Trojans finish 2nd at own XC invite

Charleston finished in second place at their own Invite with 74 points and had four runners finish in the top four.

Mahomet-Seymour won the Invite with 46 points.

Senior Austin Ames led the way and finished in third place with a time of 16:15.39. Ames wasn’t satisfied with his performance, since Danville’s Michael Moreman passed him late in the race, but he was still happy with how the day went considering he was a bit under the weather.

“I would’ve liked to go faster but coach said to go soft on the first mile and see how you feel. It was pretty easy. The Danville runner passed me at the end last year, too. I got fourth last year and third this year,” Ames said. “Overall it was a good race. Next Saturday will be a lot faster because it’s at Peoria with a lot of competition. I’ve been dealing with a head cold. Other than that it’s been alright.”

Charleston coach Greg Rogers said Ames has done a good job of leading the group.

“He’s been working really hard, and we had a couple of good workouts this week. He’s going to progress throughout the season,” Rogers said. “Today was really just a good first test for him. We are more worried about getting a good workout in today, and he will be able to push himself more with some of the front guys next Saturday. We are really excited for Austin and he’s going places.”

Charleston is at Peoria’s Invitational next Saturday.

Josh Hoh was Charleston’s second runner, and he finished in seventh place in a time a 17:18.11 Maxx Schmitt, who was running in his first high school invite ever, finished in 14th place in 17:51.29. Finn O’Neal was just behind him and finished in 17th place in 17:51.29. Noah Oakley rounded out the scoring by finishing in 32nd in 18:22.57.

“Those guys ran really tough today and I am super proud of them,” Rogers said. “We told them before the race, let’s get out strong and let’s settle in and then throughout the race, work up and pick a few people off. They all responded whenever we were out there and they put in surges to get up with guys.

“Two through five, they all did remarkable and raced excellent and smart today.”

Shelbyville’s top seven runners all finished within a minute of each other. Lucas Brown led the way with a 42nd place finish in 18:59.91, and Will McClain was right behind him in 43rd place in 19:00.95. James Friedman finished in 45th (19:06.79), Will Miller finished in 48th (19:17.01), Phoenix Firnhaber was 53rd (19:32.34), Breyton Beck was 55th (19:42.19) and Zach Hood was 63rd (19:59.70).

Shelbyville finished in seventh place with 216 points.

Shelbyville coach Kevin Kramer thought the team ran well.

“We run in a pack and we have a pretty decent pack. They are young and inexperienced, and for our first meet against this competition, we are happy with where they finished,” Kramer said. “Five of our top seven were all first-year cross country guys in high school. A good first meet. I am really pleased and now we know where to go from here. I am pretty happy about that.”

Mattoon finished in eighth place with 247 points. Green Wave coach Troy Haacke thought he saw improvement out of the team already compared to the season-opening dual against Charleston on Monday.

“I know it was about a minute to two minutes (personal bests) from what we ran on Monday. We even had one boy run a 7-minute PR,” Haacke said. “The boys ran great and have worked really hard. We’ve been trying to get the pack together and they did that. They are pushing each other throughout the race.”

Freshman Sam Ferrar led Mattoon with a time of 18:36.60. John Meyer was 40th in 18:42.87, and Mackinley Beadles was 58th in 19:47.55.

“Sam, I love the kid and he’s been working his tail off in practice. Great attitude. It paid off today. I watched him get out of the gate and put himself in the race and he hung on, which is hard to do as a freshman with the competition here,” Haacke said. “John, being a senior, came on strong there. I am excited for them. They are young but I think there’s a lot of talent there. I think they are going to come along.”

Sullivan finished in 10th place with 273 points. Chase McClure was 34th in 18:32.43, Colin Chappel was 52nd in 19:25.55 and Noah Bates was 54th in 19:38.45.

Charleston is to travel to Peoria Saturday for the Peoria Invite.