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 (11th in 11:47.8), Adam Bello (13th in 11:56.4), Sam Zadeh (27th in 12:27.4), Henry McCannon (46th in 13:04.1), Brady Johnson (47th in 13:06.7) and Nathan Hinkel (50th 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 10th and 11th, 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 (15th in 13:27.0), Alex Weidenburner (30th in 14:06.8), Luke Dunn (38th in 14:27.7), Carson Coffey (41st in 14:41.9) and Brandon Jackson (47th 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 (29th in 12:20.1) and Franklin (34th in 12:27.5) set the pace for St. Joseph in a race with 160 participants.
Other team leaders were Fisher (35th in 12:30.4), Johnson (71st in 13:20.6), Zadeh (79th in 13:27.3), McCannon (82nd in 13:34.0) and Holden Hausle (100th in 14:14.9).
In the 206-runner open race, eight St. Joseph competitors placed among the top 100.
Hinkel ran 14th in 13:25.3.
He was followed by Dilley (23rd in 14:03.6), Clark (24th in 14:05.4), Weidenburner (34th in 14:27.3), Jackson (60th in 15:00.6), Ramsay Arnold (75th in 15:18.4), Tyson Huckstadt (87th in 15:34.1) and Ethan Burnett (100th 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.
