Eli Franklin places in top 10 at county meet

By Fred Kroner

Eli Franklin was the lone St. Joseph runner to place among the top 10 on Thursday (Sept.27) in the boys’ Champaign County cross-country meet at Tolono Unity.

Franklin’s 2-mile time of 11:37.3 placed him seventh.

The school’ other varsity participants in the 91-runner race were Camden Fisher (11^th in 11:47.8), Adam Bello (13^th in 11:56.4), Sam Zadeh (27^th in 12:27.4), Henry McCannon (46^th in 13:04.1), Brady Johnson (47^th in 13:06.7) and Nathan Hinkel (50^th in 13:19.5).

St. Joseph finished second in the 13-school event. Mahomet-Seymour captured first place with a composite score of 32 points. St. Joseph had 99 points and third-place Urban ended with 102 points.

In the 159-runner open race, Kelton Pruemer and Hunter Dilley were St. Joseph’s top placers, finishing 10^th and 11^th, respectively. Pruemer’s time was 13:14.5 and Dilley was timed in 13:15.6.

The school’s other top 50 performers were Patrick Clark (15^th in 13:27.0), Alex Weidenburner (30^th in 14:06.8), Luke Dunn (38^th in 14:27.7), Carson Coffey (41^st in 14:41.9) and Brandon Jackson (47^th in 14:54.1).

St. Joseph placed third in the open race with 83 points. Meet champion Mahomet-Seymour had 15 points and was followed by runner-up Urbana (82).

On Saturday (Sept. 30), the Panthers placed seventh in the 23-school Monticello Invitational at Lodge Park with a composite score of 233 points.

Meet champion Mahomet-Seymour totaled 50 points and was followed by Clinton (120).

Bello (29^th in 12:20.1) and Franklin (34^th in 12:27.5) set the pace for St. Joseph in a race with 160 participants.

Other team leaders were Fisher (35^th in 12:30.4), Johnson (71^st in 13:20.6), Zadeh (79^th in 13:27.3), McCannon (82^nd in 13:34.0) and Holden Hausle (100^th in 14:14.9).

In the 206-runner open race, eight St. Joseph competitors placed among the top 100.

Hinkel ran 14^th in 13:25.3.

He was followed by Dilley (23^rd in 14:03.6), Clark (24^th in 14:05.4), Weidenburner (34^th in 14:27.3), Jackson (60^th in 15:00.6), Ramsay Arnold (75^th in 15:18.4), Tyson Huckstadt (87^th in 15:34.1) and Ethan Burnett (100^th in 16:03.5).

St. Joseph will return to action on Saturday (Oct. 7) in a 14-school IESA Class 2A regional which it will host. The boys’ race will start at approximately 11:15 a.m.