The St. Louis guys’ and girls’ cross country teams crushed their meet at the Spartan Invite Saturday Sept. 17, 2021.

Senior Craig Bebow explained the importance of the Spartan Invite as, “The day was hot, but in the end we pulled through for the hats. At this point we have peaked in the season and can say we accomplished our goals. #statemeethats.” As emphasized, this meet meant a lot to the teams and was a great opportunity for the guys cross team to see where they sized up against the number two ranked team in the state, the Hart Pirates. Head Coach Jay Puffpaff stated, “It was great to see where we stacked up against some of the top teams in the state. Now, we get back to work and continue to prepare for the championship phase of the season.” 

The guys’ team took an astounding victory on friday placing first beating out tough competition such as the Ithaca Yellow Jackets, Hart Pirates, and Johannesburg-Lewiston Cardinals. The girls did well and scored second in their race, and in the words of Senior Libby Munderloh, “It’s definitely one of the bigger races we go to, but I thought both teams did a great job with having a good mindset.”  The girls ended up losing to none other than the Ithaca Yellow Jackets, whom the lady Sharks just recently beat that Wednesday in their first league meet.

The top five for the guys team include Aaron Bowerman with a time of 17:06, Ben March at 17:40, Nate March with an 18:05, Thomas Zacharko with a time of 18:35, and in fifth for the guys team that day was Colin Kuhn, who ran an 18:49. Top five for the girls team was Libby Munderloh who ran 20:36, Mikenna Borie finished with a 20:44, Jaiden Dickman ran a 21:43, Monika Borie with a 23:11, and Jenna Abell finished out the girls team with a time of 24:18. The boys and girls will be having a full week of training before their next race Sept. 25. This race will be the one and only two-mile race of the year, the Delta Two-Mile.