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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