By Jim Beers
The Chester High School cross country hosted a home meet Tuesday, September 28 and their 20th annual Chester Invitational Thursday, September 30.  
Both events were held at the Randolph County Lake course.  Chester swept the competition Tuesday as both the girls team and the boys won their respective competitions.  At the Invitational Thursday, the Jackets placed fourth and the Lady Jackets finished eighth.
Five teams competed at the Tuesday meet.  Chester, Marissa-Coulterville, New Athens, Gibault and Okawville competed in the boys meet, while Chester, Chaffee, Okawville, Gibault and Marissa-Coulterville competed in the girls division.
On the boys side, Chester was victorious with 34 points followed by Marissa-Coulterville (42), New Athens (79), Gibault (94) and Okawville (112).  Chester’s Devin Valleroy was the overall winner with a time of 18:06 and Link Cushman was runner-up with his18:35 performance.
Other Chester top-five runners included Kyle Landon who finished eighth overall with a time of 19:50, Jonas Hoffman ninth with a time of 20:15 and Zach Sternberg 14th with a time of 20:50.
The Lady Yellow Jackets also won their division with a score of 46 points followed by Chaffee (55), Okawville (57), Gibault (60) and Marissa-Coulterville (110).
Chester’s leading lady was Jillian Yankey who finished the race with a time of 24:40.  Yankey finished third overall.  Fellow senior, Laura Liefer, finished fifth overall with her 25:14 performance. Junior Emily Reid placed sixth with a time of 25:45.  Taylor Yankey finished ninth with a time of 27:00.
At the 20th annual Chester Invitational, the Chester boys finished fourth out of 12 teams, while the girls finished eighth out of eight teams.
In the 12 team boys event, Waterloo was the winner with 61 points followed by Columbia (70), Metro-East Lutheran (102), Chester (116), Marissa-Coulterville (131), Lawrenceville (31), Pinckneyville (169), Nashville (220), New Athens (225), Sparta junior varsity (240), Red Bud (249) and Lebanon (361).  
In the varsity event, Valleroy was Chester’s top runner.  He finished fifth overall with a time of 17:06.  Teammate Link Cushman finished eighth with his time of 17:46.  Zach Sternberg finished 39th overall with his 19:39 performance.  
Columbia won the girls title with 35 points followed by Lawrenceville (82), Waterloo (88), Nashville (104), Metro-East Lutheran (104), Pinckneyville (148), Sparta (62) and Chester (171).
Yankey was the top runner for the Lady Jackets.  Yankey finished 17th overall with a time of 23:02. Liefer was Chester’s second finisher with a time of 23:30 and a 22nd place finish.
In the combined team scores results Columbia was the winner when adding both the boys and girls scores.  Columbia recorded a combined score of 105.  Other combined scores included Waterloo (149), Lawrenceville (213), Metro-East Lutheran (224), Chester (287), Pinckneyville (317), Nashville (324) and Sparta (402).