St. Vincent freshman wins boy's 5K at Perryville Invite

Among the 78 different runners from eight competing high schools, it was St. Vincent freshman Carter Hennemann who led the pack and won the boys' 5k cross country race in the Perryville Invitational on Tuesday, Sept. 26, in Perryville, Mo.

"It means a lot because I've been preparing a long time for this," Hennemann said.

Hennemann finished the race with a time of 18:21.00, beating Perryville junior Bair Hopkins by two seconds.

"I used to run with those guys a lot," Hennemann said. "It's fun to run with them and run against them and just to beat them."

His top time is 17:51, although he didn't get it during this race, he believes he can set a new personal record at the Notre Dame Invitational on Saturday. He also said his goals this season are to run in the Class 1 state meet and to break the 17-minute mark in the 5K.

Earning his first gold medal brings him closer to his goals.

"It shows how much I've improved since the beginning of the season and just helps me see a clear future," Hennemann said.

Perryville came within nine points of winning its first boys' race of the season. Oak Ridge won the event with senior Brock Hobeck (18:26.00) placing third, Ty Wilson seventh (19:18.00), and the final three scorers finishing in 13-15th place.

Along with Hennemann winning the race, Jackson Unterreiner placed fifth (18:55.00) to lead St. Vincent to third in the team standings.

Brody Oesch (19:36.00) and Truman White (19:40.00) raced each other toward the finish line to see who would be Kelly's leading runner, with four seconds separating the ninth and 10th place finisher.

Perryville finished second in the girls' 5K race, 10 points behind Mehlville, who was led by the junior duo of Allison Miller and Kayla Barrett leaving the field in the dust. St. Vincent junior Abigail Kirn (24:22.00 ) led all local runners with a third-place finish, followed by Oak Ridge senior Kendall Marshall (24:53.00) in fourth place. Perryville freshman Lucy Blythe finished sixth (25:27.00) to lead the Pirates.

The Perryville Invite was the second cross-country race held in Perryville. Both events were held in different courses. This race was held by the Perry Park Center while the St. Vincent Invite was held by the fairgrounds earlier in the month.

"It's definitely one of the harder ones," Hennemann said of the course. "there's a lot of hills."