Villa Grove cross country season comes to an end

By Fred Kroner

Freshman Kurt Zimmerman was the lone Villa Grove runner on Saturday (Oct. 30) in the Decatur Class 1A IHSA Sectional at Hickory Point Golf Course.

He ran the 3-mile course in 17 minutes, 46.10 seconds and finished in 48^th place. There were 154 runners in Zimmerman’s race.

He needed a time among the top 10 individuals not state-qualifying teams to advance to state. The cutoff was 17:07.65.

The season also ended on Saturday for the Villa Grove girls’ cross-country squad, which finished 19^th in the Decatur Class 1A Sectional at Decatur’s Hickory Point Golf Course.

The team’s top four runners were underclassmen, led by junior Emma Buesing, who ran 90^th with a time of 23:09.34.

The Blue Devils’ other entrants were freshman Scarlett Howard (98^th in 23:48.54), junior Madison Logan (108^th in 24:20.49), junior Kyleigh Price (123^rd in 25:05.05), senior Hailey Stutz (136^th in 26:59.67) and senior Jobeth Crafton (137^th in 27:08.50).

The top six schools qualified for state. That group included sectional champion Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond, St. Joseph-Ogden, Monticello, Decatur St. Teresa, Newton and Shelbyville.