Fairfield, Pekin cross-country shines at Knoxville Early Birds

KNOXVILLE — The 2022 cross-country season kicked off with a bang on Monday, as Fairfield and Pekin both showed out at Knoxville’s early Bird meet.

The Fairfield boys and Pekin girls both started the year with a win. The Trojan boys won by six points, and the Panther girls won by 10.

On the boys’ side, Fairfield scored 37 points, just nipping second-place Knoxville for the top spot. The Trojans were led by Ben Boatright, who finished the race in 19 minutes, 39.42 seconds.

Nate Konczal scooped up a Top-5 performance for the Trojans, finishing in 20:23.26. Riley Perkins finished right behind him in sixth, and Dayton Mauck finished in seventh.

Gabe Tejada scooped up a 16th-place finish for the Trojans. Clae Cass took 30th, and Preston Stevenson finished 33rd.

Pekin didn’t have enough runners to score on the boys’ side, but Brady McWhirter made a lot of noise individually, finishing second to lead the Panthers. He crossed the tape in 19:30.36. That was over one minute behind Knoxville’s Isaac Rankin, who ran an 18:19.72 in his first-ever high school race.

Ben Guise finished 14th for the Panther boys, crossing in 21:51.76 to give Pekin two runners in the Top-15.

The Fairfield girls got a big performance out of Carley Seeley, who finished one spot below Steigleder, in third. She crossed the tape in 23:27.69.

Pekin’s girls’ team picked up right where they left off last year, scoring 33 points to win the meet. Fairfield scored 43, for second, and the rest of the field was 40 or more points behind that.

Chloe Gosser shined for the Panthers in her first high school race. The freshman won the meet by nearly one-and-a-half minutes, crossing the tape way ahead of the field, at 21:03.62.

Teammate Lauren Steigleder cruised to a second-place finish, crossing in 22:42.02. Brooke Miller took fifth, in 24:01.99.

Audrey Fariss took seventh place, finishing in 24:29.55 to give the Panthers four of the Top-7 runners.

Malena Bloomquist finished sixth for the Trojans, hitting the line in 24:20.11. Caroline Van Belt sneaked in at ninth-place overall. Paige Bisgard took 11th. Bailey Belzer and Makenzie Kraemer finished 14th and 15th respectively, and Alyia Abbott finished 22nd.