St. Joseph-Ogden girl’s cross country advances in IA IHSA girls’ regional

By Fred Kroner

Two Spartans posted 3-mile times of less than 20 minutes on Saturday (Oct. 24) at the Class 1A IHSA girls’ regional cross-country meet at Decatur’s Hickory Point Golf Course.

The team’s other five competitors finished the course within 39 seconds of each other.

Leading the way for SJ-O were junior Ava Knap (12^th in 19 minutes, 33.3 seconds) and freshman Helene Jones (14^th in 19:36.0).

The remainder of the all-underclassmen squad finished between 25^th and 38^th place in a field of 89 competitors.

Other team leaders were: freshman Chloe Burkhalter (25^th in 20:37.6), junior Malorie Sarnecki (28^th in 20:52.3), junior Ashlyn Lannert (30^th in 20:57.5), junior Kailyn Ingram (34^th in 21:02.6) and junior Addie Allen (38^th in 21:16.9).

For their efforts, the Spartans captured one of the five team bids for the St. Teresa Sectional, which will be held on Saturday (Oct. 31), also at the Hickory Point course.

The regional team titlist was Tolono Unity (40 points), followed by Monticello (51 points), Urbana Uni High (98 points), SJ-O (104 points) and St. Thomas More (136 points).

Thirteen schools entered full teams for the event.

SJ-O’s sectional roster will also include junior Taryn Sexton.

In the most recent state rankings compiled by milesplit.com, Tolono Unity was ranked fourth in Class 1A, Monticello was ranked first, SJ-O was ranked 12^th and St. Thomas More was ranked 13^th.

Urbana Uni High was unranked.

The upcoming sectional will be the last cross-country race sanctioned by the IHSA this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.