Pekin gets wins, Fairfield 2nd

KNOXVILLE - KNOXVILLE - The Pekin cross-country program started the season in style Monday with team wins in both the boys and girls races at the Knoxville Early Bird Invitational.

The Fairfield boys and girls teams both finished in second place behind the Panthers.

Pekin's Lauren Dersheid, a junior, won the individual girls race with a time of 22 minutes, 38 seconds. Freshman teammate Lauren Steigleder was second at 23:01 and junior Sarah Eubanks was third at 23:49.

'Our girls competed hard,” Pekin head coach Davis eidahl said. 'Times are not important at this point. It is more on how you run your race. The hard work the girls put in this summer paid off. We have good depth and that pushes everyone in practice.”

Alex Forrest, a senior at Fairfield, cruised to victory in the boys individual race in 17:48 while Pekin senior Brady Millikin was second, 12 seconds behind him.

The boys team race was very close with Pekin edging Fairfield by a point, 42-43. Knoxville was a close third with 45 and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont was fourth at 98. Pleasantville did not have enough for a team score.

Pekin ran away with the girls race with the top three individual finishes, scoring 19 to Fairfield's 63. Knoxville was third at 73 and Pleasantville fourth at 99 while EBF had 119.

Freshman Malena Bloomquist led Fairfield's girls with a fourth-place finish in 24:20 and senior Kelsey Pacha was fifth in 25 minutes flat. Makenzie Kraemer, a sophomore, placed 16th in 27:05. Freshmen Carley Seeley was 17th at 28:01 and Claire Epperson 23rd in 29:43.

For the Fairfield boys, junior Kaidyn Mickels was eighth in 20:24 and senior Blake Holden was 11th at 20:47. Brecken Courtright, Gavin Van Veen and Jacob Bland finished 15th, 16th and 17th, respectively.

Placing sixth through eighth for Pekin's girls were freshman Audrey Fariss (25:10), sophomore Lilly Reneker (25:16) and sophomore Sabrina Reneker (25:19). Junior Mia Clark was 10th in 25:32.

Pekin's boys had Zach Wise, a junior, finish fifth in 19:52. Pekin freshmen Isaac Gentry placed seventh in 20:11, Jaedon Wolver 13th in 20:59 and Ben Guise 23rd at 22:38.

'We have four freshmen boys and it takes boys a little longer to learn about running cross country,” Eidahl said. 'It was a good learning experience. By mid-year, they are going to be a good solid team.”