Okawville Cross Country Continues Season

The boys and girls cross country teams continued their season this past week as they competed in Murphysboro and in New Athens.

On August 30, Okawville traveled to Murphysboro for the Murphysboro Invitational. The boys finished ninth out of 19 teams, while the girls team did not have a team due to some girls playing volleyball.

In the boys race, there was 124 kids running the race. The top finisher for the Rockets was Tyler Roesener in 27th place with a time of 18:18. Lucas Frederking was the next finisher across the line for Okawville as he finished in 46th place with a time of 19:05. Kaleb Bowers was next across the line as he finished in 49th place. Russell Rodely finished in 54th place followed by Payton Riechmann in 56th place. Caleb Unverfehrt finished with a time of 20:21 in 74th place and Daniel Jansen rounded out the varsity runners in 82nd place with a time of 20:48.

Running the JV race for the Rockets was Ethan Bening, Kole Jackson, Nathan Lintker, Allen Mueth, Drew Riechmann, and Nick Rulevish.

There were 103 girls ran in the varsity race. Only two Okawville runners ran, both who finished in the top ten. Madelyn Tepe finished fourth overall with a time of 20:56, and Abby Riechmann finished ninth with a time of 21:39.

Megan Cook and Sevanah Hackstadt ran the JV race for the Lady Rockets.

Okawville cross country then traveled to New Athens for a four team meet on September 1. Both the boys and girls teams for Okawville finished second. There were 41 boys and 24 girls in each race.

Tyler Roesener, ran a personal best of 17:55 and won the boys race, one of three Rockets in the top ten. Russell Rodely finished in eighth place with a time of 19:16, followed by Lucas Frederking in 10th place with a time of 19:30. Payton Riechmann was right behind Frederking in 11th place, while Caleb Unverfehrt rounded out the top five runners for Okawville in 14th place. Daniel Jansen finished 18th place, while Nick Rulevish finished in 24th. Three Okawville runners finished back-to-back-to-back as Drew Riechmann finished 30, Allen Mueth finished 31, and Nathan Lintker finished 34th.

On the girls side, Okawville made it a clean sweep as Tepe took home the victory in the girls race with a time of 20:28. Abby Riechmann finished second overall with a time of 21:44, and Megan Cook finished fourth with a time of 22:25 as the third Lady Rocket in the top five. Madison Hackstadt finished in 11th with a time of 24:48, followed by Megan Schleifer in 14th place. Sevanah Hackstadt rounded out the Okawville runners with a 17th place finish.Madelyn Tepe runs during the Murphysboro Invitational on August 30.