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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CULLMAN – The Oak Mountain Eagles walked away victorious at the St. Bernard Oktoberfest Invitational at St. Bernard Abbey on Saturday, Oct. 21 as John Shoemaker and the Eagles earned another pair of wins in the Boys 5A-7A race.

That was among many great performances from both Oak Mountain and Westminster OM in the boys and girls races at the meet.

Shoemaker took home the gold for the third time this season after winning the Shelby County Championships and Oak Mountain Invitational earlier in the year. His winning time of 16:39.13 was five seconds faster than the next closest finisher, Andrue Barnett of Cullman.

His teammate Whitt Kilgore came in third place with a time of 17:12.16 in another solid run for him. Bennett Phillips came in seventh place with a time of 17:31.08, Cooper Jeffcoat finished in 12th place with a time of 17:57.01, Luke Marvin came in 14th place with a time of 18:03.96 and Isaac Glorioso came in 16th place with a time of 18:12.36

The top five times were good enough to secure first place in the team standings for Oak Mountain with 37 points between them.

Westminster OM’s Weaver Caldwell finished in 9th place with a time of 17:33.37. Alexander Montgomery came in 17th place with a time of 18:12.22 and Charlie Davis finished 19th behind a time of 18:16.92.

Elsewhere for the Knights, Micah Adams ran an 18:48.40 to finish in 23rd place, Charlie Krulak came in 28th place with a time of 19:11.24 and Quinn McCurry finished in 29th place with a time of 19:33.16. The Knights’ top five runners scored 94 points to earn third place as a team.

In the girls race, Catarina Williams of Oak Mountain came in third place with a time of 20:50.60. Behind her, two other pairs of Eagles finished back-to-back, including Faith Scardino in seventh with a time of 21:32.73 and Ava Fields in eighth with a time of 21:34.54, as well as Laura Rodgers in 11th with a time of 21:45.50 and Brighton Bell in 12th with a run of 22:08.58.

Thanks to those five times, Oak Mountain finished in second place in the team standings with 41 points.

The Oak Mountain girls cross-country team also wore orange ribbons in support of the Jani family after a car accident that killed Parul Jani and left her husband Nitin hospitalized with serious injuries. Both were on staff at Oak Mountain High School and have been honored around the school in recent weeks.

Right next to Oak Mountain on the podium was Westminster OM, which finished third with 79 points. Emily Mungai finished in fifth for the Knights with a time of 21:27.78 to lead her team.

Pippa Hussar came in 14th place with a time of 22:27.64, Natalie Porterfield finished in 17th place with a time of 23:05.31, Sarah Adams came in 21st place with a time of 23:24.19, McKenzie Bell finished 22nd with a time of 23:26.79 and Ava Gray came in 23rd with a time of 23:27.39.

For both teams, the focus shifts to the road to sectionals and the state championship meet in the most important time of the season.