Eric Ponder has been rolling along this season (Beth Scheid photo)
Girls-
1) St. Joseph (Ogden)-Here they are. The Spartans. 18:46-19:34 top five at Peoria Heights for the win 102-151 over Monticello. This Saturday they go to the St. Thomas More Regional.
2) Petersburg (Porta)-Ran their JV at the Sangamo conference and resting their varsity up for the Quincy Regional.
3) Decatur (St. Teresa)-The St. Teresa Bulldogs are the clear winners of the Central Illinois conference with six runners in the top ten, including Lauren Evelti who won the overall individual race. They run Regionals at Carlinville this Saturday.
4) Urbana (University)-DNR. Will run at the St. Thomas More Regional on Saturday.
5) Kewanee (Wethersfield)-The Flying Geese definitely have had better races. The Flying Geese placed sixth at the Patriot Invite. Still, it would be wise to count them out as Kirstie Ramsey ran better than ever placing second with a 17:40 within only 100 meters of the individual champion Daly Galloway.
6) Rock Island (Alleman)-The Pioneers place second in their conference behind 2A Moline 63-49. Their top 1-5 split at that races was about a minute. They run the at the Farmington Regional.
7) Rochester-Win the Freeburg Invite 58-70 over Freeburg, and place third in the Central State Eight conference behind 2A Chatham-Glenwood and Springfield. The Rockets go down to Quincy for Regionals.
8) Eureka-Finished third in the Cornbelt conference behind 2A Mahomet-Seymour and Normal University, but ahead of Illinois-Valley Central. The top two Quincy McSweeney and Stefani Wiegand both finish in the top ten of this race within twenty seconds of each other. We will see them next at the Farmington Regional.
9) Freeburg-Their top four finish within 17 seconds of each other for a second place finish at the Carlinville Invite behind Rochester. They also win the Cahokia conference with only 25 points with a 50 second 1-5 split with those five runners in the top ten. Next the Lady Midgets host their own Regional.
10) Tolono (Unity)-The fourth and fifth runner gap is going down. Just because Monticello surprised them doesn’t mean that this isn’t happening. The Rockets finish third at the Patriot Invite with 158 points and Nicole Blagwell running 18:18. They join other very talented Central Illinois teams at the St. Thomas More Regional.
11) Seneca-The Fighting Irish placed four in the top ten of the Interstate Eight conference, winning 32-63 over Westmont. This Saturday they go to Peru (St. Bede) for Regionals.
12) Monticello-Looks like we have another unanticipated trophy contender. Maddie Tuitch ran a great 18:23 race finishing seventh overall at the Patriot Invite, and the top four went 19:25-20:08. Will run the St. Thomas More Regional.
13) Winnebago-Finished fourth in the Big Northern Conference behind all 2A teams. The Indians will next be hosting their own
14) Elmwood-Brimfield-The Lady Trojans finish fifth in the Patriot Invite, through a very tight pack going from 19:54-20:21. They run at the Farmington Regional this Saturday.
15) Macomb-The bombers look like a strong team, as they have all season, but Patriot Invite signifies that they have emerging competition. They finished ninth as a team with the duo of Karla Mendoza and Ashley Plumb leading the way with times of 18:32 and 18:42. Next week they run the West Central Conference Tuesday and host their own Regional on Saturday.
16) Henry (H.-Senachwine)-Definitely a previously unranked team to reckon with, finishing fourth in the Patriot Invite. Their top 3 spanned from 18:34-19:32 at Patriot and their 4 and 5 ran together just below the 21:00 mark. Next they run the Regional hosted by Peru (St. Bede).
17) Monmouth-Roseville-DNR. Next they run their West Central Conference race Tuesday then run at Macomb for Regionals on Saturday.
18) Herrin-Won the Ohio division of the River-to-River conference with only 33 points. Maura Farrell and Kara Martin finish one and two respectively in their overall place. This Saturday the Tigers go down to the Chester Regional.
19) Carlinville-Finished fifth in their invitational with Colleen Madden looking strong as the winner over Madeline Campbell of Rochester by over 20 seconds. The Cavaliers will host their own Regional.
20) Carterville- Although the Lady Lions sat one of their top five runner out, they still won the Mississippi division of the River-to-River conference with 43 points. Next they run at the Chester Regional.
Boys-
1) Monticello-The sages run a great race at the Patriot Invite but alas lose to Unity who came in with the stronger top five (although Monticello had a slightly stronger top 3). Matt Norvell places second in the race with 15:23. They run regionals at St. Thomas More.
