Railers sweep Cross Country Meet on Senior Night at Kickapoo Creek Park

[October 01, 2020] 

The LCHS Railers Girls and Boys Cross Country Teams each finished first Tuesday night over Riverton and Franklin at Kickapoo Creek Park.

Freshman Becca Heitzig finished in first place for the girls with a time of 18:20. This was Heitzig's best time of the season so far. "It was a great day," said Heitzig. "I love to run in this weather. It was perfect," she added, alluding to the cooler temperature at 4:30 p.m.

From left to right: Becca Heitzig, Reese McCuan, Hattie Mourning, Caroline Ahrends, Abby Stiefvater and Jazlyn Franz.

Junior Reese McCuan finished in second place for Lincoln with a time of 20:37. Hattie Mourning finished in fourth place overall with a time of 21:58. Caroline Ahrends finished in sixth place with a time of 23:08. Abby Stiefvater finished in ninth place with a time of 25:02. Jazlyn Franz finished in twelfth place with a time of 29:08. Congratulations to the girls team on their win.

Isaac Crumrine of Riverton finished in first place for the boys with a time of 16:23. Sophomore Brenden Heitzig of Lincoln was a close second with a time of 16:28. Garrett Slack finished in fifth place with a time of 17:08. Jalen Franz finished in sixth place with a time of 17:14. Drake Rutledge finished in eighth place with a time of 17:26. Jake Bivin rounded out the top ten with a running time of 17:33 for Lincoln.

Congratulations to the boys team on their win.

Click on the link for the complete times of all the runners. [Lincoln XC 9-29 results here.]

Second year coach Andrew Hite was really happy with the wins Tuesday and proud of his team for honoring the four seniors, Jalen Franz, Jayson Butler, Abby Stiefvater and Caroline Ahrends.

"It was amazing to see the younger students make such an effort to honor our four seniors," said Hite. "They didn't need any prompting from me to decorate, make posters, and provide gift bags to the athletes who are running their last year with LCHS. I'm so proud of them. These seniors have meant so much to the team. They truly are leaders, and hopefully their example will extend to this year's juniors to fill the role next year."

Hite also made mention of the cooler temperatures that made running more pleasant at Kickapoo Creek Park. "The temperature had dropped compared to Thursday last week, but the athletes thrived in it. All but three of our runners ended up with their season best. Once again, we had five boys finish in under 18 minutes. One of those had been over 18 minutes last time. One of our sub 18:00 finishers from Thursday was injured and could not run last night, so we could have had 6 under 18 minutes otherwise."

It was a very successful day for the Railers no doubt. "The Railer boys finished with five runners in the top ten, and the girls had four in the top six," said Hite.

"These athletes seem to really like this course, and the weather last night allowed most of them to put up their best times of the season," Hite added. "We do have one more home meet scheduled for October 15th against Beardstown, so hopefully this won't be our last meet at home this year."

The Railers also travel to Manito tonight for a meet and the teams will compete at Olympia Saturday morning, with the girls race set to go for 10 a.m. The boys will follow.

It was also just announced recently that there will be an IHSA Sectional Meet for Cross Country. The date for sectionals is scheduled for October 31, 2020. The time and place is yet to be announced.

[Teena Lowery]