Titan Teams Take Two Trophies at Opener
EPG Boys edge Peoria St. Jude on tiebreaker
[AUGUST 19, 2025] – Peoria St. Jude hosted an 18-school cross country relay meet at Donovan Park under a warm August sun. The 2025 version of the Hokum Karem race matched the record number of entrants from 2024 to the runner, with 356 athletes competing. Each runner partnered with a teammate as they alternated running 800m loops through the rolling grass trails until the duo had completed a total of 6 loops. The Titans lined up in Box 5, the siren blared, and the Girls Race was underway.
EPG’s Holly Nowark (9.26) opened with a 2.57, passing the baton to teammate Emersyn Harms (9.06) in 4th place. Harms cruised a 2.56 on her opening loop to move up a spot. Nowark’s 3.16 and 3.11 combined with Harms’ 3.10 and 2.59 had the duo climbing up another spot in the standings as the two top Titans placed second of 81 pairs in the Girls Race.
Hattie Meiss (10.17) and Harper Hall (10.30) placed 10th overall, with Molly Wiegand (12.13) and Ryen Glacinski (10.56) closing out the scoring for the Titans with their 31st place finish. Pacey Wherry (12.16) and Lainey Swanson (13.00) placed 46th.
Harms bested Audrey Roth’s (2024) all-time EPG course record of 9:06.7 by 4/10 of a second as she clocked a 9:06.3, while Nowark and Harms combined to take down the all-time pairs mark set by Verity Nowark and Adalyn Solomonson (2023) by a full 60 seconds. Nowark and Harms teamed up for a total time of 18.32 – 3:05.3 per 800m loop.
St. Patrick (28) earned an 11-point team victory, but from 2nd place to 9th place no two teams were separated by more than 5 points. Team scores through 5th were EPG (39), Monmouth (44), St. Jude (46), Elmwood (47).
The 83-degree temperature was holding steady as the Boys Race got off to a hot start, with the St. Jude Fire blazing through the first handoff in 2nd, 5th, and 6th place. The Titan teams handed off after the first 800m loop in 7th, 9th, and 32nd. But the heat would shift dramatically over the next 5 loops.
EPG’s Roman Hinthorne (8.45) and Braylen Hodel (8.34) moved up 5 spots and then Hodel kicked into another gear as he passed a Limestone runner just before entering the finishing chute on his way to chasing down Corpus Christi’s Owen Mucci in a sensational sprint to the finish. Hodel clocked the fastest #6 split of anyone in the race. As he edged Mucci by twelve hundredths of a second the duo of Hinthorne and Hodel secured 2nd overall out of 97 pairs.
Drew Kingdon (8.52) and Carter Buckley (8.58) ran 6 consistent splits to claim some Top 6 hardware, placing 5th overall, each averaging sub-3 on the challenging Donovan course.
Moving from 32nd place after the first leg into 14th place at the finish line were two Titan 6th graders running in their first cross country race ever – Elliott Nowark (9.44) and Hart Zeller (9.07).
Logan Feit (10.12) and Andrew Quam (9.32) placed 24th, Maddox York (10.23) and Dexter White (10.12) placed 38th, Joey Borek (11.05) and Mason Hall (11.14) placed 61st, and Peyton McKinsey (11.59) paired up with Elmwood runner Holden Steffes (13.55) to place 83rd.
The Top 3 pairs determine team scores at this event. After the first 800m loop, Peoria St. Jude was in front of EPGMS 13-48. But as Zeller crossed the finish line as EPG’s third and final scoring pair, the Fire had placed 1-9-11 for 21 points and the Titans had notched places 2-5-14 for 21 points, both teams tied for first 21 points ahead of third-place Princeville (42).
The championship would be decided by which team’s fourth pair had finished higher in the standings. Feit and Quam’s 24th-place 19.43 was 12 seconds faster (2 seconds per loop) than St. Jude’s fourth pair who the Titans passed during Quam’s #6 leg.
It was an exciting and dramatic opening meet for EPGMS Cross Country. Next up for Titan XC is an 8-team meet at Eureka Lake on August 25.
