Thursday, Oct. 09, 2008

O'Fallon Panthers pull off cross country sweep at St. Clair championship

Boys and girls teams collect county titles

EAST ST. LOUIS -- The O'Fallon Panthers were picture perfect Wednesday as they ran to an easy win in the boys division of the St. Clair Country Cross Country Championship.

Led by individual winner Michael Scolarici, O'Fallon claimed the first five places on the flat 3-mile course at Frank Holten State Park to finish with a perfect score of 15. That placed the Panther harriers well ahead of second-place Belleville East (70 points) and third-place Belleville West, which finished with 78.

Scolarici along with second-place Jake Slughter and Connor Ryan, who was third, are all sophomores.

"They are very deserving of a day like this. They are the ones who put in the miles during the summer," O'Fallon coach Jon Burnett said of his sophomore trio. "I was very pleased at how we ran today. We're coming along well.

"Our goal is to peak at the sectional meet in three weeks and hopefully qualify for the state again. The guys are on pace to do that."

Lee Wise and Luke Sanchez, both of O'Fallon, closed out the top five to complete the Panthers' sweep.

The Panthers girls team also was on pace Wednesday, offsetting the brilliance of Freeburg freshman Kristen Busch, to nip the Midgets for the girls title.

Busch defeated East sophomore Maria Effinger by 20 seconds, finishing with a time of 18 minutes and 6 seconds. Twin sister Caitlin Busch placed third in 18:43.

'I was very pleased at how she went out today," Freeburg coach Carl Florczyk said of Busch. "Kristen just keeps on getting better and stronger with each race and I thought Caitlin also went out and ran well. It was a good effort."

Champion O'Fallon was led by a fourth-place finish from Hannah Skavdahl, while three other runners Sarah Johnson (sixth), Kaylee Schmitz (seventh) and Kelsey Von Housen (eighth) also ran well.

O'Fallon finished with 36 points compared to 54 for Freeburg.

"I was very pleased at how we went out and ran today. We went to Wheaton for a meet on Saturday and didn't run well at all and so it was important that we come back and run like we can," O'Fallon coach Neal James said. "We need to run a little better as a pack."

Contact reporter Dean Criddle at 239-2665 or dcriddle@bnd.com.