Highland boys cross country team places 8th, girls take 4th at Springfield Invitational

Jonathan Duncan
·3 min read

The Highland boys and girls cross country teams ventured north to Springfield on Saturday, Sept. 24, to compete in the always challenging Springfield High School Invite meet at Lincoln Park in Springfield.

For the boys, it was a chance to improve their times and they did just that, turning in a solid eighth place finish in the 20-team field with 202 points.

“I compared this year’s times to last year’s times and all but two of the guys improved from last year’s times so I think that’s a pretty big win (for us),” Highland coach Joe Shannon said. “We were missing two of our top seven because they were taking the ACT and then I took another two of the top seven and put them in the freshman/soph race, so we were missing Cole Basden, Avery Brock, and Christian Knobloch.”

Dallas Mancinas, who medaled in the race, led the Bulldogs boys with an eighth place finish (17:00) followed by Ethan Smith in 24th place (17:30), Mason Steinbeck in 31st place (17:57), Grat Rednour in 64th place (19:13), Isaac Irving in 87th place (20:11), and Jack Grotefendt in 113th place (22:20), rounding out the Bulldogs top seven finishers.

“Overall, the athletes from last year to this year got better and that was the only kind of metric I was really looking at for the guys race,” Shannon said.

A big added bonus for the Bulldogs came in the freshman/sophomore race as Brock won that event with a first place time of 17:28 and Knobloch took fourth place with a time of 18:16.

Also, Adin Roach medaled in the race with an 11th-place finish (19:10).

The HHS freshman/sophomore club placed second overall in the division.

“I was really excited about how the fresh/soph team did,” Shannon said. “It gives us a little bit of a look as to what we’re working with next year.”

In the girls division, the Lady Bulldogs finished fourth out of 14 teams with 155 points which left them two spots ahead of sixth place Mascoutah (170).

While the Lady Bulldogs had a decent overall finish, Shannon said he felt they could have possibly performed a bit better.

“The girls, I think we kind of had a little bit of a rough day,” he said. “I think right now it looks like we’re on the outside looking in as far as a team that can go to state. And if this team wants to go to state, they’re gonna have to pick it up a little bit (pace-wise).”

Payton Frey led HHS medaling with a 19th place finish (20:47). Maddie Dortch placed 31st overall (21:48) followed by Ava McPherson in 40th place (22:28). Freshman Vivian Marron ran her best race to date as she finished in the top five placing 45th with a time of 22:46.

Shannon also was pleased with Frey’s showing

“Vivian Marron, she had a really good race and that was the first time Viv put herself in the top five. That was really cool to see that she was moving up and, with freshmen, you never know when they’re going to make that jump,” Shannon said. “I think Vivian and Payton both had pretty solid races.”

Elley Seger placed 54th (23:05) and Maddie Molitor finished 85th (25:44) to round out the Lady Bulldogs’ top seven.

Next up

Both HHS teams will be back in action Wednesday, Sept. 28, with a trip to the Triad Invitational and then head to Peoria on Saturday, Oct. 1, for the Peoria Invite at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

Shannon will race the full girls team Wednesday at Triad.

“I think that will give us a good picture of where we’re gonna be in a couple of weeks,” he said said. “I want to see how well we can challenge Triad and some of the other (Mississippi Valley) conference schools on the girls side on Wednesday and see if we can make up some ground.”

The Highland High School boys cross country team is pictured with their first place trophy after winning the Twilight Invitational hosted by Civic Memorial at the Bethalto Sports Complex earlier this season. In more recent action, HHS took eight place at the Springfield High School Invite meet.
The Highland High School boys cross country team is pictured with their first place trophy after winning the Twilight Invitational hosted by Civic Memorial at the Bethalto Sports Complex earlier this season. In more recent action, HHS took eight place at the Springfield High School Invite meet.
The Highland High School boys and girls cross country teams lived up to preseason expectations as they both earned first place honors at the Twilight Invitational hosted by Civic Memorial at the Bethalto Sports Complex on Saturday, Aug. 27. The girls team is pictured here with their first place trophy.
The Highland High School boys and girls cross country teams lived up to preseason expectations as they both earned first place honors at the Twilight Invitational hosted by Civic Memorial at the Bethalto Sports Complex on Saturday, Aug. 27. The girls team is pictured here with their first place trophy.