St. Louis Cross Country competed at the John Bruder Classic Thursday, Sept. 10, at Shepherd High School, and the Sharks had a fantastic showing. There were many great times this meet as 11 St. Louis runners ran a new PR! It was the first meet for St. Louis since Aug. 26, so they had a lot of time to prepare and train hard.

In the gold division, the girls’ team placed first overall with an impressive score of 26! Libby Munderloh led the charge with a first-place finish and a new personal record (PR) of 18:39.3. Next up was Mikenna Borie in second with a time of 19:42.5, Jaiden Dickman in fourth place in 20:43.2, Monika Borie in ninth at 22:09.4, Mikaila Borie in 10th with a time of 22:32.1, Laney Pestrue in 11th place in 22:36.9, and Payton Kuhn rounding out varsity in 12th with a time of 23:02.4. Then Sela Delgado (24:15.7) finished 16th, Natalie Lemert (25:12.7) came in 20th, Lillie Shattuck (26:17.6) finished in 22nd, and Gracie Shattuck (28:09.1) was 32nd. It was a good early showing for the girls, and they enjoyed a dominant win.

Pestrue stated, “The meet went really well. I personally did pretty well even though it wasn’t a PR. I love the course, and the weather was perfect because it was cold.”

The boys’ team fought hard to achieve a score of 29, but they finished in second place behind Carson City-Crystal’s 27. Aaron Bowerman was first for the Sharks with a third-place finish and a time of 17:11.4. Right behind was Ben March in fourth in 17:25.3, Nate March finished fifth in 17:36.9, Keegan Honig was eighth in 17:58.8, Dylan Marr ended in ninth place in 18:10.2, and Joe Erickson finished 10th with a time of 18:27.2. Next was Alex Davis (19:06.3) in 14th place, Dominic Gilman (20:21.8) in 23rd, Alex Baxter (20:45.8) finishing 28th, Tristin Baker (21:27.5) in 32nd place, Walker Aldrich (21:34.2) in 33rd, Demetrius Alspaugh (21:48.0) in 38th place, Matt Haag (22:27.7) finishing 44th, and Hunter Salladay (27:44.9) in 55th place.

Gilman shared, “I think [the meet] actually went really well. It was good weather: it wasn’t too hot, and it was kind of cold.”

The Sharks had a good night, but they have to recover quickly before they race again Saturday, Sept. 12, at Caro. This Quad meet will feature the Sharks taking on Caro, Breckenridge, and Saginaw Heritage.