Knott, Mattsey lead SJO at Rantoul Invite

Running against a solid field of competitors from Bloom Township, Herscher, Kankakee and 11 other schools, the St. Joseph-Ogden boys track team finished seventh out of a field of 15 schools at the 2019 Rantoul Invite on Saturday. Earning 55 points, SJO finished two points behind Mahomet-Seymour (57 points, 6th place) and a mere three below Urbana(5th place) in fifth place.


St. Joseph-Ogden's Isiah McCune runs to the finish line at the 2018 state XC meet
St. Joseph-Ogden's Isiah McCune runs to the finish line at the 2018 Illinois High School Association Cross Country State Finals on Saturday, November 3, 2018. The senior finished second in last Saturday's 3200 Meter run at the Rantoul Invite. He finished the Class 1A state race last fall in 44th place overall with a time of 15:50.19. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks) (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)


Earning 20 points for the Spartans, Hayden Knott placed first in both the junior varsity discus and shot put competition.

Throws from Rantoul's Brandon Lord and Danville's Joseph Irons were nowhere near Knott's best throw of the day in the shot competition. The 2018 state-qualifier sent the heavy ball 44-6 3/4, which surpassed the meet record of 40-7 1/2 and his personal best going into the meet by 10 inches. He was the only underclassman to exceed 40 feet.

Knott also recorded a new personal record in the discus, launching it 152-4. His previous personal best was 139-1. The toss broke the old fresh/soph record of 108-04 established by St. Joseph-Ogden's Max Chaterton in 2017.

Brandon Mattsey won the Freshman/Sophomore 1600m Run with a time of 5:00.61. He clocked in three seconds ahead of Monticello's Ed Mitchell (5:03.43) and beat Nathan Rotundo, from McHenry, who finished third at 5:04.22. His time was just a little more than five seconds off his career best of 4:55.40.

Running with Lukas Hutcherson, Elijah Mock and Luke Stegall in the fresh/soph 4x800 race, Mattsey helped the team to four team points by way of a fourth place finish with a time of 09:23.81.

Other top performances included a great effort by senior Isiah McCune, who finished second in the 3200 Meter Run. Nolan Peacock cleared 12'6" to place fourth in the pole vault competition and Lane Gaskin took third in 200 Meter Dash.