Aaron Werths had so much fun winning on his home course that he decided to run twice. Actually, Werths used the open race as his cool down after he led from start to finish to claim the Granite City Invitational three-mile race in 15:26. He said he’s only the second Warrior to win their own meet.

“I was wanting to try to pace a little more than I usually do, but I had an adrenaline rush during the first mile and that idea was pretty much shot right from there,” Werths said. “I knew they were behind me, but I didn’t know how far back. I was getting a little nervous at the end.”

Werths held off O’Fallon’s Michael Scolarici, who took second in 15:29. The Panthers also finished second as a team to Edwardsville, which put its five scoring runners in the top 15.

Sacred Heart-Griffin won the girls team title, and Mt. Vernon’s Margo Richardson won the three-mile race in a course record time of 17:43. But the most impressive races goes to Freeburg’s freshmen twin sisters Kristin and Caitlin Busch. Kristin took second in 18:28, and Caitlin was fifth in 18:49 … which is quite an announcement of arrival to the varsity level for two runners who had never broken 20 minutes in a 5k (3.1 miles).