RSM boys race to seventh place team finish at G-LR

The Remsen St. Mary's boys' cross country team was excited Thursday afternoon as they competed as a full team in the George-Little Rock Invite.

"This was the second meet in a row that we've gotten to compete as a team," RSM coach Craig Hoffman said. "The boys have been having a good time getting all fired up. It's fun to see them compete as a team because they know that every place counts and they have got to make sure they're passing someone or at least maintaining the place they've got."

The Hawks were led once again by Nick Weiler who finished the race in 20:33. The freshman earned 36th place to boost the Hawks to a seventh place team finish at the meet.

Continuing to practice running in a pack, Justin Fejfar, Cameron Schroeder and Kevin Russell finished within eight seconds of each other Thursday afternoon. Fejfar was 46th in 22:02 while Schroeder clocked in 47th with a time of 22:08. Crossing the finish line in 22:10 was Russell who placed 48th.

The final finisher for the Hawks was Simon Pick, who crossed 51st in 22:40.

"One of the goals we kind of set in the last week or so is to make sure that the boys are where they need to be in the race," Hoffman said. "They know at certain points of the race if they need to be running closer together. It's nice to see those kids really battling now that they know what to do. They do a nice job of sticking together as a group."

Hoffman also added that he has enjoyed the friendly rivalry he's seen between the teammates on his squad. "It's kind of nice to see a little bit of that intrasquad competition," Hoffman said. "Now they're starting to push each other a little bit and it's fun to see."

On the girls' side of things, Stacie Ahlers broke the 20-minute mark by over 40 seconds with her time of 19:17. The junior finished 37th in the race.

Paige Ruba completed the course in 22:50 to finish 50th overall.

"The girls were hoping for a little bit better improvement," Hoffman said. "They were kind of wanting to get out and they were looking for a little better showing than what they had the last time [at Kingsley-Pierson on Tuesday]. They felt that maybe Tuesday wasn't the best race they've ever run before, so they wanted to get out and have something to prove."

"As far as time goes, the girls ran a pretty decent race," Hoffman continued. "I was happy with the improvement. They were definitely up against stiffer competition with George-Little Rock and Sioux Center, so all things considered, the girls still think we ran better at this race."

Up next for the Hawks is the War Eagle Conference meet, which is scheduled for this afternoon in Marcus.

"The girls are pretty fired up about that and ready to go," Hoffman said. "Their goal is they want to see improvement at every meet, especially with districts coming up."

As far as familiarity with the course in Marcus, Hoffman guessed that it's been a couple years since St. Mary's has run this particular course. "It's a fairly flat course and it should be pretty fast," Hoffman said. "The kids are looking forward to the competition. It's a fairly new course that we don't see every year, but I'm hoping it will give us some pretty good times."

The conference race is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon in Marcus.