By Fred Kroner
The Spartans finished as one of the top surprise teams in the Friday (Nov. 6) unofficial Class 1A girls’ cross-country state meet at Chillicothe.
One week after placing fifth in its sectional, SJOXC also took fifth in the unofficial state meet. The meet was not sanctioned by the IHSA, which is why it was classified as an unofficial meet.
The schools which competed at Three Sisters Park had to participate under club status. The runners representing SJ-O went under the moniker SJOXC.
The team champion in 1A represented Winnebago, which compiled a composite of 43 points. The all-underclassmen SJOXC entry was fifth in the 19-team field with 217 points.
In the final milesplit.com state poll, SJ-O was ranked 13th.
The Spartans’ top five finishers crossed the finish line within one minute and 20 seconds of one another.
The team leader was junior Ava Knap, who was 36th in 20 minutes, 41.35 seconds for a 5-kilometer course.
Trailing her were: freshman Helene Jones (53rd in 21:05.59), freshman Chloe Burkhalter (61st in 21:21.35), junior Kailyn Ingram (81st in 21:45.08), junior Malorie Sarnecki (92nd in 22:01.24), junior Ashlyn Lannert (116th in 22:34.69) and junior Addie Allen (117th in 22:36.10).
“The atmosphere of the meet was awesome and the course was very fun,” Ingram said. “We were all so thankful to have another chance to compete together.”
In all, there were 153 competitors in the girls’unofficial state meet.
All seven Spartans improved their position either after the first mile or after the second mile.
Knap was 46th after the opening mile. Jones was 55th after the first mile. Burkhalter was 70th after the second mile. Ingram was 87th after the second mile. Sarnecki was 107th after the first mile. Lannert was 130th after the first mile and Allen was 131st after the first mile.
“Even though the course, this weekend, was tough it was definitely better than nothing,” Sarnecki said. “We were blessed to be able to race one last time this season and have the closest thing possible to a state meet.”
As a team, SJOXC was sixth as a team after the opening mile.
