By Fred Kroner
St. Joseph-Ogden’s top-ranked Class 1A boys’ cross-country team sprinted to victory on Tuesday (Oct. 5) in the 11-school Illini Prairie Conference meet at Stanford Olympia.
In a field of 75 runners, six Spartans placed among the top 16, leading SJ-O to the conference championship.
SJ-O’s composite point total was 36. Fifth-ranked (Class 1A) Stanford Olympia was the runner-up with 68 points and 12th-ranked Monticello was third (79 points). The rankings are compiled by milesplit.com.
The Spartans’ first six finishers were within 40.7 seconds of one another.
Leading the way was sophomore Carson Maroon, who was fourth individually. His 3-mile time was 16 minutes, 35.8 seconds.
Trailing him were senior Luke Stegall (fifth in 16:36.4), senior Charlie Mabry (sixth in 16:37.4), junior Peyton Wendell (ninth in 16:41.4), senior Elijah Mock (12th in 16:56.1) and junior Ethan Blackburn (16th in 17:16.5).
The other SJ-O participant was sophomore Holden Jones (50th in 19:14.5).
In a 25-runner open race, the individual champion was SJ-O sophomore Aden Armstrong. He cruised to victory by more than 1 minute and 17 seconds.
His winning mark was 17:44.7, a time that would have placed him among the top-25 in the varsity race.
The open race runner-up was SJ-O freshman Mason Guido (19:02.8).
Also running the open race for the Spartans were freshman Jack Fisher (fifth in 19:54.6) and freshman E.J. Beckett (22nd in 27:31.0).
SJ-O returns to action on Saturday (Oct. 16) in the Peoria Heights Patroit Invitational.
