Flowers, Romano, Prenzler, Tiger team shine in weekend cross country meet
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EDWARDSVILLE – Franky Romano and Roland Prenzler continued to lead the pack of Edwardsville runners last weekend in the Edwardsville Invitational, while Jersey’s Ben Flowers continued his dominance of the trail once again.
A third-place finish by Franky Romano and a sixth from Roland Prenzler helped Edwardsville to a first-place finish in the boys’ varsity competition of EHS' own Tiger Invitational at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's cross-country course Saturday morning.
The Tigers won the boys varsity meet with 51 points, followed by Hillsboro (100), Mascoutah (174), Alton (189) and Champaign Central (198) rounding out the top five teams. Among other area teams, Civic Memorial took 12th (345), Roxana was 14th (354), Jersey 18th (459), Metro East Lutheran-Madison 21st (576) and Father McGivney Catholic 23rd (624).
Jersey's Ben Flowers won the 5K boys race in 16:24.99. Romano was third in 16:47.10 and Prenzler was sixth in 16:59.53; Evan Rathgeb of Alton was seventh in 17:00.13 to round out the top ten runners.
Jersey coach Harold Landon was pleased with Flowers’ effort again as he dominated the field. In the beginning, an East St. Louis runner darted out quickly for the first mile, but Flowers remained with him and eventually passed him on one of the hills of the course.
Jack Pifer (13th in 17:20.20), Dan Powell (14th in 17:22.34) and Max Hartmann (15th in 17:24.68) rounded out the Tigers' top five runners. Javon Watkins of MEL-Madison was 17th in 17:41.79 and Arie Macias of Alton was 20th in 17:46.42.
Edwardsville coach George Patrylak said he saw positive things from both his boys and girls in Saturday’s meet.
“To run in the mud and in tough conditions will hopefully give our boys a little bit of experience for later in the season,” he said. “Franky got out well in the first mile and he let the race slip away a little but came back. He shot himself back up to third. He ran a much more complete race and didn’t give up.”
Roland Prenzler, Max Hartmann and Dan Powell all drew praise from Coach Patrylak for their performances.
“Holden Potter also had a tremendous race on Saturday,” Patrylak said. “It is nice to see his hard work paying off.”
Alton's scoring runners included Kelvin Cummings (34th in 18:25.78), Cassius Havis (62nd in 19:10.67) and Sam Gentelin (69th in 19:13.17). Among other leading runners, CM's Sam Hurst was 30th in (18:14.68); James Henseler of Roxana was 55th in 19:03.57; Andrew Bryden of Jersey was 75th in 19:22.65; Darion Brooks of MEL-Madison was 144th in 20:56.50; and Zachary Brasel of McGivney Catholic was 20:56.59.
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