Girls’ Tennis

Despite the departure of two of the best tennis players in recent Clayton history, the girls’ team managed to improve in 2013, getting out of their section and advancing deep into the state tournament.

To get to state, the tennis team had to win both Districts and Sectionals. After a dominant District showing, the team traveled to Marshall, Missouri to play a tough Westminster team.

Juniors Connor Cassity, Cameron Freeman and senior Marie Worchol all won their singles matches against Westminster, and two Clayton doubles teams stepped up to get the Greyhounds through Sectionals.

Clayton finished second in the state, defeating Kennett before falling to Barstow 5-3. The doubles team Cassity and Freeman also had a strong showing in the individual tournament, finishing second.

Though disappointed the team didn’t finish first, Cassity was proud of what the squad accomplished at state.

“I think everybody gave all they had,” Cassity said, “and that’s all that mattered … it was very exciting.”

Boys’ Cross Country

Over the course of 2013 season, a superstar emerged for the Clayton boys’ cross country team. Senior Parker Schultz, who ran varsity all four of his years at CHS, won both the Clayton Invitational and the District meet.

At state, Schultz finished seventh out of nearly 170 runners, earning All-State honors. At state, he was followed by junior Ben Tamsky (108th), freshman Thomas Cormier (117th), senior Andy Hodapp (128th), sophomore John Schultz (136th) and juniors Jaques Painter (145th) and Noah Engel (154th). All of the Clayton runners broke the 19:35 threshold.

As a team, the Greyhounds finished 13th. The 2013 year was the Greyhound’s second with assistant coach Timothy Levine, who has helped dramatically increase the team size in his time at Clayton.

Of the many memories he has from the state trip, Engel was very happy to see the outcome of Parker Schultz’s hard work with the team.

“He came out of the race and he was in the medical tent for a while because he really gave it his all,” Engel said. “He left it all on the course, I was really proud of him.”

Girls’ Cross Country

The girls’ cross country team dominated at the District meet, having the first, third and fourth finishers in the meet’s top five.

The team qualified for state by winning Districts and had six All-District runners. Sophomore Gabby Boeger finished first, seniors Lauren Indovino and Lily Niswonger finished third and fourth, respectively, freshman Mary Kate Gelzer was seventh, junior Bridget Boeger was 10th and sophomore Heather Stone rounded out the All-District runners with a 15th place finish.

At State, Indovino finished in the top 50, leading the team to an 11th place finish. Sophomore Nuri Yi finished sixth on the team and was happy with the team’s time at state.

“It was definitely an interesting experience,” Yi said, “Lots of really good competition.”

Boys’ Swimming

The boys’ swim team participated in four events at the State meet, a drastic improvement from past years.

Freshman Tiger Chen was the team’s biggest addition coming into the season. Chen swam in the 200-yard individual medley, the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard medley relay.

Junior Andrew Litteken also competed in his first state meet, setting a personal best time in the 500-yard freestyle.

The medley relay consisted of senior Noah Youkilis (backstroke), Chen (breaststroke), senior Auggie Mense (butterfly) and senior Doren Lan (freestyle). The relay finished 29th in the state.

Lan is proud of the team’s progress, and is excited for the future of the program.

“I feel like we’ve come a long way,” Lan said. “Now we are thinking about placing and qualifying in finals rather than just making it to state.”