St. Peter Cross Country Making Strides

After a Friday night deluge of rain, the cross country course at Crossroads Elementary School and Hammel Woods was awash in mud and 16 inch deep puddles. The tough conditions nor the tough competition stopped the St. Peter girls from an outstanding performance on Saturday morning as they placed 19th out of 56 teams in the 7th grade division at the Troy Invitational. As one of the smallest schools in attendance and arguably the youngest team competing in the 7th grade race, the fearless St. Peter girls finished ahead of dozens of schools many times their size including crosstown rival Geneva Middle School North (22nd place). Following team leader and seventh grader Kaitlin Zucco, the St. Peter top five consisted of two 7th graders, one 6th grader and two 5th graders. The boys team also finished well, placing 34th in the highly competitive 8th grade division behind team leader and eighth grader Aaron Beck.

With only one day to rest, the Rockets made another long journey to Hampshire to compete in their third conference meet of the season on Monday. With host St. Charles Borromeo scoring boys and girls separately, the St. Peter team placed most of their team in the 7/8th grade division. The decision payed off as both teams placed first in their race. With three 5th graders and two 7th graders scoring points for the girls team, the Rockets won decisively over rival St. Patrick with a score of 32-55. The boys were dominant in the meet as well beating second place St. Catherine by a score of 43-74.

The team competes tomorrow in Sycamore for their final regular season conference meet of the season, ending a streak of four meets in nine days. The experience has payed off as the team continues to improve and tighten up their scoring runners. Next on the schedule is the Tri-Country Conference Championship Meet on October 1. The meet will be held at Leroy Oaks Forest Preserve and hosted by St. Patrick. The break will be good for the team as they take a rest from competition and ready themselves for championship season in October.