Edwardsville boys cross country team captures SWC Meet with 23 points, Alton places sixth

O'FALLON – Edwardsville's boys cross country team had a strong finish on Friday, capturing the Southwestern Conference title at the Milburn Campus of O'Fallon Township High School.

Edwardsville's boys won with 23 points, followed by the host Panthers (51), Granite City (112), Belleville East (118), Collinsville (136), Belleville West (159), Alton (174) and East St. Louis (178).

On the boys' side, Granite City's Andrew O”Keefe emerged as the individual champion with a time of 15:21.09; Edwardsville's Roland Prenzler (15:31.20), Franky Romano (15:33.30), Jack Pifer (15:41.43) and Max Hartmann (15:51.96) swept places 2-5, with Holden Potter taking ninth in 16:16.63; Cassius Havis was the Redbirds' top runner of the day, finishing eighth in 16:16.56, with Kelvin Cummings finishing in the top 20 (taking 16^th in 16:53.95) and EHS' Todd Baxter finishing 19^th in 16:55.91.

Edwardsville head cross country coach George Patrylak said he thought his top five boys ran one of the most complete races they have had.

“The big difference was Franky, Roland and Jack all finally ran their own races and put in the move to open the race off,” he said. “That allowed Max to pick off a couple runners and leave a 2-3-4-5 finish by the guys. The unsung hero was Holden Potter.”

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