ST. LOUIS – Priory took advantage of every opportunity at the Class 3 District 2 meet Saturday to capture the title on the Parkway Central course with 57 points.
MICDS held on for second place (74 points) and the last state qualifying spot despite a minor ankle injury to the Rams’ Josh Zoeller, who went down near the finish line and finished 26th.
Priory senior Andrew O’Sullivan said he used his teammates to pull him through a difficult stretch of the race before surging ahead to lead the Rebels with a fifth-place finish (17:48).
“I was actually having a sort of bad race in the middle of the woods, and our No. 2 and No. 3 runners were able to catch up to me,” O’Sullivan said. “They were actually able to push me, and at the finish I was able to pass them up. But we do try to push each other.”
Jake Drysdale (ninth, 17:50) and Thomas Lowell (10th,17:50) stayed connected to keep the low points rolling in for Priory, which last qualified for state in 2009.
“You get to this point in the season where you’re a little bit run down, you’re just reaching down and relying on muscle memory,” Priory assistant coach Mike Rebello said. “They weren’t going to be denied; it’s that simple.
“We’re probably not even going to think about (state) until the middle of next week as far as what we want to accomplish when we get there. Obviously we just want to be there, and there we are.”
John Burroughs junior Robert Wunderlich held himself back early before pushing to the front of the pack and slowly pulling away over the second half of the race for the district victory in 16:53. It was MICDS’ Peter Condie that held Wunderlich’s attention throughout the race. The familiar foe presented a challenge to Wunderlich’s race approach.
“My one rival from MICDS, Peter, I’ve been trying to catch him for a long time,” Wunderlich said. “What would happen is I’d go out to fast and he’d catch me. So I changed up and tried to go with him more and then pull ahead after the first mile. That’s what our coach has been telling us to do – not burn out in the middle of the race.
“I beat him two other times, but he got me in between. It’s a gradual learning process learning how to beat him.”
Condie, a senior, held on for second in 17:30.