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Photo by Theo Tate

The Alton boys’ cross country team talks strategy before the Class 3A Edwardsville Sectional on Oct. 29 at SIUE. The Redbirds finished 15th with 364 points and saw their season come to a close.

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Photo by Theo Tate

Alton sophomore Kellie Mans approaches the finish line in the girls’ race of the Class 3A Edwardsville Sectional on Oct. 29 at SIUE. Mans and the Redbirds placed 17th and failed to advance to the 3A state meet.

 

 

The Alton boys’ and girls’ cross country teams will not make a trip to Peoria this year.

The Redbirds’ season ended on Oct. 29 after the boys placed 15th with 364 points and the girls finished 17th with 511 points in the Class 3A Edwardsville Sectional at SIUE. The top five teams in sectionals advanced to the state meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria on Saturday.

“It’s a little sad,” Alton senior Evan Rathgeb said.

Even though they’re not going to state, the Alton boys’ and girls’ teams finished with strong seasons. The boys won the Alton Invitational and placed third in the Southwestern Conference meet and the Class 3A Quincy Regional. The girls had fourth-place finishes at the Belleville West and Alton meets, finished sixth in the conference meet and fifth in regionals.

“Both teams did great,” Alton coach Vernon Curvey said. “They peaked at the right time.”

Five seniors — Rathgeb, Arie Macias, Sam Gentelin, Tayton Kuebli and Abbi Day — ran their final cross country race on Saturday. Rathgeb, Macias, Gentelin competed at sectionals for the third time and Kuebli and Day made their second sectional appearances.

“I’m kind of sad about it because it’s my last race ever,” Kuebli said.

Last fall, the Redbirds came up five points short of a sectional berth as they placed seventh in the Edwardsville Regional. Alton had four sectional qualifiers, including Macias and Gentelin.

Last week, AHS finished behind Edwardsville and O’Fallon to earn its first trip to sectionals as a team since 2011.

Curvey said he was disappointed the boys’ team is not going to Peoria. The last time an Alton boys’ cross country team qualified for state as a team was in 1980.

“We were hoping to get the boys through to the next level, but we didn’t quite make it,” he said.

Rathgeb was the Redbirds’ top finisher at sectionals, placing 40th with a time of 17 minutes, 10 seconds. He also was Alton’s No. 1 runner in the Granite City, Edwardsville and Alton meets this season.

Macias was Alton’s top finisher in the Southwestern Conference, Class 3A Quincy Regional and Peoria Invitational.

Junior Kelvin Cummings was the Redbirds’ No. 1 runner in the Madison County and Belleville West meets.

“The top three boys alternated being No. 1 all year,” Curvey said. “Arie was No. 1 four times, Evan was No. 1 for the fourth time (at sectionals) and Kelvin was the No. 1 twice. That’s what you want for a group.”

Freshman Cassius Havis and sophomores Zak Wilson and Ben Lewis round out the team.

Rathgeb said he was pleased with the way his team performed this season.

“It’s great to have a bunch of guys out here who are passionate about running,” he said. “We won our home meet, which was a pretty big deal, came in third in conference and third in regionals. It was huge to have all of the successes this season, even if it didn’t culminate in a trip to the state meet.”

Curvey said Rathgeb, Macias and Gentelin will be missed next year.

“It’s one of the more fun and best groups overall from top to bottom that I’ve been with,” the Alton coach said. “They’re going to be impossible to replace.”

Last year, Kuebli was the lone sectional qualifier for the Alton girls. She said she was thrilled she got to compete in sectionals with the whole team this year.

“It’s better than last year,” Kuebli said. “Last year, I went alone, so I was a little lonely.”

Kuebli, Day, freshmen Jessie Markel and Emma Voumard and sophomores Morgan Rauscher and Kellie Mans made up the Alton girls’ squad. Kuebli said she has high hopes for her team for next year.

“They’re definitely going to go far, especially with how they’ve been doing this year,” the AHS senior said. “They’ve done a lot better than I have, and it’s only their first year. So if they continue training this summer and winter, they’re going to go farther next year.”

A week ago, the Redbirds edged Collinsville by two points in the Class 3A Quincy Regional to qualify for sectionals as a team for the first time since 2013.

“The girls were set to peak at regionals and that worked out,” Curvey said. “The girls are young. We added a few youngsters and the girls will be a lot better next year.”

Markel was the Redbirds’ top finisher at sectionals, finishing 86th with a 22:38. She was the only Alton runner to finish in the top 100.

