CHS Cross Country teams host two home meets at Randolph County Lake

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester High School Cross Country Teams hosted a pair of home meets recently at the Randolph County Lake course. Tuesday, Sept. 30 the Jackets hosted Sparta, New Athens, Okawville and Steeleville in a pentagonal event while Thursday, Oct. 2 CHS hosted the 18th Annual Chester Invitational featuring 12 teams. The Jackets ran well and appeared to enjoy running in front of a home crowd of Yellow Jacket fans.

Tuesday, Sept. 30 both the girls and boys finished 3rd in the standings, but several CHS runners ran well and achieved personal-best times in the competition.

In the girl's race, cross-county rival Sparta won with 20-points followed by New Athens (65), Chester (74) and Okawville (74). Steeleville's Liz Wolters represented the Warriors all alone and finished 4th overall with a time of 22:10 in the 3-mile race.

For Chester, Laura Liefer was the top female runner. Liefer finished 11th overall out of 49 runners and had a time of 23:37. Hanna Knop was the second CHS runner to finish. Her time was 24:45 and she finished 14th overall.

Jillian Yankey finished 17th overall and turned in a time of 25:42. She was Chester's third runner. Sarah Liefer had a time of 27:45 and she finished 20th out of the 49 runners.

Rounding out the Jacket attack were Maddie Ward and Emily Beers. Ward had a time of 32:23 while Beers finished the 3-mile course in 32:40.

On the boy's side, Sparta was the winner with 15 team points. In second was New Athens with 73 points. Chester came in third with 77 points and Okawville had 87 points for fourth place. Calen Lalis was Steeleville's lone runner. He finished very respectable in 21st place out of 64 runners. His time was 20:51.

Brant McMillan finished first for Chester. His overall finish was 8th out of 64 runners and he posted a great time of 19:16. Chester's second finisher was Chad Koenegstein who finished 15th overall. Koenegstein had a time of 19:52.

Running third for CHS was Garrett Rickenberg who had a time of 21:05. Rickenberg was the 45th finisher. Jayson Stevens completed the 3-mile race in 21:25. His overall place was 48th.

Jeff Beers turned in a time of 22:28 which was a personal-best for him on the Randolph County Lake course. He finished 51st overall out of 64 runners. Stas Yekaterynin had a time of 24:53. His overall finish was 58th. Max Zeller finished 59th with a time of 24:56.

Thursday, Oct. 2 the Jackets hosted the 19th Annual Chester Invitational at the Randolph County Lake. A total of 81 girls and 118 boys from 12 different teams converged on the County Lake course to compete.

In the girl's meet Columbia was the winner with 29 points. Waterloo finished 2nd with 44 points followed by Nashville (3rd, 108), Metro-East (4th, 123), Marissa (5th, 129), New Athens (6th, 158), Pinckneyville (7th, 164) and Chester (8th, 195).

In spite of a disappointing 8th place finish, the girls had some pretty impressive individual performances and several personal-best times.

Laura Liefer continued to be Chester's top-female runner with a time of 23:17. Liefer finished 25th overall and 9th among the JV runners which earned her a medal. Jillian Yankey turned in a great time of 24:13 and finished 36th overall. Yankey finished 14th among the JV runners, which earned her a medal.

Hanna Knop was Chester's third runner. Knop finished 39th overall with a time of 24:22. Her 16th JV finish almost earned her a medal. Only the top-15 runners were presented with medals.

Emily Beers finished as the 4th Chester runner which was a great run for her. Beers had a time of 30:35 which was a personal-best time and she finished 72nd overall out of 81 runners. She competed in the Varsity Division.

Maddie Ward finished 75th overall and posted a time of 31:16. She was Chester's fifth runner. In the JV Division ward finished 35th out of 39 runners.

Lawrenceville was the undisputed winner of the boy's race with 68 points. The next contender was Pinckneyville who accumulated 105 points. Other finishers included Nashville (3rd, 111), Metro-East (4th, 117), Waterloo (4th, 117), Columbia (6th, 133), Lebanon (7th, 137), Marissa (8th, 168), New Athens (9th, 253), Meadow Heights (10th, 254), Chester (11th, 262) and Carterville (12th, 335).

Chad Koenegstein was Chester's top-runner for the day. Koenegstein finished the 3-mile course in 18:22. His overall place out of 118 runners was 21st. Chad finished 16th in the varsity event which earned him a medal.

Brant McMillan was Chester's 2nd finisher for the meet with a time of 18:51. McMillan finished 28th overall out of 118 runners and 21st out of 56 varsity runners.

Garrett Rickenberg finished 3rd for Chester and had a time of 20:53. Rickenberg was the 75th overall finisher out of 118 runners and he was the 42nd varsity runner out of 56.

For the second meet-in-a-row Jeff Beers was Chester's 4th runner. Beers finished 89th out of 118 overall runners with his personal-best time of 22:01. Beers finished 50th out of 56 runners in the varsity race.

Stas Yekaterynin had a time of 22:54. His overall place finish was 101st out of 118 runners. Yekaterynin was 49th out of 62 runners in the JV race. Max Zeller finished 111th out of 118 runners overall. He ran the 3-mile race in 24:10. His placement in the varsity event was 55 out of 56 runners.

Coach Paul Stallman was very proud of all of his runners and praised them for competing hard against some very tough competition. He noted that individual times and performances are getting much better as the season progresses and that team members are doing a great job of providing support for fellow team members.