Despite having two of the first four finishers, the St. Joseph-Ogden girls’ cross-country squad was edged out for team honors by Tolono Unity on Saturday (Oct. 16) in the 28-team Peoria Heights Invitational at Detweiller Park.

Tolono Unity had a team composite score of 81 points. SJ-O, ranked sixth in the latest Class 1A girls’ state poll by milesplit.com, had a score of 88 points.

Third-place Monticello ended with 95 points and was followed by Robinson (184).

Spartan freshman Savanna Franzen was the individual runner-up, completing the 3-mile course in 18 minutes and 18 seconds.

Senior teammate Ava Knap placed fourth in 18:28.3.

Rounding out the list of SJ-O competitors was senior Kailyn Ingram (14^th in 19:08.5), sophomore Chloe Burkhalter (33^rd in 20:14.0), senior Addie Allen (36^th in 20:23.7), senior Taryn Sexton (50^th in 20:43.5) and junior Kaytlyn Baker (112^th in 22:33.1).

SJ-O had one entry in the open race. Sophomore Chloe Allen was 24^th in 25:26.9.

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday (Oct. 23) in the 15-school Chrisman Class 1A regional.

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Freshman Savanna Franzen and senior Ava Knap were the individual leaders on Tuesday (Oct. 5) in the Illini Prairie Conference girls’ cross-country meet at Stanford Olympia.

Franzen was the individual champion in the 58-runner field, completing the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, 16.4 seconds.

Knap was the runner-up and was less than four seconds behind at 18:20.3.

The Spartans’ other competitors were: senior Kailyn Ingram (13^th in 20:04.6), sophomore Chloe Burkhalter (25^th in 21:00.0), senior Taryn Sexton (26^th in 21:08.9), senior Addie Allen (28^th in 21:18.6) and junior Kaytlyn Baker (48^th in 23:21.5).

In the team race, Monticello (ranked third in the state in Class 1A by milesplit.com) was the winner with 48 points. Tolono Unity (ranked second in the state in Class 1A) was next with 51 points and SJ-O (ranked sixth in the state in Class 1A) was third with 64 points.

The Spartans had one entrant in the open race. Sophomore Chloe Allen was 23^rd in 27:51.3.

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday (Oct. 16) in the Peoria Heights Patroit Invitational.

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Senior Ava Knap was the front-runner for the St. Joseph-Ogden girls’ cross-country team on Saturday (Oct. 2) in Indiana’s Nike XC Town Twilight Meet.

She ran the 5,000-meter course in 19 minutes, 25.6 seconds and ended 17^th in a field of 149 competitors.

Rounding out the Spartans’ contingent were: Kailyn Ingram (57^th in 21:08.5), Addie Allen (95^th in 22:06.2), Taryn Sexton (103^rd in 22:19.4) and Kaytlyn Baker (143^rd in 25:00.5).

SJ-O finished with a 357 score and placed 13^th. Eighteen schools fielded full teams.

The meet winner was Columbus North (56 points) followed by Carmel (60 points).

The Spartans return to action on Tuesday (Oct. 5) in the Illini Prairie Conference meet at Stanford Olympia. In the most recent set of Illinois state rankings, compiled by milesplit.com, SJ-O was rated sixth in Class 1A.

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Three of the state’s top six-ranked Class 1A cross-country teams competed in the Saturday (Sept. 25) Spartan Classic at St. Joseph, with team honors going to third-ranked Unity (56 points), ahead of No. 2 Monticello (66 points) and the sixth-ranked SJ-O squad (87 points).

Nineteen schools entered full teams.

In a field of 147 competitors, the Spartans had two of the first four finishers.

Freshman Savanna Franzen placed third, running the 3-mile course in 17 minutes, 57.82 seconds. Senior Ava Knap was next, closing in fourth place (18:02.03).

SJ-O’s other participants were: Kailyn Ingram (16^th in 19:00.26), Taryn Sexton (31^st in 19:51.22), Chloe Burkhalter (38^th in 20:24.32) and Addie Allen (44^th in 20:37.90).

The state rankings are compiled by milesplit.com.

SJ-O returns to action on Tuesday (Oct. 5) in the Illini Prairie Conference meet at Stanford Olympia.

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Eight St. Joseph-Ogden athletes competed in the Richard Spring Invitational on Saturday (Sept. 18), but they were scattered among three races so the state-ranked Spartans weren’t scored as a team in any of the races.

