Franzen and Bressner Lead St. Joseph-Ogden to 12th Place Finish at IHSA Class 1A State Meet with All-State Performances
By FRED KRONER
All-State runners Savanna Franzen and Grace Bressner were the catalysts for the St Joseph-Ogden girls’ cross-country team, which placed 12th out of 30 teams on Saturday (Nov. 9) in the IHSA Class 1A girls’ cross-country state meet.
Franzen, a senior, became a three-time All-Stater in cross-country. She was timed in 17 minutes, 45.50 seconds on the 3-mile course at Peoria’s Detweiller Park.
Freshman teammate Grace Bressner nabbed the 25th and final All-State spot. Her time was 17:55.90.
Bressner and another freshman, Tessa Walker, posted career-best times. Walker ran 54th in 18:46.20.
The other SJ-O state participants were sophomore Abigail Bello (164th in 20:29.80), junior Sydney Steinbach (234th in 22:57.30) and sophomore Kiah Riesel (245th in24:20.20).
Franzen is the fifth girl from SJ-O to earn at least three All-State honors in cross-country. The others were Faith Houston (four), Chelsea Blaase (three), Amy Roberts (three) and Ashley Wright (three).
The 2024 state race marks the fourth time the Spartans have had at least two All-Staters in the same girls’ race. There were three in 2014 and two each in 1990 and 1991.
Team honors went to Williamsville (171 points) followed by Tolono Unity (173) and Anna-Jonesboro (177 points).
SJ-O was 12th with 371 points.
