The St. Aloysius boys cross country team got a nice bounce heading into next week’s MAIS State Championship Meet by posting a third-place finish at the Cathedral Invitational Monday in Natchez.

Seven of St. Al’s boys’ runners, as well as all four of its girls runners, set personal bests. Chandler Roesch led the way for the boys by placing 10th overall with a time of 18 minutes, 24.31 seconds in the 5-kilometer race.
Gregory Thomas was 21st overall, with a time of 18:58.29. Charlie Gannon was 24th in 19:03.51, and Adam Eckstein (36th place) and Brayden Roesch (48th place) rounded out the team’s scoring.

For the girls, Rachel Garmon finished 11th overall with a time of 22:17.95, and Iley Baldwin was right behind in 12th place at 22:32.11. Dede Apenyo finished 15th, and Anna Ware Brown was 41st. St. Al only had four varsity runners in the meet, which was not enough to qualify for the team standings.

In the 2-mile junior varsity races, Linley Miles finished 18th for St. Al’s girls and Hannah Lee was 12th for Porter’s Chapel Academy.

PCA’s Bridger Jung finished second in the JV boys race, with a time of 12:50.2, while Hampton Derivaux (24th place) was St. Al’s top finisher.

The MAIS state meet is Tuesday at Choctaw Trails in Clinton.