The freshman was also the top finisher for Alton in the Southwestern Conference and the Belleville West meets. Voumard was the Redbirds’ No. 1 runner in the Class 3A Quincy Regional, Edwardsville Invitational, Peoria Invitational and the Madison County meet.

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ALTON — The Alton Redbirds and Marquette Catholic Explorers both had reason to celebrate Wednesday at Gordon Moore Park.

The Redbirds nabbed the team title in the boys' race of the Alton Invitational, while Marquette freshman Riley Vickrey was the champion of the girls' race.

“It's a really good confidence booster for them,” Alton head coach Vernon Curvey said of the boys' championship. “All the hard work finally shows and it pays off for us. They needed that.

“I think there's still some room for improvement. I think we've got a chance to step up a little bit further. I hope to at least get third in conference and push on to be in the top three or four at regionals and then cross your fingers for sectionals.”

As for Vickrey, it was the first varsity win of her young prep career. It was a big boost for her confidence moving forward.

“It feels amazing,” Vickrey said. “I came out here hoping to place in the top 15, but definitely not first. I'm happy to win in Alton, just to show the Marquette team can really push.

“This gives me lots of confidence. It shows me that I can really push and achieve my goals.”

Vickrey turned in a team of 22 minutes, 6 seconds, which was 40 seconds faster than runner-up LeaAnn Johnson of Staunton (22:46).

Explorers' head coach Mike Brooks raved about Vickrey's performance and the potential she has for success in front of her.

“Going in I knew she was going to finish towards the top,” Brooks said. “I was thinking at least top 10, but we haven't run against some of the bigger schools, so I really didn't know exactly what to expect in terms of place. We had a talk before the race and we wanted to feel comfortable in that first mile, mile and a half and then pick it up. At this course that's somewhere around the tennis courts and she was in second or third place when she got to the tennis courts. When she came around she was in the lead. She just kept working on that lead throughout the race.

“She's a smarter runner than most freshmen. She knows how to pace, she knows her body. She's a kid that makes the coach look good.”

The boys' race was won by Jersey's Ben Flowers. He turned in a time of 16:16. Granite City's talented brother duo of Andrew and Will O'Keefe finished second and fourth.

Andrew was second (16:32), while McCluer North's Clinton Heffner finished third (16:33) and Will was fourth (17:07). Andrew had to make a big kick at the end to hold off Heffner at the finish line.

A senior, Will is coming back from an ankle injury and trying to find his consistency again.

“I didn't know what to expect from this because I was injured for two weeks,” Will said. “This was my first week back and I was just weak, like mentally weak in this race.

“I rolled my ankle really hard and I strained my left foot, a tendon and a ligament. They're still a little puffy but I'm able to train on them without any pain.”

Andrew admitted the goal was to pace Flowers and see what happened.

“My plan today was for Will and I to run together and try and go behind Ben Flowers,” Andrew said. “(Heffner) who got third, I didn't know him.

“I feel confident right now about training.”

Alton's Evan Rathgeb followed Will, coming in fifth with a time of 17:25. He led a tight contingency of AHS runners. Kelvin Cummings was sixth (17:49), Arie Macias took ninth (18:08), Cassius Havis nabbed 13th (18:39) and Sam Gentelin was 15th (18:54) to round out the scoring for the Redbirds' championship.

“Our top five got medals, so that's huge,” Rathgeb said. “Our main goal was we really wanted to win as a team. We talked about it all week and it was really good to see it come together.”

The Warriors were able to follow the Birds in the team standings for the boys' race, taking second with 57 points. Alton had 48 points in its win.

Rounding out the GCHS scoring behind the O'Keefe brothers were: Leo Nickonowicz in 14th (18:48), Kariem Ali in 17th (19:04) and Aiden Sampson in 20th (19:27).

The rest of the boys' team standings were: Jersey (63), Collinsville (118), Civic Memorial (134), McCluer North (143), Centralia (168), Cahokia (186) and Staunton (277).

CM was led by Cohl Callies, who finished in eighth place with a time of 18:01. He was joined in the team scoring by: Parker Borth (19:39), Mark Eldridge (19:56), Nick Duley (20:38) and Drake Stephenson (20:52).

“We were missing one of our top two guys (Sam Hurst) and that kind of hurt us in the team score,” Eagles' first-year coach Jake Peal said. “I was really happy with the way Cohl Callies ran. He managed the first mile and made a hard move miles two and three and caught a lot o