VIDEO: Clayton Takes Six Medals at Cross-Country Meet

Cross-country teams from turned in strong second-place performances Tuesday during the Suburban East Cross-Country Championships at Shaw Park.

The boys team finished second as a team with 33 points as compared to first-place Ladue High School's 23, and it had more medalists than any team with six.

Clayton medalists were junior Matthew Garrett (fourth); senior Jake Bernstein (fifth); senior Ian Ocherty (seventh); sophomore Andy Hodapp (eighth); senior Matthew Millett (ninth); and senior Dan Peipert (10th).

Ladue also won the girls team meet with 30 points. Clayton again was a close second with 39 points.

Ladue had three other medalists in addition to junior Anna Nelson, who placed first. Sophomore Kate White was second, sophomore Eva Klingenberg was sixth and freshman Erin Wides was 10th.

Clayton also had four medalists: senior Nicole Indovino (third); senior Melissa Shapiro (fifth); sophomore Lauren Indovino (eighth); and sophomore Lily Niswonger (ninth).

Ladue junior Nelson treated the meet as a glorified workout.

It was a workout which culminated in the first-place finish for Nelson in the meet, which was held at .

The Rams dominated the event, winning both the boys and girls team titles. Nelson and Cody Medler also swept individual medalist titles.

"We have a big meet at Borgia in Washington Saturday so I took it easy in this race," Nelson said. "It was like a workout."

Nelson, who won Tuesday with a time of 20:14.94, had a solid sophomore season and was a contributor to the Rams and their third place finish as a team at the state meet. She had her best time of the season at state, 21:09. Nelson finished 54th overall.

But it didn't take Nelson long to show that she was going to be an even more dominant runner this fall. She took almost two minutes off her previous best mark in the very first meet of the season, running a 19:18 at the Forest Park Invitational. That is still her PR.

"That first meet gave me some confidence and things have gone well this year so far," Nelson said. "I would love to be a part of a team champion this year since we finished third last year and I would also like to be all-state (the top 25)."

All-state just eluded Medler in his junior season in 2010. Medler finished the dreaded 26th (technically he finished 25th because of a disqualification).

"I don't count that," Medler said of the official 25th position. "Coming so close last year has given me a lot of motivation this season."

Medler dominated the conference meet, winning in 16:39.65. That was over 30 seconds ahead of the second place finisher.

"I felt like I was cruising out there today," said Medler, who ran a 15:32 on a three-mile course in Peoria earlier this year. "It was a solid race. I am looking to do as best as I can at the state meet this year. There is going to be a lot of good competition and we will see how well I can do."

The Rams finished one, two and three in the boys event. Sophomore Drew Hutchens was second (17:09.92) and junior Colin Cernik was third (17:18.44). Junior Phillip Soncasie also won a medal (the top 10 earned medals). He was sixth (17:50.21).