2) Elmwood-Brimfield-All in a day’s training: Considering that the Trojans decided to wear trainers, they also ran a really impressive race at the Patriot Invite, especially Matt Omulski’s 15:39, and the first place trophy is within grasp. They finished fifth as a team, but put into perspective that they ran John Barrat in the open race, who won it win 16:47. They run at the Farmington Regional.
3) Rockford (Christian)-Received the double conference crown of Nick Monkemeyer individually winning the 2.85 mile race with a time of 14:25 and the team victory 68-79 over Winnebago. Additionally their whole top seven finished in the top 25 (and ahead of Johnsburg and Winnebago’s fifth). The Northern Illinois team battle will continue as they run Regionals this Saturday at Winnebago.
4) Tolono (Unity)-A big week for the Rockets at the Patriot Invite as Andrew Warnes won the individual title in a time of 15:13, and the unanswered pack of four that went 15:51-15:58 resulted in the team title 73-86 over Monticello. Catch this new team favorite at the St. Thomas More Regional.
5) Sterling (Newman Catholic)-Can’t say we didn’t expect a strong placing this time from Newman Catholic. Even though they had a more noticeable fifth man gap this time, their second runner Chris Ahlers was the fastest second runner in the race with 15:49, with Bryson Reyes in the top ten with 15:37. The comets take third with 157 points. Catch them next at the Rock Falls Regional.
6) Shelbyville-The Rams didn’t win the Central Illinois Conference so much as dominate it. After Eric Ponder the next eight overall finishers in that race were from Shelbyville, and they spanned from 15:46-17:26. After this impressive feat, they took Patriot Invite off. We will see them next at the Carlinville Regional.
7) Johnsburg-The Skyhawks finish take third in their conference with 88 points. Their 1-4 split was 30 seconds, but their fifth man was a little far back which ended up hurting them a fair amount in points. They will race some very identical conference teams at the Winnebago Regional.
8) Winnebago-The Indians placed second in the very competitive Big Northern Conference. Nathan Smith and Nathan Ambrose finish third and sixth respectively with times of 14:25 and 14:52. They will next host their own Regional.
9) St. Joseph Ogden-Justin Phillips really stepped up nicely at the Patriot Invite running with their top runner Brennan Guido in times of 15:47 and 15:56 respectively, with the team placing fourth one point behind Newman. They run regionals at St. Thomas More.
10) Freeburg-The Midgets ran their varsity this time and boy did we miss them. They win the Carlinville invite 35-42 over Rochester. Jonathan Kraus is back in top form and leads the way with the top five split only 32 seconds. They also win the Cahokia conference in a perfect score of 15 points (Kraus the individual winner) with a 1-6 split of eleven seconds. Next they host their own Regional.
11) Rochester-The Rockets finish shortly behind Freeburg at the Carlinville, however they ran a much more impressive second place race at the Central State Eight 68-35 behind 2A Springfield, but two points ahead of 2A Chatham-Glenwood. We will next see them at Quincy.
12) Pleasant Plains-Finished seventh at the Patriot Invite, with Tyler Johnson third overall with a time of 15:24. They have their regionals at Quincy this Saturday.
13) Paxton Buckley-Loda-Finished eleventh at the Patriot Invite, but immediately one sees that they didn’t run Nick Porter. The Panthers run at the St. Thomas More Regional.
14) Mt. Zion-Finished fifth in the Apollo conference where Curtis Reed and Mohammad Hosseini went 1-2 individually in that race. The Braves run at the Carlinville Regional.
15) Tremont-DNR. We will see the Turks running at the Farmington Regional.
16) Rock Falls-Brayden Hemblen and Seth Williams took second fifth individually in the Big Northern Conference with times of 14:28 and 14:43. The team took eighth behind some 2A teams as well as Rockford Christian, Winnebago, and Johnsburg. This Saturday they host their own Regional.
17) El-Paso Gridley-The Titans finish ninth at the Patriot Invite, with Hunter Cobbley finishing seventh in the individual race. They go down to the Farmington Regional.
18) Westmont-The Sentinels won the Interstate Eight conference 56-94 over Sandwich; their top three all finished in the top five of that race. Next they run the Aurora Christian Regional.
19) Urbana (University)-DNR. Will run at the St. Thomas More Regional on Saturday.
20) Beecher-The Bobcats take twelfth at the Patriot Invite. Next they run the Kankakee Regional.