The Sparta cross country teams swept both team competitions as they took first place in the Southern Illinois River-to-River conference boys and girls meets Thursday in Herrin.
The boys finished with 19 points, while the girls had 21.
For the boys, Pinckneyville took second with 73 points followed by Chester (75), Nashville (79) and Anna-Jonesboro (145).
The Sparta boys were so dominating that all seven runners earned all conference honors despite that only the top five were considered for the team score. Sparta’s entire varsity team finished before the second place Panthers’ top runner finished.
Wade Reeves won the conference race with a time of 16:22 followed by Jon Hill (third 16:47), Trevor Morgan (fourth 17:08), Wes Bradshaw (fifth 17:22), Adam White (sixth 17:33), Chris Theobald (seventh 17:35) and Dustin Neff (eighth 17:37).
Pinckneyville was paced by Shay Kellerman (ninth), A.J. Ross (12th), Zach Hall (16th), Luke Miller (17th), Jacob Loos (19th), Dustin Van Meter (20th) and Josh Kuberski (21st).
Chester’s third place squad was led by Brant McMillan (10th), Chad Koenegstein (11th), Devin Valleroy (14th), Link Cushman (15th), Zach Sternberg (25th), Terry Jones (27th) and Brent Knop (29th).
On the girls side, Sparta topped the field with 21 points as the Lady Dawgs placed  five runners in the top 10 and all six in the top 11.
“I knew the girls would run well, as most of the other teams’ girls were complaining about the weather and course,” said Sparta coach Mark North.  Aleigh (Eggemeyer) ran with the Benton girl for about two miles and then put the hammer down and ran away from the field.  The girls all ran pretty well and we got five all conference runners.”
Nashville took second with 61 points followed by Pinckneyville (62) and Chester (77).
Eggemeyer won the conference race with a time of 19:14 to lead the Lady Dawgs. Melyssa Bradshaw took second with a time of 20:43 followed by Kristina Wilson (third 20:44), Kortney Stefani (fifth 21:45), Alexis Kohrs (10th 22:18) and Jackie Robinson (11th 22:31).
Pinckneyville was led by Emily Miller (seventh place), Paige Brocaill (ninth), Mo Ramsey (13th), Katrina Henson (14th), Kiera De Ford (19th), Mallory Timpner (21st) and Sarah Loos (24th).
Chester’s fourth place team was paced by Taylor Yankey (sixth place), Laura Liefer (15th), Emily Reid (16th), Hanna Knop (18th), Jillian Yankey (22nd), Courtney Johnson (25th) and Morgan Colvis (26th).