Chester cross country opens season at New Athens Mini Meet

<p class="p1">The Chester High School cross country team opened the 2016 season on Monday at the New Athens Mini Meet.

<p class="p1">This event was far from being "mini," however, as 19 teams competed in the boys division and 12 teams in the girls division.

<p class="p1">The Lady Yellow Jackets finished seventh and had two medal winners.

<p class="p1">Althoff won the girls 3.1-mile race with 74 points followed by Nashville (88), Okawville (94), New Athens (123), Red Bud (164), Roxana (175), Chester (257), Dupo (291), Steeleville (295), Valmeyer (335), Central (351) and Mel/Madison (423).

<p class="p1">Gibault, Columbia, Piasa, Sparta, O'Fallon, Marissa, Lebanon and Governor French also had girls compete, but did not have enough runners to have a team score.

<p class="p1">Chester's Jessica Kattenbraker, a junior, finished first for CHS and crossed the finish line 23rd overall (23.36) to earn a medal.

<p class="p1">Avery Runge, a freshman, finished 30th with a time of 24:16 to be Chester's other medalist. Other finishers for the CHS girls were Shea Petrowske (41st, 24:59), Adeline Blechle (79th, 29:15), Elizabeth Soellner (84th, 30.33), Jocelyn Landeros (87th, 31:21) and Ellen Blechle (98th, 33:17).

<p class="p1">CHS junior standout Taylor Dunning did not compete as she has not been released from a nagging ankle injury.

<p class="p1">"Though we are still battling injuries carried over from the off-season, I think we performed really well for the first meet of the season," said CHS coach Curt Gilpin.

<p class="p1">The CHS boys team finished 18th and had one medal winner in freshman Ronin Doiron (58th, 20:26.

<p class="p1">Steeleville was the winner of the boys division with 79 points. Others in the top 10 were Columbia (118), Nashville (141), Red Bud (156), Roxana (165), Wesclin (171), New Athens (205), Gibault (257), Marissa/Coulterville (266) and Sparta (297).

<p class="p1">Other finishers for CHS were Jakob Cushman (91st, 21:42), Joe Soellner (100th, 22:07), Josh Haberberger (123rd, 22:52), Lance Bohnert (130th, 23:25) and Mitchell Colonel (140th, 23:54).

<p class="p1">Colonel battled a knee injury at New Athens and hopes to be back in racing form soon.

<p class="p1">"Both the girls and boys ran well at this meet," Gilpin said. "We had three medalists and I am happy where the teams are right now.

<p class="p1">"For sure, we still have a lot of work to do, but I am happy with our performances at the New Athens Mini Meet."

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