By Fred Kroner
Heritage eighth-grader Clark Roland was the dominant runner on Saturday (Oct. 8) in the Class 1A IESA sectional boys’ cross-country meet at St. Thomas More.
Sectional champion Roland ran the 2-mile course in 10 minutes, 44.9 seconds and created a winning margin of 41.9 seconds. Of the nine Class 1A sectionals, Roland registered the second-best state-qualifying time.
He will be joined at state by one teammate. Seventh-grader Christian Paul finished fifth in 11:55.7. In all, there were 106 participants in the boys’ sectional race.
The boys’ Class 1A state meet, to be held at Maxwell Park in Normal, will start at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday (Oct. 15).
In the girls’ race, the Heritage leader was seventh-grader Leah DelRossi, who recorded a personal-best 2-mile time of 14:39.0. She was 34th in a 94-runner race.
Teammates Rylen Stierwalt (65th in a personal-best 16:10.5) and Gwen Kelly (82nd in 18:06.0) were the Hawks’ other competitors.
