Sports
Plenty of Positives for STC East Runners
The varsity race only tells part of the story during Saturday's Leavey Invite.
At first glance, the 15th-place finish turned in by St. Charles East's girls cross country team at Saturday's Jeff Leavey Invitational doesn't stand out as an impressive accomplishment.
After a second look, the two-time defending Upstate Eight Conference champion Saints could have what it takes to contend for a state berth come November.
Senior Gina Bartindale was the top finisher for coach Denise Hefferin's squad, covering the 3-mile LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve layout in a time of 19:47.9, good enough for 44th place individually.
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"We had a great meet on all three levels," said Bartindale, who reached her pre-race goal by eclipsing the 20-minute mark.
"This is our home course and we love it. It's great to come out here and perform well."
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Kristin Sheehan (49th), Colleen Earl (60th), Annie Martines (94th), Alyssa Voltilina (101st) and Amanda Pearce (106th) also participated for the Saints.
Things figure to get even better down the road when No. 1 runner Mallory Abel returns.
The junior, who placed 37th in the state a year ago, was held out of the race but is expected back in a few weeks.
"I can't wait for her to be competing with us again," Bartindale said of Abel.
St. Charles East also competed without sophomores Jessica Evans, Sarah Hill and Kaitlin Guerin, who compiled a 1-2-4 finish in the frosh-soph race held earlier in the day.
"We kept our varsity lineup with juniors and seniors for this race," Bartindale said. "I saw where our frosh-soph team just dominated. A couple of those girls were on our state team last year."
On the boys' side, coach Chris Bosworth's Saints placed 11th in the team standings with strong individual efforts from seniors Mike Rykoskey (25th, 16:06.1), Steven Decker (32nd, 16:22.5) and Derek Weber (56th, 16:46.1).
"This is our first real big race so we're all kind of getting back into it," Rykoskey said. "We hope to strive from here."
Kevin Earl (73rd), Ben Manibog (74th), Luke Rykoskey (76th) and Francis Shannon (88th) supported the Saints' cause.
"We had a minute split from our first man to our seventh man – that was decent," Mike Rykoskey said. "And our top three guys are usually within 15 to 20 seconds."
