finish time of 19:51.20. Next up was Payton Kuhn (21:34.80) who took sixth place, Jenna Abell (22:00.97) took 11th place, Zoe Dickman (22:05.34) in 12th place, Mikaila Borie (22:11.44) in 13th place, Mikenna Borie (22:33.63) took 16th place, Sela Delgado (23:19.50) took 18th place, Brooke Erskin (23:39.17) finished in 19th place, while Laney Pestrue (24:08.30) was 21st. Avery Ellison (24:26.83) took 25th place, Larissa Delong (24:29.57) placed 27th, Elizabeth VanderHart (27:37.70) took 44th place, Rylee Koutz (28:20.74) finished in 48th place, and Mackenzie Allbee (29:42.62) took 56th. The girls’ team took second place in the meet as well as in the TVC overall.

Payton Kuhn stated, “It was a tough course, especially since the first time we went there not many people ran very well, but everyone seemed to push through and run some pretty good times on Tuesday.”

Sharks that made First Team All-Conference include: Aaron Bowerman, Joe Erickson, Nate March, Austin Aldrich, and Libby Munderloh. Second Team All-Conference runners were Thomas Zacharko, Dylan Marr, Mikaila Borie, Zoe Dickman, Payton Kuhn, Sela Delgado, and Jenna Abell. Earning Honorable Mention was Alex Lawhorne.

Though it was a tougher course than most, a couple of runners ran personal record (PR) times. St. Louis runners who enjoyed PRs this meet include Alex Lawhorne with a new best of 18:41.1 and Robert Long-Terwilliger with a time of 19:25.0.

The Sharks will be competing again Saturday, Oct. 12, at the Greater Lansing Cross Country Championships.