This Saturday the Okawville cross country team competed at the Mascoutah XC Kickoff. The girls’ team placed ninth out of eleven, and the boys’ team placed eleventh out of nineteen. Caroline Tepe is starting strong, placing third overall. Ryker Obermeier placed the highest out of the boys, 24th out of 197. Cross Country meets are 3.1 miles long. The girl’s fastest runner, Caroline Tepe, has an average of 19:30 minutes. The boy’s fastest runner, Ryker Obermeier, runs an average of 18 minutes.
When asked what the runner’s goals were, the majority said they hoped to beat their last year’s times. The team has been working hard to achieve their goals. They were challenged to run 100 miles in the summer, sometimes leading to multiple runs a day. Even with all that practice, the team always eats Skittles or Smarties for good luck.
This Wednesday, the cross country team ran in the Murphysboro Invitational meet. The boys placed eleventh out of thirteen. The girls team ran very well, placing fourth out of eleven. The Rockets were running hard this meet; this was an entirely new course that wasn’t easy. The fastest runners were Caroline Tepe for the girls and Ryker Obermeier for the boys. Caroline ran 19:39 placing her third in the girls’ race. Ryker Obermeier also had a good running time with 17:42 putting him in the third spot for the boys.
