Cross Knights nab first-place finishes

By Anthony Jones

[email protected]

TROY — Competing in meets hosted by Olney and Collinsville, Triad cross country compiled strong results last week.

At the Sept. 18 Collinsville Invite, the boys squad earned the team championship. Their team tally of 30 points placed them well ahead of second-place Alton’s 63 point score.

Senior Drew Twyman led the team’s efforts by nabbing the individual championship. His 16:34.25 performance put him 23 seconds ahead of the next-fastest runner.

The next Knight to finish was Sam Kuckuck, who clocked in at 17:27.59. His time placed him fourth overall.

Triad’s third-fastest time was a 17:38.66 race from Gavin Woolverton. His speed landed him in seventh-place.

Jacob Ramert was the last runner in the field to break below 18 minutes in a 17:53.52 showing. He finished fourth among Triad runners and eighth-place overall.

Michael Schram and Gray Lipe rounded out the top ten of the field, with respective times of 18:11.06 and 18:31.09. 

The seventh-runner on the squad was Caden Meier. With an 18:4.91 race, he finished in eleventh-place.

The Lady Knights left Collinsville with a second-place team finish. Their team total of 29 points left them just behind meet champion Mater Dei, who tallied 28 points.

Senior Kennedy Bowman led the field with a time of 20:21.40, which led the entire field. The Lady Knight’s time was 47 seconds faster than the meet runner-up.

In second-place for Triad and fourth-overall, Morgan Mason added another strong performance. Mason’t time of 21:47.50 missed the top-three by less than seven seconds.

Abigail James finished as the fastest third-runner of the meet and claimed sixth-place with a time of 22:11.10. Bradynn Carey was the next Lady Knight to finish, winding up two spots behind James on a 22:24.50 performance.

Rounding out Triad’s top-five finishes, Hannah York completed the course in 23:35.50. That time placed her in sixteenth-overall.

Cameron Powers and Alivia Phillips rounded out the team’s top-seven with respective showings of 26:04.50 and 27:23.40. Their times were the nineteenth and twenty-second best of the meet.

On Sept. 21, Triad headed west for the Olney Cross Country Invitational.

The Knights added another team championship on the boys side. Their tally of 70 points came just ahead of second-place Herrin’s 80 points to win the sixteen-squad field.

Notching his second individual title of the week, Twyman was the first runner through the course. The standout senior’s time of 15:56.1 was the only time below 16 minutes in the entire field.

Just over a minute later, Kuckuck became the second Knight to finish. His time of 16:59.6 was good for eighth-place honors.

With a 17:23.9 outing, Woolverton took third-place honors for the meet champions. He finished in fifteenth-place overall.

Schram and Ramert were the next Knights to finish, scoring twenty-third and twenty-fifth place finishes. The pair finished in 17:39.7 and 17:40.7, respectively.

With a time of 18:10.3 and overall placement of thirty-second, Meier turned in the unit’s sixth-best showing. Nile Diehl rounded out the top-seven with a fifty-first place and 18:54.7 race.

In girls action, Triad battled into third-place as a team. The Lady Knights tallied 108 points in the field of 15 teams.

Bowman paced their charge with a 20:11.3 race. Her time scored her seventh-place honors overall.

In a strong showing, Mason raced into sixteenth-place overall and was timed at 21:17.1 for second-place among Triad runners. Carey finished 1.2 seconds later for third on the team and eighteenth-place.

James turned in the squad’s fourth highest finish after fighting into twenty-eighth position. She completed Olney’s course in a time of 21:52.4.

Rounding out the team’s top-five, Phillips supplied a fiftieth-place outing. She earned her top-fifty showing with a time of 23:41.0

Powers and York capped off the top-seven with sixty-first and sixty-eighth place performances. Their times were 24:26.9 and 24:55.4, respectively.