Spartan cross country team places 2nd, Unity comes in 4th

Carson Maroon, Charlie Mabry and Brandon Mattsey finished within six seconds of each other to lift the St. Joseph-Ogden boys cross country team to a second place finish at the St. Teresa Sectional last Saturday. For Spartan harriers finised in the top 20.

Maroon, SJO's top finisher, crossed over in 12th place at 16:31. Mabry and Mattsey finished with a .1 of second split 14th and 15th. Meanwhile, not far behind Logan Wolferberger's 19th place in 16 minutes, 43.6 seconds helped the team pull away from Monticello, who finished in third place. Six runners later, Elijah Mock rounded out St. Joseph-Ogden's top five finishers to tabulate a total of 82 points.

Unity finished in fourth place behind fellow Illini Prairie Conference Monticello with 120 points. Led by senior Connor O'Donnell, the Rockets' squad crossed 11-17-21-47-49 after running their second consecutive weekend at Hickory Point Golf Course in Maroa.

O'Donnell's ran the three-mile course in 16 minutes, 28.8 seconds good for an 11th place finish. Twelve second later, teammate Ben Gavel finished at 16:40.3 as the 17th finisher of the Class 1A boys race. Thomas Cler rounded out the effort of Unity's top three runners nearly a minute later at 17:37.9.

Both the Spartans and Rockets would have advanced to the next race hosted by the Illinois High School Association this weekend under normal circumstances. Due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, the IHSA canceled this year's race making sectional titles will be the highest honors for cross country during the current academic season.

2020 St. Teresa Sectional Results -

11. Connor O'Donnell (Unity) 16:28.8, 12. Carson Maroon (SJO) 16:31.0, 14. Charlie Mabry (SJO) 16:37.0, 15. Brandon Mattsey (SJO) 16:37.1, 17. Ben Gavel (Unity) 16:40.3, 19. Logan Wolfersberger (SJO) 16:43.6, 21. Jarrett Cox (Unity) 16:44.9, 25. Elijah Mock (SJO) 16:56.6, 40. Luke Stegall (SJO) 17:29.8, 44. Spencer Wilson (SJO) 17:34.2, 47. Thomas Cler (Unity) 17:37.9, 49. Clayton Jamison (Unity) 17:39.3, 103. Bryson Denny (Unity) 19:43.9.