CHS Cross Country boys and girls win home meet

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Chester High School Cross Country Teams hosted two meets last week at the Randolph County Lake. Tuesday, September 29 the girls hosted a triangular competition and the boys hosted a quadrangular event with both teams winning their respective competitions.

Thursday, October 1 the Jackets hosted their Annual Chester Invitational Meet with 12 boy's and 10 girl's teams competing. The Chester boys placed 7th in their division and the girls placed 6th.

Tuesday was a bright sunny day with a light wind and 64-degree temperatures. Conditions were dry and got a bit warm at times for the teams. On the boy's side Chester won with only 41 points followed by New Athens (2nd, 47); Steeleville (3rd, 50) and Okawville (4th, 84).

Keith Hamilton from Steeleville was the overall winner with his time of 18:41 while Chester's Chad Koenegstein was runner up (18:47). Other Chester runners and their times included Brant McMillan (5th, 18:59); Devin Valleroy (6th, 19:01); Link Cushman (8th, 19:22); Brent Knop (20th, 20:54); Zach Sternberg (22nd, 21:04); Jeff Beers (27th, 22:28); Terry Jones (29th, 2:46); Robert Imhof (32nd, 23:15); Brian Hartman (34th, 23:20); Alec Weir (37th, 24:15) and Miles Zhang (39th, 25:21). There were 43 runners in the boy's race.

There were 21 runners in the girl's division. The overall winner was Molly Works from New Athens. Runner up was Chester's Taylor Yankey (23:02). Other Chester runners included Laura Liefer (4th, 23:47); Emily Reid (5th, 24:03); Hannah Knop (7th, 24:15); Courtney Johnson (11th, 27:48); Morgan Colvis (18th, 34:21) and Jenna Wingerter (20th, 35:01).

Thursday, October 1 was a cool day with temperatures in the 60's and there was a slight wind. It was cloudy for the most part and as a storm front slowly approached. The course was dry.

Both girls Varsity and JV ran the 3.0-mile course together and were timed separately and as a whole. There were 38 freshmen/sophomore girls who entered the race and a total of 77 girls altogether.

Andi Scherer from Lawrenceville won the JV Girl's Division with a time of 21:19 while runner up was Jenna Vogt from Columbia (21:39). Chester's first female finisher was Taylor Yankey (22:17). She finished 7th among the JV Girl's and 16th overall. Other Chester finishers included Emily Reid (13th JV & 28th overall, 23:37); Laura Liefer (30th overall/varsity, 23:45); Hannah Knop (37th overall/varsity, 24:59).

Other Chester female runners included Jillian Yankey (39th overall/varsity, 25:11); Courtney Johnson (26th JV & 56th overall, 27:37); Morgan Colvis (33rd JV & 70th overall, 31:13) and Jenna Wingerter (38th JV & 77th overall, 37:05).

Three Chester girls won medals. Emily Reid earned a medal for finishing 13th in JV (23:37); Laura Liefer finished 30th overall (23:45) and Taylor Yankey finished 7th JV and 16th overall (22:17).

Waterloo won the Girl's Division with a score of 45. The overall winner was Alyssa Edwards of Waterloo with her time of 19:57. Other Overall scores included Columbia (2nd, 53); Metro East (3rd, 117); Nashville (4th, 133), Lawrenceville (5th, 134); CHESTER (6th, 150); Marissa (7th, 160); Pinckneyville (8th, 161); Carterville (9th, 203) and New Athens (10th, 211).

In the Boy's Division there were 12 teams represented. The race was a 3.0-mile affair with JV and Varsity runners competing at the same time. Both JV and Varsity were timed separately. There were 70 runners in the JV Division and 136 runners overall.

The overall winner in the Boy's race was Kiefer Heiman from Nashville with his 16:45 performance. The winner of the JV race was Damon Lange of Waterloo who finished the race with a time of 17:47.

Chester's first finisher was Brant McMillan who competed in the varsity race. His time was 18:19 and his overall place was 14th. Chester's first finisher in the JV Division was Devon Valleroy who had a time of 18:39. His overall finish among the 136 runners was 36th while he finished 4th among the JV runners.

Other Chester finishers included Chad Koenegstein (24th, Varsity, 18:40); Link Cushman (Link Cushman (8th JV, 32nd overall, 18:55); Brent Knop, 30th JV, 70th overall, 20:40); Terry Jones (71st Varsity, 20:50) and Jeff Beers (91st Varsity, 21:35).

More Chester results include Robert Imhof (49th JV, 106th overall, 22:39); Brian Hartman (50th JV, 107th overall, 22:39); Alec Weir (57th JV, 117th overall, 23:35) and Miles Zhang (127th, Varsity, 25:07).

Four Chester boys earned medals for the day. Brandt McMillan finished 14th overall (18:19); Chad Koenegstein finished 24th overall (18:40); Devin Valleroy was 4th in the JV Division and 36th overall (18:39) and Link Cushman finished 8th in the JV race and 32nd overall (18:55).

Lawrenceville won the overall team trophy with 68 points followed by Metro East (2nd, 102); Metro East (102); Marissa (3rd, 102); Pinckneyville (4th, 120); Waterloo (5th, 152); Columbia (6th, 156); CHESTER (7th, 157); New Athens (8th, 160); Nashville (9th, 169); Steeleville (10th, 199); Carterville (11th, 326) and Lebanon (12th, 329).

Scores were also combined adding the Girl's and Boy's scores together and a special plaque was awarded for the No. 1 team combined. Waterloo won the combined plaque with 197 points followed by Lawrenceville (2nd, 202); Columbia (3rd, 209); Metro east Lutheran (4th, 219); Marissa (5th, 262); Pinckneyville (7th, 281); CHESTER (8th, 307); New Athens (9th, 371)) and Carterville (10th, 529). Lebanon, Steeleville and Valmeyer did not qualify for team combination scores.