Panthers finish fourth at IESA State meet

By Fred Kroner

With five runners finishing within 41.5 seconds of one another on Saturday (Oct. 15), the St. Joseph Middle School girls’ cross-country team captured fourth place in the Class 2A IESA girls’ state meet at Normal’s Maxwell Park.

Tessa Walker led the Panthers, placing 30^th in 12 minutes, 52.2 seconds for the 2-mile layout.

She was followed by teammates Ava Overstreet (56^th in 13:16.4), Mia Miller (71^st in 13:24.8), Avarie Dietiker (76^th in 13:26.7) and Ava Gallo (84^th in 13:33.7).

The other St. Joseph state competitors were Tabby Brown (111^th in 13:50.1) and Faith Jackson (113^th in 13:51.1).

Gallo and Jackson were both quicker at state than they were at the sectional one week earlier.

In all, there were 237 participants in the girls’ Class 2A state race.

Two St. Joseph students represented the school in the boys’ state race.

Colin Burnett took 48^th in a race with 234 competitors. His 2-mile time was 11:57.0, which was quicker than he recorded a week earlier at the sectional. Teammate Patrick Clark was 185^th in 13:08.9.