By Fred Kroner
St. Joseph’s junior high girls’ cross-country team placed sixth on Saturday (Sept. 10) in the 44-school Parkside Invitational at Maxwell Park, in Normal.
Meet champion Glenwood had 23 points. St. Joseph finished with 280 points.
The girls’ varsity race featured 311 competitors, including four Panthers who ran the 2-mile course in under 14 minutes.
The team leaders were Tessa Walker (42nd in 13:33.2), Averie Dietiker (47th in 13:42.3), Ava Gallo (54th in 13:47.1) and Mia Miller (65th in 13:59.3).
Rounding out the varsity lineup were Ava Overstreet (84th in 14:12.3), Tabby Brown (132nd in 14:44.1) and Faith King (169th in 15:04.9).
In the 564-runner girls’ open race, the Panthers’ leaders were Hadley McDonald (61st in 15:41.3), Ellie Miller (150th in 17:04.2), Leah Stephenson (194th in 17:37.8), Marissa Smith (214th in 17:52.3), Alayna Nekolny (243rd in 18:07.6), Thea Hinkel (253rd in 18:16.5) and Kinsley Oleynichak (284th in 18:42.7).
St. Joseph placed 23rd out of 37 teams in the open race with 627 points. Meet champion Mahomet-Seymour had 55 points.
In the boys’ varsity race, St. Joseph ended in 21st place in an event with 53 teams.
Meet champion Mahomet-Seymour had 87 points. The Panthers totaled 560 points.
Patrick Clark was the St. Joseph leader, recording a 2-mile time of 12 minutes, 6.9 seconds. He finished 26th in a race with 369 runners.
Other team leaders were: Colin Burnett (62nd in 12:33.9), Sam Zadeh (111th in 13:01.0), Camden Fisher (168th in 13:28,7), Brady Johnson (201st in 13:44.4); Zach Benoit (227th in 14:04.0) and Adam Bello (273rd in 14:39.3).
In the boys’ open race, St. Joseph ran 27th as a team with 787 points. Meet champion Glenwood had 75 points. A total of 41 full teams participated.
In the 589-runner race, the Panthers’ open-race leaders were: Eli Franklin (35th in 13:41.6), Henry McCannon (258th in 16:11.1), Kelton Pruemer (274th in 16:19.8), Kru McDonald (295th in 16:32.3), Luke Dunn (304th in 16:37.3), Eli Bronowski (312th in 16:42.2) and Nathan Hinkel (367th in 17:23.7).
