Wayback Wednesday: 2007 Track Sectional

On May 11, 2007, back when IHSA track & field was a two-class system, the St. Joseph-Ogden girls track team competed for a chance to advance to the state meet the following week held at O'Brien Stadium at Eastern Illinois University.

The Spartans, led by alum Andy Derks, failed to place in the top six in the team standings at the meet. Junior Hannah Hogan was the only Spartan to advance state.

Since then SJO's running program has blossomed into a perennial small school track powerhouse. In the past decade, the Spartans have brought home state hardware on five occasions. The bounty includes one state title, one runner-up title and three third place IHSA trophies joining the second place trophy won in 1978 and a 2000 state championship award.

Here are three of our favorite PhotoNews photos from that meet. View the entire collection here . . .


Hannah Hogan runs to a second place finish in the 3,200 meter run. She finished her eight loops in 12 minutes, 22.75 seconds. Hogan was a three-time state finalist in cross-country for the Spartans. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)



Hoping to qualify for state, Melissa Studinarz explodes out of the blocks in the 400m dash. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)



Senior Dayna Long runs the one-mile race on Friday. See more photos of Long in the PhotoNews Spartan archives here . . .

Hardest hitting Spartan football players exposed

The 2019 football season just weeks away from kicking off and there is a great discussion on the St. Joseph-Ogden Football Fan Page on Facebook listing the hardest hitting linemen who put on the Spartan uniform.

Brandon Cheek put his shoulder to Lions' Dallas Gustafson on his way into the backfield during their playoff game on November 6, 2004. Cheek was mentioned as one of the many linemen mentioned in a post on Facebook about SJO's hardest hitting linemen. St. Joseph-Ogden beat Marshall in the muddiest games in program history of a field 7-3 advancing to face former conference rival. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

With 20 comments so far, several former players and fans have responded mentioning more than 15 players dating back as far as 1992 who could put a hurtin' on gridiron opponents.

Current head coach Shawn Skinner, who was a member of the 1989 football team that made the program's first state title game appearance and enters his fifth year at the Spartan helm, received a nod in the comments section.

Still members of the Illini Prairie Conference, Skinner and the SJO football program open their 2019 season against St. Thomas More at home on August 31. In their previous meeting, the Spartans held STM scoreless in the second half of their road confrontation to win, 30-9.

Below is a screen capture of a portion of the conversation about some of the Spartans' most memorable linemen over the years. See the complete thread here . . .