In the varsity race, featuring 63 full teams and 463 runners, SJ-O senior Ava Knap was 34^th with a 3-mile time of 18 minutes, and 7 seconds.

Teammates in that race were: Kailyn Ingram (159^th in 19:48.7), Taryn Sexton (248^th in 20:39.2) and Addie Allen (281^st in 20:58.7).

In the open race, the lone SJ-O representative was Kaytlyn Baker (180^th in 23:27.3). That race included 32 full teams and 438 runners.

Three Spartans participated in the freshmen-sophomore race, including ninth-grader Savanna Franzen, who was third in that division with a time of 18:29.1.

For the three girls’ races on Saturday, there were a total of 1,175 competitors. Franzen’s time was the 53^rd best for the day among all girls.

The other SJ-O athletes in the freshmen-sophomore race were Chloe Burkhalter (98^th in 21:36.5) and Chloe Allen (274^th in 27:57.2).

In all, there were 41 full teams and 301 runners in the freshmen-sophomore segment of the meet.

St. Joseph-Ogden, ranked eighth in the state in Class 1A by milesplit.com, returns to action on Saturday (Sept. 25) in the Spartan Classic.

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In a Tuesday (Sept. 14) dual meet at Lodge Park, in Monticello, the top seven St. Joseph-Ogden runners crossed the finish line within 15 seconds of one another in the girls’ 2-mile race.

Leading the way was Kaytlyn Baker, who was third overall in 15 minutes and 56 seconds.

Following her were Savanna Franzen (fourth in 15:59), Ava Knap (fifth in 15:59), Taryn Sexton (sixth in 16:00), Kailyn Ingram (seventh in 16:00), Chloe Burkhalter (eighth in 16:11) and Addie Allen (ninth in 16:11).

The Spartans’ other entrant, Chloe Allen, was 12^th in 21:15.

SJ-O had a team score of 25 points. Monticello did not have enough runners to be scored as a team.

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St. Joseph-Ogden’s state-ranked girls’ cross-country team had two runners place among the top 30 individuals on Saturday (Sept. 11) in the First to the Finish Invitational at Peoria’s Detweiller Park.

Ranked seventh in Class 1A by milesplit.com, SJ-O elected to compete in the Class 3A race at Peoria. The meet had separate races for the 1A, 2A and 3A schools.

Against the 304 runners in the 3A race, SJ-O’s Ava Knap was 26^th, finishing the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, 43.5 seconds.

Teammate Savanna Franzen was 29^th in 18:50.9.

The Spartans’ other competitors were Kailyn Ingram (112^th in 20:16.7), Chloe Burkhalter (164^th in 21:26.7), Taryn Sexton (169^th in 21:32.0), Addie Allen (177^th in 21:36.5) and Maddison Clampitt (201^st in 22:10.1).

Team honors were captured by Naperville North (100 points), followed by Minooka (115) and Naperville Central (134). SJ-O placed 15^th among the 35 teams with 453 points.

In a combined open race for runners in 1A, 2A and 3A, SJ-O had two entries.

Kaytlyn Baker was 190^th in a field of 595 runners with a time of 24:03.1. Chloe Allen was 489^th with a final time of 29:38.7.

SJ-O returns to action on Tuesday (Sept. 14) at Kickapoo State Park against Monticello.

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The Spartans had the individual runner-up in three of the seven flighted races on Saturday (Sept. 4) at the Chrisman Cowchip cross-country invitational.

The 26-school event was a flighted race where the No. 1 runners from each school ran only against each other, with other races held for the second through seventh runners from each school.

The second-place finishers for SJ-O were Savanna Franzen (19 minutes, 50.3 seconds in the No. 2 race), Kailyn Ingram (20:31.4 in the No. 3 race) and Chloe Burkhalter (21:49.9 in the No. 5 race).

Franzen’s 3-mile time was the school’s best for the day.

Other Spartan participants were: Ava Knap (third in the No. 1 race at 19:55.8), Maddison Clampitt (fourth in the No. 4 race at 22:29.9), Addie Allen (fourth in the No. 6 race at 22:09.9) and Taryn Sexton (fourth in the No. 7 race at 22:24.6).

In the team chase, Tolono Unity was the meet champion with 96 points. Runner-up Monticello had 116 points and third-place SJ-O finished with 145 points.

