#1 St. Joe-Ogden tried to paint #2 Petersburg-PORTA as the team favorite leading up to the championship. But in reality it was the Spartans who dominated the race with 86 points. It was never even close after the first mile with all scorers in the top 50 throughout the race. St. Joe's #6 runner was the 36th scorer and if you added her in the team score as a handicap the Spartans would still win easily. Freshman Faith Houston and senior Abby Fisher led the way in 8th and 9th team scores.
Effingham St. Anthony sophomore Anna Sophia Keller notched another win under her belt taking the title in 16:27. Keller cruised through the first mile under 5:30 on a solo mission and hit the second frame about 11:30. She was able to keep her composure despite running all alone. The winning time was 16:27- a Class A record. Sophomore Daly Galloway of South Wilmington ran a personal best 16:52. Freshman Arielle Summitt of Urbana University High lived up to the high expectations and finished third in 17:17.
The winds whipped around quite a bit and the course was a little soggy at 8:30-9am in the morning. There was no controversy with the timing system going down. There wa s a 30 minute delay to the start of girls race last year. However, wireless and cell phone devises had issues picking up communications at times. The girls kicked off the championships in fine fashion.
