Unity takes 2nd at conference meet, SJO girls 5th

Unity's Taylor Joop runs the first lap around the course at the 2019 IHSA cross country state meet. Joop finished in 9th place at Saturday's Illini Prairie Conference meet in St. Joseph.

Photo: PhotoNews Media

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Fourteen area long distance runners competed in this year's Illini Prairie Conference meet held Saturday at the Woodard Family Park and Sports Complex. By the time trodden grassy surface settled, the Unity girls cross country squad learned of their second place team finish via 45 points tallied in the team competition. Ninety-six points behind them, host St. Joseph-Ogden finished in fifth place with 136.

Individually, Rockets' Erica Woodard paced all area runners around the course closing out her race in 18 minutes, 18 seconds for a fourth place overall finish. Nearly a minute later, teammates Caelyn Kleparski (8th) and Taylor Joop (9th) crossed the finish line at 19:12 and 19:15, respectively.

Ava Knap let the Spartan contingent finishing the 3-mile course with a time of 20:19.21. She was followed over the line by Helene Jones and Chloe Burkholter to round SJO's top three finishers. Jones finished two spots behind Knap in 23rd place overall. Meanwhile, Burkholter ended her run 30th out of 56 runners on Saturday.

This year's meet champion was Monticello with 29 points. Olympia won third place honors with a score of 90 points.

Illini Prairie Conference meet results:

4	Erica Woodard	Unity	18:18.00
8	Caelyn Kleparski	Unity	19:12.99
9	Taylor Joop	Unity	19:15.09
11	Elizabeth Hulick	Unity	19:26.23
13	Olivia Shike	Unity	19:38.08
16	Malla Fairbanks	Unity	19:55.97
20	Ava Knap	SJO	20:19.21
22	Helene Jones	SJO	20:28.93
26	Audrey Remole	Unity	20:45.34
29	Chloe Burkholter	SJO	20:58.85
31	Malorie Sarnecki	SJO	21:03.39
34	Kailyn Ingram	SJO	21:11.77
35	Addie Allen	SJO	21:22.56
39	Ashlyn Lannert	SJO	21:49.06