CHS Cross Country Teams are honored at Annual Awards Night celebration
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Chester High School honored the 2008 CHS Cross Country Teams last Thursday, October 30 at a banquet and awards ceremony held at Reid's Harvest House. The event began at 6:00 P.M. and concluded at approximately 7:30 P.M.
Paul Stallman, Head CHS cross Country Coach was the Master of Ceremonies for the evening and he was assisted by his Assistant Coaches, Mary Stallman and Bob Koenegstein.
Members of both the Girl's and Boy's teams gathered at Reid's Harvest House in the upstairs banquet room at 6:00 P.M. They were joined by members of their families for a delicious meal prepared by the Reid's staff.
Mike Coffey, CHS Athletic Director, welcomed the group and thanked everyone in attendance for their dedication and commitment to cross country throughout the 2008 season. Coffey noted that cross country is often a non-glamorous sport and that members of the squad have to be very hard-working and dedicated to be able to go out on a hot day and run 3.0-miles in competition.
During the meal everyone present enjoyed a pictorial slide show of all of the events of the season beginning with the very first night of practice back in the hot days of August until the last meet of the season Saturday, October 25 when Chester hosted the IHSA regional meet at the Randolph County Lake. The trip down memory lane was quite humorous, heart-warming and entertaining.
Following the meal and entertainment Coach Stallman thanked his assistant coaches and all of the parents in attendance for all of the support provide this year throughout the 2008 season.
Stallman began by commenting that his wife, Mary, was actually the person responsible for all of the logistics related to the team. She tabulates and computes all of the statistics for all of the races and posts them on the cross country website, www.chscrosscountry.blogspot.com.
She also is responsible for the coordination of the home cross country meets from a registration and results standpoint. Chester hosts several major meets too including the 17-team invitational and this year the IHSA Regional Meet.
Coach Koenegstein is the primary injury specialist and designs much of the training regimen. Without his help the team would not have immediate care in the case of running stress and injury and his training tips greatly help to avoid injuries in the first place. Stallman was very complimentary of both Coach Mary and Coach Bob.
It was then time for the presentation of awards and yearly statistics for each runner. Coach Mary Stallman prepared a printout of each runner's times and results for the season and Paul Stallman handed the results out prior to discussion of each competitor's accomplishments.
Stallman recognized the three senior athletes, Sarah Liefer, Garrett Rickenberg and Emily Beers. Liefer and Rickenberg were recognized for being the team's captains this season. All three athletes were also presented with a trophy for their years of service to the team and the cross country insignia that was posted on the city lamp posts throughout the season.
Rickenberg was not only the team captain this year, but he was noted for being the only four-year veteran of the squad. He ran consistently as the third finisher for the 2008 Yellow jackets and achieved a time of under 20-minutes in several races this season. He earned a pin for his letter jacket.
Sarah Liefer was also a team captain and was a three-year member of the squad. Stallman commented that she was a most dependable member of the team and that she was a good student. Her running peak was perhaps last year. This year Sarah was plagued with injury most of the season. For her dedication to the team Liefer earned a pin for her letter jacket.
The final senior, Emily Beers, was introduced as "perseverance at it best" by Coach Stallman. Beers started out this season with times of 35 minutes or more and ended with a best-time of 28:44, shaving off more than five-minutes from her original times. Her persistence was noted as a virtue. For her efforts Beers earned a pin for her letter jacket.
Stallman at this point thanked Lynn and Robert Rickenberg for their loyalty to the team. The Rickenberg's were responsible for cutting and painting all of the street post insignias which adorned the town throughout the season. Each runner had an insignia with his or her name on it to recognize them for their efforts. The seniors got to keep their insignias as a memento for being a part of the team.
The Rickenbergs also were the parents who organized the concession stand for all of the major home meets. Stallman thanked them for this much-needed service and noted that the participants and parents really appreciated the act of kindness.
Brant McMillan, a junior, was recognized for consistently improving throughout the entire season. He and Chad Koenegstein seemed to alternate each race being the team male lead runner. McMillan had a personal-best time of 18:55 at the Regional Meet at Chester and advanced to Sectionals. This accomplishment was dooly noted because each course throughout the year is a different length and the Chester course is a 3.0-mile course, one of the longer courses on which teams compete. Brant earned a pin for his letter jacket.
