Perryville boys' XC wins first ever meet

Perryville cross country coach Shadrick Shafer starts each race by taking a selfie with his team.

“It is a long-running tradition since the beginning of it,” Shafer said, “just kind of lighten things up because kids tend to get a little anxious in the box. We just do a goofy little pre-race selfie and we've done it every race since we started.”

This race was unlike any other in the seven-year history of the program, because the Pirates boys cross country team took first place in the St. Vincent Invitational on Wednesday, Aug. 30, in Perryville, Missouri.

"It feels great just because for the most part we got a pretty young team," Shafer said. "Our top five finishers are sophomores and a couple of juniors. This is a good confidence boost for them. They can start trusting themselves. Coach [Tyson] Brown over here has been building some really fantastic workouts for us, and the kids are buying into it."

Junior Porter Johnson led the Pirates with a time of 18:03.897 and a fifth-place finish. Bair Hopkins (18:13.187), Clayton Bauwens (18:16.343), and Preston Johnson (18:28.710) finished 7th-9th to give Perryville the edge over Oak Ridge in the leaderboards.

"We have a cluster of about four guys, five guys," Shafer said. "They work out together constantly. They started together in our middle school program, and then they ran together last year and this year. and they're constantly working together. So our motto was DLL, which is a dog leg left, so "D" stands for dog, and that's the strength of the pack. That's kind of relying on each other to pull through the race. So when one guy falls off pace a little bit the other guys are there to pull them along."

The scoring system in the cross country meet is each team takes their fifth best finishers and combines their places, with the lowest number winning. Ezekiel Sisk of Potosi (57) won the race and Brock Hobeck of Oak Ridge (54) placed second. However, all of Perryville's top five runners finished within the top 15 (5+7+8+9+14=43), and the Pirates had the stronger overall standing.

Cross country seems like an individual sport, but Perryville made it a team sport.

"It's important that they rely on each other," Shafer said. "There's the old saying that shared suffering brings people together. Well, that's kind of true with some of the workouts. They're doing 12-mile runs when it's 90 degrees outside. That brings them closer together."

The Perryville girls' cross country team finished second behind Potosi, who had all five top runners finishing in the top ten. Lucy Blythe led the Pirates with a time of 24:21.123 and a 10th-place finish. Myra Roth (23:44.500) of Saxony Lutheran finished fifth to lead all local runners, with Kelly's Blaise Thomas (23:51.593) right behind her.

__Top local runners__

__Boys__

Brock Hobeck, Oak Ridge, 17:46.039

Jackson Unterreiner, St. Vincent, 18:01.784

Porter Johnson, Perryville, 18:03.897

Carter Hennemann, St. Vincent, 18:12.135

Bair Hopkins, Perryville, 18:13.187

Clayton Bauwens, Perryville, 18:16.343

Preston Johnson, Perryville, 18:28.710

Cohen Hahs, Oak Ridge, 18:41.613

Ty Wilson, Oak Ridge, 19:03.012

Karson Ward, Oak Ridge, 19:10.562

__Girls__

Myra Roth, Saxony Lutheran, 23:44.500

Blaise Thomas, Kelly, 23:51.593

Kendall Marshall, Oak Ridge, 24:19.392

Lucy Blythe, Perryville, 24:21.123

Ty Wilson, Oak Ridge, 19:03.012

Abigail Kirn, St. Vincent, 24:26.222

Faith Dreyer, Saxony Lutheran, 24:35.801

Makayla Iffert, Perryville, 24:57.247

Gwynivere Newbrough, Perryville, 25:21.985

Addison Urhahn, Oak Ridge, 25:38.792