By Jim Beers
The Chester High School cross country teams have continued to run well in their last couple of meets.  Both the girls and boys teams have improved and turned in good times and places at the Chester and Pinckneyville invitationals.
On September 29, Chester hosted the 21st annual Chester Invitational at the Randolph County Lake.  
The Chester boys finished third overall out of 12 teams.  Metro-East Lutheran won the event with 53 points followed by Columbia (75), Chester (90), Nashville (104), Pinckneyville (123), New Athens (148), Sparta junior varsity (209), Marissa-Coulterville (213), Meadow Heights (243), Okawville (271), Red Bud (273) and Du Quoin (306).
Chester’s Devin Valleroy took second place out of 60 runners. He had a time of 17:28.  Other Chester varsity runners included Link Cushman (fifth, 18:16), Verne White (18th, 19:29), Brent Knop (27th, 20:06), Kyle Landon (28th, 20:06), Brian Hartman (42nd, 21:12), Alec Weir (47th, 22:11) and Dalton Misuraca (55th, 23:50).
 The Varsity Lady Yellow Jackets finished fifth out of eight teams. New Athens was the winner with 35 points, followed by Metro-East Lutheran (74), Red Bud (78), Nashville (116), Chester (119), Pinckneyville (143), Marissa-Coulterville (161) and Okawville (183),
Taylor Yankey was the first Lady Jacket to cross the finish line.  She finished ninth overall with a time of 23:24.  Other Chester varsity runners included Emily Reid (10th, 23:31), Courtney Johnson (44th, 30:42).
In the Pinckneyville Invitational held Thursday, Chester was the runner-up in the boys competition. Nashville won the division with 83 points followed by Chester (84), Pinckneyville (91), Carterville (93), New Athens (103), Marissa-Coulterville (161), West Frankfort (222) and Okawville (226).  Other teams present but without team scores included Gibault, Du Quoin, Breese Central and Red Bud.
 Devin Valleroy of Chester was the overall winner of the varsity race with a time of 17:16.  Link Cushman was Chester’s second finisher with a time of 18:24.  He finished 8th overall.  Zach Sternberg moved up in the Chester standings as the third Yellow Jacket finisher.  He turned in a time of 19:20 and finished 19th overall.
 Verne White finished 23rd overall with a time of 19:37.  Kyle Landon had a time of 20:14, well enough for a 33rd place finish.  Chris Schwartz was the 35th finisher.  His time was 20:18. Finally, Brent Knop finished 36th with a 20:24 performance.  There were 61 runners in the varsity race.
Eleven teams turned in team scores in the girls race.  New Athens won the event with 61 points.  Carterville placed second with 63 points followed by Red Bud (97), Nashville (116), Gibault (146), Chester (170), Pinckneyville (180), West Frankfort (185), Breese Central (204), Marissa-Coulterville (212) and Okawville (249).  Du Quoin did not have a team score.  
There were 70 runners in the girls varsity race.  Chester’s Taylor Yankey finished 10th overall with a time of 22:52.  Emily Reid was right behind with a time of 23:07 and a finish of 13th.  Sarah Bindel finished 24th with her 24:56 performance.  Madi Kueker was the 57th place finisher with a time of 28:47 and Courtney Johnson finished 66th with a time of 31:00.