In the preseason state rankings compiled by milesplit.com, Monticello was rated second in Class 1A, Tolono Unity was rated third and SJ-O was rated seventh.

The Spartans return to action on Tuesday (Sept. 7) at Oakwood.

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A St. Joseph-Ogden senior and a freshman from the school were the top two runners on Saturday (Aug. 28), helping the Spartans to the team title in the girls’ division of the Doc Acklin Memorial cross-country invitational in Paris.

The meet is named in honor of the father of Jim Acklin, a former SJ-O head coach who is now an assistant coach in cross-country.

Senior Ava Knap was the leader in the 59-runner field. Her winning 3-mile time was 20 minutes, 0.8 seconds.

The runner-up was SJ-O freshman Savanna Franzen. She was timed in 20:11.6.

The Spartans had one other top-10 placer.

Kailyn Ingram was ninth in 22:00.7.

Maddison Clampitt and Chloe Burkhalter finished within seconds of each other. Clampitt was 12^th in 22:24.9. Burkhalter was 13^th in 22:37.6.

Other SJ-O participants were: Malorie Sarnecki (15^th in 23:17.6), Addie Allen (20^th in 23:32.0) and Kaytlyn Baker (39^th in 27:24.1).

SJ-O had a team score of 31 points. Runner-up Marshall finished with 44 points. Third-place Newton had 80 points and was followed by Effingham (90 points).

SJ-O will return to action on Saturday (Sept. 4) in the Chrisman Cowchip Classic.

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St. Joseph-Ogden completed a unique three-match homestand in three nights on Wednesday with its third two-game sweep in as many days.

The Spartans (13-3) turned back Danville 25-13, 25-13 on Wednesday.

Katelyn Berry had 10 digs, Kennedi Burnett had eight digs and Rylee Stahl had six digs.

Burnett and Lacey Kaiser each swatted six kills. Bigger handed out 16 assists to go with two service aces.

On Tuesday, the Spartans secured a 2-0 sweep over visiting Paxton-Buckley-Loda.

Bigger handed out 26 assists and SJ-O displayed a potent and balanced offensive attack.

Kaiser landed nine kills while Berry and Burnett each delivered seven kills.

Burnett sparked a defense that produced 42 digs. She had nine.

Other team leaders were Berry (seven digs), Lindsey Aden (six digs), Kaiser (six digs), Berry (five digs) and Stahl (five digs).

Bigger had 16 assists and eight digs on Monday as the Spartans blitzed visiting Hoopeston Area, 25-5, 25-5.

Kaiser (six kills), Jenna Albrecht (five kills) and Burnett (five kills) were the offensive sparks.

Berry contributed a team-high 11 digs.

SJ-O (12-3) returns to action on Monday at Urbana.

SJ-O Boys’ cross-country

SJ-O runners were dominant on Tuesday in a non-scored dual meet against Monticello at Kickapoo State Park.

The Spartans swept the second through 10th positions.

SJ-O’s Brandon Mattsey was the meet’s runner-up, running the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, 7 seconds.

The next six Spartan runners finished consecutively and were within 29 seconds of one another.

Eric Poe was third in 19:01, followed by Lukas Hutcherson (fourth in 19:04), Luke Stegall (fifth in 19:07), Logan Wolfersberger (sixth in 19:09), Braden Clampitt (seventh in 19:11) and Elijah Mock (eighth in 19:30).

Completing the top 10 were SJ-O’s Ethan Blackburn (ninth in 20:37) and Charlie Mabry (10th in 20:51).

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational.

SJ-O Girls’ cross-country

In a non-scored dual meet on Tuesday against Monticello at Kickapoo State Park, SJ-O runners swept all of the first five positions.

Jillian Plotner was the individual winner in 21 minutes, 15 seconds for the 3-mile course.

She was followed by Hannah Rajlich (second in 21:20), Ava Knap (third in 21:27), Ashlyn Lannert (fourth in 21:53) and Ally Monk (fifth in 22:07).

SJ-O returns to action on Saturday at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational.

SJ-O Soccer

It was a different day, but the outcome was the same for the St. Joseph-Ogden soccer program.

Three days after losing to Monticello 5-0 in a tournament match at Hoopeston, the Spartans lost a 5-0 decision to Monticello on Tuesday at home.

Monticello is 10-0-1 for the season, SJ-O is 2-8-1 entering a match today at St. Thomas More (9-1-3).

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