Knoyle Wins Southwestern Conference Girls Cross Country Meet As Tigers Finish Second in Team Standings

ALTON - Edwardsville girls cross country freshman Riley Knoyle has turned many a head in her breakout freshman season with the Tigers. On Thursday afternoon, Knoyle added another crown as she won the Southwestern Conference meet at Alton's Gordon Moore Park.

Knoyle crossed the finish line first with a time of 18:07.42 as the Tigers finished second to O'Fallon in the team standings. The Panthers took second through fifth places in the race, along with placing another runner in the top ten, in scoring 24 points to win the championship. Edwardsville had 40 points to come in second, with Belleville East third at 75 points, Belleville West was fourth with 127 points, Collinsville came in fifth with a score of 134 points, and East St. Louis was sixth with 141 points. Alton did not have a team score.

The Tigers ran their best race of the season, and before the race, did something a bit unusual.

"I felt that the girls had their best race of the season," said Edwardsville head coach George Patrylak. "Before the race, I made them give their watches to coach (Maggie) Dust. The girls had been too dependent on looking at their splits rather than being competitive, and we wanted them to focus on competing throughout the race."

And the field was missing a bit of luster, as two of the conference's top runners, Edwardsville's Abby Korak and O'Fallon's Peyton Schieppe, the winner of the Granite City Invitational Sept. 7, sat out the race. Korak, in fact, hasn't raced this year because of a leg injury and is most likely done for the season.

With both Korak and Schieppe out, Knoyle was able to win by 40 seconds.

"And she looked fantastic from start to finish," Patrylak said.

And Knoyle's teammates did just as well.

"Overall, they ran well," Patrylak said. "Makenna (Lueking) finished seventh, and gained all-conference honors, Madison Strotheide probably had her best race of the season, and she was within seconds of her Peoria (Invitational) time. Jillian Welsh and Anna Singh were our other scorers, and both of them have been battling ailments throughout the season, and both of them looked strong today."

Knoyle won the race, with O'Fallon's Julia Monson coming in second with a time of 18:47.70. Monson's teammates - Emma Jordan, Sofia Parker and Kaitlyn Walker - were third through fifth, with their respective times being 18:59.76, 19:10.37 and 19:20.94. Sixth place went to the Lancers' Olivia Murnane at 19:23.83, with Lueking placing seventh at 19:25.48, Gabby Griggs of East coming in eighth with a time of 19:47.72, Edwardsville's Madison Strotheide was ninth at 20:01.88, and rounding out the top ten was O'Fallon's Maddy Vorce, who came in at 20:02.27.

Edwardsville's Jillian Welsh and Anna Singh were 12th and 13th respectively, with times of 20:17.29 and 20:17.33, with Kaitlyn Loyet having a time of 21:17.38, and Arabella Ford came in at 21:36.61.

Collinsville's leading runner was Jordan Gary, with a time of 20:46.57, followed by McKenna Laing at 22:33.21, Kassidy Rea, with a time of 23:10.71, Payten Geppert at 23:24.54, and Yesinia Torres had a time of 24:35.65.

Alton only had four runners in the race, not enough to qualify for a team score, but did well, with the Redbirds led by Jessica Markel, who finished 11th with a time of 20:16.05, with Sophia Paschal having a time of 21:05.79, Alayna Rabozzi came in at 21:11.42, and Eva Schwaab had a time of 22:49.58.

Patrylak was happy with the Tigers' finish on the Gordon Moore course, which is one of the better courses in the area.

"I'm happy with our second-place finish," Patrylak said. "It's an honest course, and there were some very good hills out there."

And Patrylak is optimistic about the upcoming postseason for the team. and also feels that the Tigers are on the upswing, and looks ahead to the challenges coming up.

"It could be a challenge for us since we're going to have to shut Abby down for the season," Patrylak said. "But I think today was a really definite step in the right direction."

Colin Feeney also contributed to this story.

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Colin Feeney also contributed to this story

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