By FRED KRONER
The Spartans’ state-ranked boys’ cross-country team finished in second place on Saturday (Oct. 24) in the 14-school Class 1A IHSA Decatur St. Teresa Regional meet.
Each of the top five teams qualified for a sectional meet, which St. Teresa will also host at the Hickory Point Golf Course on Saturday (Oct. 31).
In a field of 103 runners, SJ-O’s five scoring runners ended among the top 16 and were packed within 40 seconds of one another.
Senior Brandon Mattsey was fifth, completing the 3-mile course in 16 minutes, 0.6 seconds.
Trailing him were junior Charlie Mabry (eighth in 16:11.6), freshman Carson Maroon (10th in 16:19.9) junior Elijah Mock (11th in 16:37.6) and senior Logan Wolfersberger (16th in 16:40.6).
The Spartans’ other participants were junior Luke Stegall (24th in 17:06.0) and freshman Spencer Wilson (29th in 17:19.7).
Also on the school’s sectional roster is sophomore Ethan Blackburn.
In the team chase, Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond was the winner with 44 points, edging runner-up SJ-O (50 points).
Monticello was third (66 points), followed by Tolono Unity (107) and Bismarck-Henning (151).
Each of the top four schools were state-ranked in the most-recent milesplit.com state poll. A-L/A-H was ranked ninth, SJ-O was ranked eighth, Monticello was ranked 10th and Tolono Unity was ranked 16th.
The upcoming sectional will be the last cross-country race sanctioned by the IHSA this season due the COVID-19 pandemic.
