By Fred Kroner
The Spartans had the individual runner-up in three of the seven flighted races on Saturday (Sept. 4) at the Chrisman Cowchip cross-country invitational.
The 26-school event was a flighted race where the No. 1 runners from each school ran only against each other, with other races held for the second through seventh runners from each school.
The second-place finishers for SJ-O were Savanna Franzen (19 minutes, 50.3 seconds in the No. 2 race), Kailyn Ingram (20:31.4 in the No. 3 race) and Chloe Burkhalter (21:49.9 in the No. 5 race).
Franzen’s 3-mile time was the school’s best for the day.
Other Spartan participants were: Ava Knap (third in the No. 1 race at 19:55.8), Maddison Clampitt (fourth in the No. 4 race at 22:29.9), Addie Allen (fourth in the No. 6 race at 22:09.9) and Taryn Sexton (fourth in the No. 7 race at 22:24.6).
In the team chase, Tolono Unity was the meet champion with 96 points. Runner-up Monticello had 116 points and third-place SJ-O finished with 145 points.
In the preseason state rankings compiled by milesplit.com, Monticello was rated second in Class 1A, Tolono Unity was rated third and SJ-O was rated seventh.
The Spartans return to action on Tuesday (Sept. 7) at Oakwood.