Chad Koenegstein, another junior, was often the top CHS male runner. Chad had the best work ethic on the entire team this year and set a good example for the rest of the runners. He ran in the mid-17's at several races this season and also advanced to the 2008 IHSA Sectional Meet.
Jeff Beers, a junior, was described by Stallman as "a man on a mission". This statement was made due to the fact that Beers was very determined and dependable. He started the year with times in the mid-to-upper 20's and set a personal-best time of 20:03 at the SIRR Conference Meet at DuQuoin. For his effort, Beers received a pin for his letter jacket.
Laura Liefer, a sophomore was praised for her All-Conference selection by virtue of her top-10 finish in the SIRR Conference Meet (10th, 21:16) and her lead female runner status throughout the entire season. Stallman stated that little did she know at the time, but Laura missed qualifying for the 2008 IHSA Sectional Meet by only one position. Thee girls that finished right in front of her made it……she did not.
Finally Stallman dubbed her the happiest member of the team. She always had a smile on her face and a good comment for others. For her efforts Liefer earned a pin for her letter jacket and a sophomore patch.
Hannah Knop was recognized for all of her hard work and dedication to the team. Knop was Chester's third female runner most of the season and picked up the pace at the end of the session when it really counted. Knop was a first-year rookie runner and seemed to adapt to cross country running very well. For her efforts Knop earned a sophomore patch and a pin for her letter jacket.
Another sophomore, Jillian Yankey, really stepped it up this year ending on a positive note. She began the year rather slowly with times more than 26-minutes, but ended with times around the 22:39 mark.
Stallman challenged her to knock off yet another minute to begin next season. He noted that Jillian would need to "get off the couch and train throughout the summer" to achieve her challenged goal for 2009. Yankey earned both a sophomore patch and a pin for her letter jacket for her accomplishments.
The final two runners to be recognized were the two foreign exchange students, Max Zeller from Germany and Stas Yekaterynin from the Ukraine. Both boys are guests of Gene Baughman who was thanked for always strongly encouraging his foreign exchange students to join cross country at CHS.
Zeller started the year with a time of 27:00 and ended the season with times just under 23:00. He learned to like cross country and really benefited from the camaraderie and friendships formed with the team. For his efforts Max was presented with his numbers for a letter jacket and his lamp post name insignia.
Stas began the season with times of 25:00 or more. He often told Stallman that, "I can do this." He found out that he could accomplish more and had a personal-best time of under 12:00 late in the season. He, too, enjoyed the friendships of teammates and was thankful he was encouraged to join the team. For his efforts Stas earned a letter and a sophomore patch and he was presented by the Rickenbergs with his name plaque.
Three team members were absent from the banquet, Kristy Pulliam, a sophomore, Madison Ward, a freshman and Jayson Stevens, a two-sport senior. Pulliam received her sophomore patch and a letter for her jacket while Ward earned her numbers for her letter jacket.
Following the presentation of generic awards Stallman then announced the yearly major awards for 2008. Max Zeller and Stas Yekaterynin received medals for their international flair and other contributions to the team.
The "Rookie of the Year" award was presented to Hannah Knop. Knop received a plaque. Laura Liefer was the 2008 female "MVP". Liefer was Chester's first runner to finish among the other Chester runners every race this season.
Stallman announced that in the boy's category the statistics were virtually identical and that for 2008 he and the other coaches agreed to have Co-MVP awards. Chad Koenegstein and Brant McMillan were the Co-MVP's for 2008.
The final announcement to be made was that for 2009, Chad Koenegstein and Brant McMillan would serve as the boy's Captains and Laura Liefer would be the girl's Captain.
As Stallman ended the ceremony he reminded everyone that 2009 would be his final season as the Yellow Jacket's Head Coach due to his impending retirement at the end of the 2009-10 school year.
The evening was a wonderful way to say goodbye to seniors, Emily Beers, Sarah Liefer and Garrett Rickenberg, and a great way to recognize the accomplishments of all of the team members of the 2008 CHS Cross Country Team.