By Fred Kroner
The state-ranked St. Joseph-Ogden boys’ cross-country team turned in a solid showing on Saturday (Sept. 25) while dominating their own Spartan Classic cross-country invitational.
The Spartans’ top five runners all entered the finish chute within 32 seconds of one another, leading SJ-O to the team championship.
SJ-O’s composite score was 65 points. Runner-up St. Thomas More had a score of 104, followed by Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond (116) and Monticello (180) in the 23-team field.
Individually, the five scoring runners for SJ-O all captured spots in the top 22 in a field of 156 runners.
The three team leaders were seniors, Charlie Mabry (seventh on the 3-mile course in 15 minutes, 45.89 seconds), Luke Stegall (eighth in 15:48.09) and Elijah Mock (11th in 15:58.61).
Close behind were Carson Maroon (17th in 16:11.74) and Peyton Wendell (22nd in 16:17.81).
The school’s other entries were Ethan Blackburn (29th in 16:38.53) and Aden Armstrong (54th in 17:23.14).
In the most recent milesplit.com state rankings for Class 1A, DePaul College Prep was rated first, followed by SJ-O’s second-ranked team.
SJ-O returns to action on Tuesday (Oct. 5) in the Illini Prairie Conference meet at Stanford Olympia.
