Heading south into Arkansas for the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival over the weekend, Matt Candrl’s Owensville High School (OHS) Dutchmen cross country squad looked to add to their list of outstanding accomplishments this season.

Senior Zach Holtmeyer broke his own school record placing 16th in heat two with a time of 15:52.6 helping the Dutchmen place 20th out of over 100 teams.

Fellow Dutchmen running in Arkansas included Cris Reyes (111th, 17:03.4), Grayson Lairmore (133rd, 17:15), Drake Dietrich (199th, 17:38.7), Dylan Dietrich (247th, 17:57.4), Max Altemeyer (270th, 18:06.9), Bo Buddemeyer (287th, 18:14.4) and Ty Price (359th, 18:45.6).

Along with Holtmeyer breaking his own school record, Owensville broke the school record for the fastest five-kilometer (5k) ever recorded by a team.

Owensville’s top five runners averaged a 17:09 breaking the record previously held by the 2015 Dutchmen team of Carter Brocato, Destin Gooch, Daniel Herrera, Alex Gooch and Samuel Blackwell from the Missouri Southern Stampede meet.

Last Tuesday at the St. James Cross Country Invitational at Maramec Springs State Park in St. James, Owensville Middle School had four runners leave Phelps County with medals.

Placing second in the middle school boys team standings with 69 points behind Steelville (34), OMS’ Dutchmen were led by Trevin Nolting’s third-place time of 8:50.2.

OMS Dutchmen finishing behind Nolting were Kyle Korff (16th, 9:46), Trace Ridder (20th, 9:52.9), Ayden Gutermuth (22nd, 9:55.6), Bentley Crews (26th, 10:04.6), Liam Kramme (30th, 10:20.5), Carter Price (33rd, 10:26.6), Brady Rutledge (35th, 10:33), Anthony Grube (38th, 10:39.3), Clayton Hays (41st, 10:54.3), Chandler Howard (43rd, 10:57.6), Brayden Kemp (46th, 11:05.7), Daven Dietrich (47th, 11:07.4), Zeke Johnson (50th, 11:13.4), Andrew Allen (57th, 11:39.2), Ryker Leach (58th, 11:42.4), Bowen Palmer (74th, 13:51.8), Ansel Winter (77th, 13:58.3), Leland Tirre (81st, 14:16.9) and Hollis Winter (84th, 15:07.4).

Placing fourth with 80 points, OMS’ Dutchgirls finished in a tight team race behind Union (70), Bourbon (75) and Pacific (78).

Leaving St. James with medals for the orange and black was the trio of Alexis Christensen (3rd, 10:18), Bella Daniels (8th, 10:37.8) and Paisley Hempelmann (15th, 11:03.4).

Also helping OMS’ Dutchgirls place fourth as a team were Hannah McQueen (38th, 12:51.7), Avalon Breese (46th, 13:09.9), Aisha Santos (50th, 13:48.9), Allyson Smith (66th, 17:09.8) and Shaylia Ringeisen (67th, 17:42.3).

After running yesterday (Tuesday) at Loutre Shore Country Club in the Hermann Invitational Cross Country meet, Candrl’s Dutchmen and Dutchgirls will compete on their home course in the Owensville Cross Country Invitational held throughout the Gasconade County R-2 Campus on Tuesday, Oct. 13 with racing beginning at 4 p.m.