R-2 harriers keep two team titles, 10 medals at home

By Will Johnson, Sports Editor
Posted 10/20/21

Out of five races last Tuesday in the Owensville Invitational Cross Country meet on the Gasconade County R-2 Campus, two championship plaques and 10 medals stayed with the host orange and black …

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R-2 harriers keep two team titles, 10 medals at home

Posted

Out of five races last Tuesday in the Owensville Invitational Cross Country meet on the Gasconade County R-2 Campus, two championship plaques and 10 medals stayed with the host orange and black squads.

First on the course were the middle school girls.

Seeing five Dutchgirls finish in the top 20, Tyler Ahring’s squad was able to hold off Hermann finishing with 59 team points compared to 64 for the Lady Bearcats.

Hannah Gehlert led the OMS Dutchgirls with a sixth-place time of 14:47.82 which was good for a medal.

Lainey Branson also scored a medal with her top-10 finish placing seventh in a time of 15:02.10.

Also figuring in the team scoring for Owensville were Makenzi Carpenter (15th, 16:14.11), Aubree Carey (18th, 16:30.96) and Ashley Reed (20th, 16:43.39).

Other OMS Dutchgirl harriers competing on their home course included Jenna Breedlove (21st), Cameron Ryerson (42nd), Arianna Robson (45th), Lorelai McDaniel (46th), Loretta Hawkins (50th), Chloe Tune (60th) and Emily Hilburn (61st).

For the OMS Dutchmen, Chris Allen was the lone medalist with a fourth-place time of 12:55.86.

Rolla’s first five runners placed 18th or better to capture the middle school boy’s team title with 29 points ahead of second-place Owensville with 79 points.

Along with Allen, OMS Dutchmen harriers helping the orange and black to a second-place team finish were Corbyn Hamann (13th, 13:30.40), Zach Holtmeyer (23rd, 14:23.84), Braden Perkins (30th, 14:55.54) and Kylen Menz (33rd, 14:59.81).

Also competing on their home course for the OMS Dutchmen were Ty Price (38th), Corbin Brand (43rd), Drake Dietrich (46th), Aidan Fey (47th), Coleton Connor (49th), Westin Kramme (50th), Drew Chapman (51st), Caden Ely (53rd), Brendan Kramme (54th), Maddix Lebish (55th), Bryce Kramme (57th), Jesus Acosta (59th), Henry Wood (62nd), Zayden Garver (65th), Elliott Cooper (66th), Nick Hinson (70th) and Ethan Blankenship (82nd).

Kicking off the high school portion of racing from the R-2 campus was the junior varsity boys.

Beating the field by a minute, JV Dutchmen junior Trevor Shockley won the race in a time of 20:08.21.

JV Dutchmen teammate Tristan Davis placed second in 21:08.71.

“Trevor and Tristan ran great races today to finish first and second leading our JV guys,” OHS head cross country coach Matt Candrl said.

Also helping the JV Dutchmen place second as a team behind Steelville were Andrew Blankenship (21st), Jayden Barnett (22nd) and Sam Hoffman (28th).

“Andrew, Jayden and Sam all ran great races getting into our top five today,” Candrl said.

Other JV Dutchmen on their home course were Trenton Million (33rd), Elias Medlock (36th), Brandon Graham (39th), Jim Jenkins (45th), Kyle Bollman (51st) and Eli Graham (65th).

Varsity racing then commenced with the varsity girls competition.

Edged the previous Tuesday at Hermann by Lady Bearcat sophomore Amelia Uthlaut, Dutchgirl freshman Ilene Limberg bounced back in a big way beating the Hermann harrier by nearly 30 seconds with a race-winning time at Owensville of 20:16.57.

“Ilene had a big bounce back today after coming in second last week at Hermann,” Candrl said. “She gets it in her mind and just goes. She’s very coachable.”

Joining Limberg in the medals for Owensville was senior Kyah Weirich with a 25th-place time of 23:54.23.

“Kyah is looking to close her senior year out strong and helped it with a medal today,” Candrl said.

Other Dutchgirls on their home course included Lauren Kandlbinder (28th), Abbie Gibson (39th), Saylor Richardson (46th), Peyton Weinland (51st), Hayden Loeb (53rd), Katelyn Holtzer (61st), Elaina Lebish (65th), Stephanie Cain (78th) and Cassidy Gooch (79th).

Finishing within nearly 40 seconds of each other, Candrl’s varsity Dutchmen were able to hold off Union for the varsity boy’s team title with 75 points compared to 81 points for the Wildcats.

“Winning the meet was great to see for our guys,” Candrl said. “They just continue to get better with each week.”

Freddy Zheng led OHS with a 12th-place time of 18:45.35 followed closely by teammates Gabe Soest (13th, 18:46.94) and Jacob Breedlove (14th, 18:46.98).

Felix Guerrero (16th), Harm Rademacher (23rd) and Lucas Morgan (30th) finished outside the top 15 and a medal but helped the Dutchmen keep the championship plaque in town.