Howell Central steals the show
Five finishes in top 25 wins Enke Invite
The Spartans surprised everyone in attendance, including themselves and their coach, with a first-place overall finish Saturday morning at the 2008 Paul Enke Invitational. They finished five runners in the top 25 in a field of 135 participants.
"It wasn't the most fantastic start going up that hill," Spartans coach Michelle Breuer said, "then at that point (two miles) I knew this is the team we've been looking for all summer."Christy Hazel was the top finisher for Howell Central, taking 12th place in 21 minutes, 27.49 seconds. Nicole Becker (14th), Lily Bremer (20th), Erica Grogg (24th) and Anna Ferris (25th) rounded out the team's top five, helping the Spartans beat second-place Jefferson City by a wide margin of 43 points.
Hazel, who said she knocked off 40 seconds from her time at the meet last year, said she targeted her legs during her training routine, which helped her get up and over Sioux Passage's seemingly endless rolling hills. She finished the course about eight seconds ahead of Becker.
"Especially on the team we had pretty good competition today," Hazel said. "We all competed with each other. I guess toward the beginning of the second mile I started to break away from her (Becker). I'm really excited for this season and I hope everything works out well for everybody."
Especially since the team wasn't at full strength, the win exemplified its depth.
"The last week our kids have been sick and we had a couple injuries early on," Breuer said. "We knew they'd do well. I told them to go out there and try to win it."
Breuer said that no one has emerged as the team's No. 1 runner and that the title is a "toss up." She said that Kayla Scott, who missed the race due to illness, is one of the team's strongest runners but her teammates have picked up the slack well in her absence.
"I can count on any of those three," Breuer said of her top three finishers. "Then the other two, Anna and Erica, are just coming along and are getting faster each week."
MSHSAA reassigned Howell Central to the Class 4 District 4 meet this year, which Breuer feels will be easier than District 5, where the Spartans resided last season.
"I think the last couple years we placed so well at districts, then in sectionals we always ended up fifth," Breuer said. "It's kind of an ultimatum. We put pressure on them that they need to run close together and hopefully we'll come through at sectionals."
The race's top finisher from St. Charles County was Fort Zumwalt South's Rikki Watts, who has steadily risen as the county's top large-school cross country runner.
Watts was hot on the trail of Liberty's Megan Yohe through the first mile of the race. Though she was just a few steps behind the lead at that point, Watts fell further behind in the back portion of the course. Yohe pulled away and finished the course in 20 minutes flat, 41 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
"She started really kicking it in up there," Watts said. "I tried to stay with her but couldn't."
Watts finished sixth overall, fending off a pair of Ste. Genevieve runners down the final stretch for a final time of 21:00.50.
"I was kind of ready for it to be over," she said.
It was still a big improvement from last weekend's Forest Park Cross Country Festival, where she finished 58th.
"Last week at Forest Park she didn't feel well and didn't run well at all," Zumwalt South coach Greg Hallam said. "Rikki doesn't have as much foot speed as a lot (of runners) but she leaves more on the course than any runner I have."
Other notable finishes from the girls' race at Sioux Passage were Fort Zumwalt East's Gloria Westlake (19th place, 21:55.90),
Fort Zumwalt North's Ali Slusher (34th, 22:32.52) and Francis Howell North's Dianna Prost (36th, 22:34.64).
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