Despite running in less than ideal course conditions while battling the flu, the Sparta cross country teams took second at the Edwardsville Sectional in both the boys and girls competitions.
Carlinville won the boys sectional with 35 points followed by Sparta (72), Lawrenceville (101), Olney-East Richland (121), Freeburg (180), Metro-East Lutheran (189), Roxana (196), Columbia (219), Marissa-Coulterville (271), Pinckneyville (298), Fairfield (328) and Eldorado (342).
The top five teams advanced to the state meet Saturday in Peoria.
On the girls side, Freeburg won the team title with 45 points followed by Sparta (87), Columbia (134), Metro-East Lutheran (152), Carlinville (153), Nashville (156), Staunton (179), Lawrenceville (198), Pinckneyville (212), Chester (212), West Frankfort (263), and Piasa Southwestern (272).
“We ran fairly well considering the absolute mess the course was in,” said Sparta coach Mark North. “By the time the guys ran one stretch the half mile mark was almost impassable with mud bubbling up through the grass. The course is called mud mountain, so the hills were really tough, they spread some straw, but that did little to help the footing. We ran about one minute slower than what we anticipated running. The girls were really fighting the flu, Aleigh (Eggemeyer) had missed a day, Melyssa (Bradshaw) missed three days of practice, Alexis (Kohrs) missed two days and Jackie (Robinson) missed all week, so we really were not sharp. Throw in the fact that on Tuesday and Thursday it rained so hard we couldn’t really do much. It was a bad run of luck up to the sectional. The good news is we still finished in second place which was probably our best shot any way. The boys had similar problems with the flu with Wade Reeves, Trevor Morgan and Wesley Bradshaw all having to miss practice for at least some time and Wade just couldn’t answer the bell at all and did not run Saturday. However, we all survived to run another week.”
Jon Hill stepped in Reeves’ absence and took sixth place overall in a time of 18:00 to lead the Sparta boys. Morgan took 12th at 18:42, while Clint Hawkins finished 14th at 18:49, Dustin Neff took 20th at 18:58, and Adam White took 22nd at 19:00 to round out the team’s scoring. Bradshaw finished in 23rd at 19:01 and Chris Theobald took 37th at 19:25 for Sparta.
On the girls side, Eggemeyer finished in fourth place overall at 21:11 to lead the Lady Bulldogs. Bradshaw was sixth at 22:24, while Kristina Wilson took 12th at 22:59, Kourtney Stefani took 22nd at 23:33, Robinson finished in 55th place at 25:53, and Kohrs claimed 68th at 26:42.
