CHS cross country opens season at Freeburg and Highland meets
The Chester High School cross country teams opened the 2020 season with two meets last week.
<b>Jackets at Freeburg</b>
The Jackets went to Freeburg on Aug. 24 for a triangular meet with Freeburg, Granite City and Chester. Both boys and girls teams came in third.
Seven varsity runners competed for the Lady Jackets. Senior Josie Kattenbraker led Chester with a time of 28:26, finishing 14th overall. Junior Madison Kribs was Chester's second finisher, at 30:44. Finishing third for CHS was junior Hannah Blechle, a junior, who turned in a time of 31:16. She finished 17th overall.
Maria Nickle, a junior, finished fourth for Chester and 18th overall with a time of 31:40. Josalynn Anaya, a freshman, ran the first meet of her high school career, finishing for Chester and 19th overall. Her time was 32:12. Rounding out the Lady Jacket crew were seniors Amelia Schemonic, Katie Shinabargar and Melody Colonel. Schemonic finished 20th overall with her time of 33:25. Shinabargar finished 23rd overall with a time of 36:35, and Colonel finished 24th with her 46:36 performance.
Freeburg won the meet with 27 points. Granite City placed 2nd with 36 points. Claire Sykes of Granite City was the overall winner of the meet with her time of 20:29.
On the boys meet, Freeburg won with 19 points followed by Granite City, 38 and Chester, 85 points.
The overall winner of the meet was Evan Wilkerson of Freeburg with his time of 16:35 and a pace of 5:32 per mile. The Midgets captured four of the Top 5 finishes and a team time of 1:30:00.
Granite City was led by Randy Gardner with his time of 18:33 and an overall finish of 4th. Granite City had a team time of 1:35:22. Granite City had runners finish in 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, and 12 places.
The Yellow Jackets finished in 3rd with an overall team time of 1:57:35. Logan Gregory, a transfer from Marissa High School, was Chester's first finisher. He ran the 3-mile course in 21:22 and finished 19th overall out of 28 competitors.
Other Chester runners were Jacob Handel (20th, 21:28); Trace Fricke (25th, 22:42); Jordan Hughes (26th, 25:25); Blake Huffman (27th, 26:38); and Colin Ezzell (28th, 30:19).
<b>Chester at Highland</b>
The Lady Jackets took 3rd in a meet at Alhambra that featured Chester, Highland and Alton Marquette. Highland won with 15 points, Alton Marquette had 48 points and Chester finished with 57 points.
The overall winner of the meet was Grace Meyer of Highland with her time of 20:35.40. Highland grabbed the Top 5 finishes to secure the victory. There were 25 competitors in the 3-mile race.
The Lady Jackets were led by Josie Kattenbraker who placed 11th with a time of 27:42.90, faster than her time at Freeburg. Madison Kribs was on her heels with 27:50.60, more than two minutes faster than at Freeburg.
Hannah Blechle finished 17th overall with her time of 30:18.70. Maria Nickle finished 20th with her 30:44.30 performance. Josalynn Anaya turned in a time of 31:06.80; Amelia Schemonic came in at crossed 31:47.70. Rounding out the Lady Jacket attack was Katie Shinabargar who placed 25th with a time of 35:45.30. Melody Colonel was unable to make the trip since she was taking the ACT exam.
Meanwhile, the Chester boys finish 4th at Highland, against Father McGivney High School in Glen Carbon, Highland and Trenton Wesclin. Highland won the meet with 30 points. Father McGivney finished 2nd with 50 and Trenton Wesclin finished 3rd with 54 points. The Yellow Jackets had 102 points.
Justin Mumford of Trenton Wesclin was the overall winner, at 15:24.10. Highland had seven runners finish in the Top 12 to guarantee the team victory.
The Yellow Jackets were paced by senior Logan Gregory who finished 15th with a time of 20:06.10. Jordan Hughes, a senior, finished in 19th place with 22:52.80. Sophomore Jacob Handel had a time of 24:18.00; sophomore Trace Fricke had 25:27.90; junior Blake Huffman had 26:05.40.
<i> Next up for Chester is a meet on Sept. 3 at Vienna High School.</i>