In his last cross country meet as Sparta’s head coach, Mark North watched and helped the Bulldogs finish sixth at the Class 1A state finals Saturday at Detweiler Park in Peoria.
“Any time you can place in the top eight, the elite eight, it’s a good finish,” said North. “Of course, we would have liked to finish a little bit higher and brought some hardware back to the school, but you can’t complain about how hard these guys ran.”
For the first time in school history, three Bulldogs, Wade Reeves, Jon Hill and Wes Bradshaw, were named all state for their top 25 finish. Coming into the state finals, the program had a total of three all staters in its history. That total doubled to six after Saturday’s final performance by the Bulldogs.
“That is just a testimony on how hard those guys work,” added North. “With this being the last time I coach cross country, it is pretty satisfying to end things like this. We knew coming into the season we could be pretty good. This team had high hopes and high expectations. There are no regrets, everyone who ran, left it all out on the course.”
Beecher claimed the state title with 80 points, followed by Olney East Richland (150), Monticello (161), Elmwood (188), Ottawa Marquette (191), Sparta (214), Westmont (224), Rochester (227), Urbana University High (235) and Tolony Unity (237) to round out the top 10.
Wade Reeves took 12th overall to lead Sparta, while Jon Hill finished 22nd followed by teammate Wes Bradshaw at 23rd. Trevor Morgan placed 116th and Adam White took 125th to round out the team’s scoring.
Chester’s Devin Valleroy finished in 85th place.
North finishes his 24-year cross country coaching career, by leaving behind quite a legacy.
His boys teams have qualified for state 16 times with 13 of them placing in the top 20. The Bulldogs have also won five sectional titles and 18 regionals under his direction. As coach for the girls, North has had teams qualify for state 11 times, with three sectional and 11 regional titles.
“Looking back at cross country, we had a lot of fun and a lot of success,” said North in closing.