St. Peter Opens Conference Season With A Close Second

With a heat index in the mid 90’s last Tuesday at Wheeler Park, it was a tough day to open the Tri County Conference Cross Country season. In spite of the conditions the rivalry between St. Peter and St. Patrick was rekindled in the 7/8th grade race.

The race was led by perennial front runner Paul Ruetten of St. Mary Sycamore. After placing second at last year’s Class A IESA State Meet he hadn’t lost a beat as he finished the 2 mile course in 11:44, over a minute ahead of his brother David in second place.

The battle for third was won by Luke Arends of St. Patrick, being chased the entire way by St. Peter’s Aaron Beck. St. Patrick had the edge on the St. Peter runners throughout the race, pulling out the win with a score of 46 points to St. Peter’s 56. It’s sure to be a battle that is fought again. The rivals race this Tuesday on the hilly course at Randall Oaks Forest Preserve in West Dundee where St. Peter will be looking to close the gap.

The St. Peter 5/6th grade girls took five of the eight top spots among the girls. Due to the co-ed scoring of the meet the team finished fourth behind winner St. Charles Borromeo of Hampshire who dominated the field with 35 points. Even with co-ed scoring, the St. Peter girls will be a force to be reckoned with as they were within 20 seconds of the top ten runners and they look to build momentum and improve on their already impressive standing. Led by 5th grader Caitlin Gallagher in her first race (11:00 for 1.5 miles) the St. Peter girls had an incredible team effort with only 21 seconds between their first and fourth runners and the fifth very close with a time of 11:40.

The competition is sure to be fierce this Tuesday as the Tri-County Conference runners test their skills and compete on the humbling hills of Randall Oaks.