SJ-O cross country wins Illini Prairie Conference meet

By Fred Kroner

With its top five runners crossing the finish line within 37.1 seconds of one another, the St. Joseph-Ogden boys’ cross-country team won the 10-team Illini Prairie Conference meet on Tuesday (Oct. 4) at St. Thomas More.

The Spartans were led on the 3-mile course by Lance Retz, who was third in 16 minutes, 19.3 seconds. Trailing closely behind were teammates Isiah Mock (fifth in 16:33.5), Mason Guido (11^th in 16:47.5), Aden Armstrong (14^th in 16:51.3) and Ethan Blackburn (15^th in 16:56.4).

Rounding out the SJ-O varsity lineup were Jack Fisher (20^th in 17:18.3) and Holden Jones (28^th in 17:50.2).

There were 65 runners in the varsity race.

SJ-O compiled a team score of 48 points. Runner-up Pontiac had 66 and was followed by Monticello (78).

In the boys’ open race, SJ-O ran second to Pontiac, 29-32, despite a 1-2 finish by Spartans Carson Maroon (17:09.2) and Payton Wendell (17:30.1).

Other team leaders in the 41-runner open race were Joe Griebat (eighth in 19:15.8), E.J. Beckett (16^th in 21:19.2), Cyrus Zadeh (25^th in 22:32.3) and Logan Xiao (26^th in 22:38.5).

In the 45-runner girls’ varsity race, SJ-O’s Savannah Franzen was second with a 3-mile time of 18:05.7.

Other Spartan placers were Chloe Burkhalter (14^th in 20:21.6), Hannah Mock (26^th in 22:10.3), Sydney Steinbach (28^th in 22:33.7) and Kaytlyn Baker (29^th in 23:09.3).

Unity won team honors (30 points), followed by Monticello (87 points) and third-place SJ-O (also 87 points).

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday (Oct. 15) in the Patriot Invitational at Detweiller Park, in Peoria.