CHS Cross Country honors 2010 athletes

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Both Chester High School Cross Country Teams had an excellent year on the run for 2010 and CHS Coaches held a banquet and awards ceremony for the Yellow Jacket runners Tuesday November 2 at Reid's Harvest House.

The event was partially sponsored by Brad and Tia Reid who donated the runners' and coaches' meals and furnished the site for the event in the upstairs rooms of the Harvest House. The Reid's daughter Emily is one of the top-five girl's runners for the Lady Yellow Jackets.

CHS Head Coach Scott Haxton served as Master of Ceremonies for the night which started with a delicious meal from the Reid's buffet. Haxton took little time with his welcome speech as everyone was anxious to begin the food, fun and fellowship.

Following the meal Haxton thanked the Reid's for their hospitality and immediately began praising the runners for their excellent competitive season. On the back of the event program was listed a long and varied list of accomplishments by both the girls and boys this season.

At New Athens August 24 both the Boy's and Girl's squads placed 2nd while at Edwardsville August 28 Chester brought home one medal. In the Columbia Relays September 1 the Boy's Team A placed 4th and Devin Valleroy, Link Cushman and Kyle Landon all earned medals.

Chester hosted a home meet September 2 and both the Girl's Team and the Boy's Team were grand Champions. Devin Valleroy was likewise the overall winners of the 3.0-mile race.

Tuesday September 7 the squads traveled to the Benton Six Plus Meet and the Yellow Jackets Boys won their division while the Lady Yellow Jackets were runners up in 2nd Place. Three Freshman/Sophomore Jackets and 10 Varsity Jackets were Medalists at Benton.

Sparta held their Invitational Meet Tuesday September 14 with substantial competition. Both the CHS boys and girls finished 4th overall with three Varsity runners winning medals. Tow Varsity runners earned medals at the Nashville Invitational Monday September 20. Two varsity runners brought home hardware from that competition. Just two days later on Wednesday September 22 Chester traveled to Freeburg for the Annual Freeburg Invitational. Four Varsity runners won medals while Devin Valleroy brought home a trophy for finishing 4th Place overall.

Tuesday September 28 Chester hosted a small triangular meet winning first place in both the Boy's and Girl's Divisions. Devin Valleroy was the overall winner of the three-team event.

The Yellow Jackets hosted their Annual Chester Invitational Meet Thursday September 30 at which time four CHS Freshman/Sophomore runners earned medals and three Yellow Jacket Varsity runners earned medals.

October 7 the Jackets competed at the Pinckneyville Invitational Meet with both the girls and boys finishing 3rd overall. Devin Valleroy was the overall winner of the race with two Freshman/Sophomore and seven Varsity runners bringing home medals from the competition.

Thursday October 14 the Both Yellow Jackets squads made history as they became the first Chester High School sports teams to become champions in the new Black Diamond Conference. Both the Girl's and Boy's Teams won their respective championships at the 2010 Black Diamond Conference Meet hosted at Hamilton County.

Jillian Yankey was the Girl's Division Conference Champion while four Lady Jackets including Yankey, Laura Liefer, Taylor Yankey and Emily Reid became All-Conference selections via their 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th place respective finishes. On the Boy's side Devin Valleroy finished 2nd overall and Link Cushman finished 5th. Both runners earned All-Conference honors by their top-10 finishes.

Monday October 18 CHS competed at the very competitive and prestigious Benton Invitational Meet. The Yellow Jacket Boys Team finished 3rd at Benton out of 10 teams while the Lady Yellow Jackets finished 5th.

Jillian Yankey, Laura Liefer, Devin Valleroy, Link Cushman and Kyle Landon earned varsity medals at Benton while Brian Hartman and Fernando Guerra earned JV medals.

Chester hosted the 2010 Regional Meet October 23 at the Randolph County Conservation Area course. Both the Lady Jackets and the Yellow Jackets qualified to advance to the Sectional Meet out of the Chester Regional. Devin Valleroy earned a 4th Place overall medal with his time of 16:48.

At the Sectional Meet October 30 the Boy's Team finished 7th overall with Chester's Devin Valleroy advancing to the State Meet at Edwardsville. Valleroy finished 15th overall to advance to the State Finals with a time of 17:15 on the 3.1-Mile course.

At the State Finals Saturday November 6 at Peoria Valleroy ran a personal-best time of 16:27 on the 3.1-Mile Course finishing 85th overall.

Following Coach Haxton's review of the season he spent time thanking all of the parents for their support throughout the season. The parents hosted numerous team pasta dinners at various homes to build team unity and create camaraderie and most parents traveled to meets to support the teams during the races.

At home meets and at the 2010 Regional, which Chester hosted, parents manned a concession stand and worked the course. Haxton praised the parents and local volunteers for their undying support throughout the season.

Before presenting the 2010 CHS Cross Country awards Haxton thanked his coaching staff including former CHS Cross Country Coach Paul Stallman, Bob Koenegstein and Mary Stallman. Each coach took a minute to give their perspective on the 2010 season, all of which praised the runners for their dedication, hard work and enjoyable personalities and many accomplishments this year.

Haxton then presented the major awards. "Rookies of the Year" were Kyle Landon for the Boy's Team and Rachel Sheely for the Girl's Team. Landon, a sophomore and Sheely, a senior, improved significantly throughout the season and set a great example for hard work and dedication.

The 2010 "Outstanding Effort Awards" were earned by Link Cushman and Laura Liefer. Both were the Yellow Jacket's No. 2 runners this year which means they were typically runners-up or second Chester runners to finish at meets throughout the season at races. Cushman is only a sophomore and has two more years to improve at CHS while Liefer is a senior and will go to college next fall.

The "MVP" Awards or "Most Valuable Runner Awards" were earned by Jillian Yankey for the Girl's Team and Devin Valleroy for the Boy's Team. Throughout the year both Yankey and Valleroy consistently led the Yellow Jackets both on and off the course. Both won several races and Yankey was the 2010 Black Diamond Conference Champion. Valleroy was runner-up at the conference meet and advanced to the 2010 State Finals in Peoria where he set a personal-best time of 16:27 finishing 85th overall.