Both cross-country teams recently competed at the 51st Granite City Invitational at Wilson Park with both teams finishing second in their respective races.
The Granite City Invitational is one of the largest meets in the Southern Illinois area with over 30 teams coming to compete.
The girls’ team started the meet strong for the Tigers with sisters Madison and Morgan Popelar running the two fastest times for Edwardsville with 18:08 and 18:16 minute races respectively.
The boys team did just as well with two top 10 placers running sub-15 minute races, junior Gavin Rodgers and senior Hugh Davis both running personal best times to get the Tigers a combined 13 points.
Rodgers, who ran 14:35 minutes for three miles to beat his previous time of 15:28 by close to a minute.
“Going into the race I was terrified,” Rodgers said. “I didn’t think I would do what I did at all.”
Before the meet, Davis recounts stretching with his teammates, warming up with a one-mile paced jog and hanging out on the course. Along with this, Davis feels the most important part to do as a teammate is to help get other runners good to go mentally.
“Trying not to over analyze the race and get into a team mindset really helps during big meets like this,” Davis said.
One thing that separates Illinois cross-country meets from the rest of the nation is the distance that the athletes run.
“Illinois is one of the only states that has runners go compete for three miles instead of the typical [5 kilometer] race,” Davis said
While 3 miles and 5km may convert to be close in distance, cross country is a competition which displays the athlete’s ability to endure, making a slight change in distance huge.
After this meet, both Davis and Rodgers feel like both teams will have big seasons.
“Whether that be top 5 at the state meet, we did insanely well if you compare this meet to our sectional meet last year, which is only two points off which is really good,” Davis said.
“Bringing some of the other guys with me (in placement) really will be huge for our team in the long run.” Rodgers said.
The Tigers next meet will be Sept. 14 in Peoria, Illinois.