ALAH Knights Shine At Sabre Classic
On Saturday August 29, the men’s and women’s Knights cross country teams traveled to Champaign to participate in the annual St. Thomas More Invite. Historically this is the most competitive class 1A downstate meet of the opening weekend of the season.
Though teams were limited in numbers due to social distancing requests, the quality of entrants was as powerful as usual. Running in 3 flights each of boys and girls so to keep numbers under 50 people per IHSA mandates, ALAH took on several state powerhouse programs.
On the boys side, the Knights may have had the best meet in school history. Taking on the #1 & #2 ranked teams in the state, (Monticello & Stanford Olympia) ALAH ran proud finishing 2nd to Olympia by 20 points and outdistancing Monticello by 17.
Leading the Knights charge was Senior Layton Hall. Running in a group with state super stars Ryder James of PBL and Charlie Kistner of Olympia, Hall hammered the final mile to defeat James by 16 seconds with a monumental personal best of 14:53.1.
Following close behind in 4th was Hall’s Sophomore teammate Logan Beckmier. Logan also drops a big PR traveling the 3 mile course in 15:43.4. Sophomore Lyle Adcock was the 3rd Knight in the 1st heat running PR of 16:58.8 providing a strong finish to place 14th overall. Junior Jace
Green led the Knights attack in the 2nd heat going 17:23 finishing 15th overall. Jacob Adcock continues to drop time running a personal best of 17:49.3 while finishing 21st. Jacob Duzan improves his PR with an 18:47 to finish 35th. Freshman Jesus Corona and Sophomore Connor Edmonds represented well in the 3rd heat running 19:01 & 19:04 to finish 40th and 42nd respectively in the overall tally while both running PRs.
The Lady Knights also jumped into the deep end of the pool at STM. The Monticello and Olympia girls are as stout as their male counterparts in cross country. Being the #2 & #3 state ranked teams, they proved it while dominating the competition.
Our Lady Knights competed very favorably with many person best to finish 5th behind the previously mentioned squads as well as perennial powers St. Thomas More and PBL. Leading the Knights again was Sophomore Charley Condill. She continues to drop time with PR of 21:49.6 to finish 20th. Not far behind was a vastly improved Alisha Frederick running 22:50 establishing a new best while finishing 30th. Sarah Rafferty, Emma Edwards, and Makenzie Brown go 33, 35 and 36 respectively with Rafferty establishing a PR of 23:20. Mackenzi Bowles finishes for the ladies in 60th position while dropping 20 seconds off her PR.
The Knights are back in action September 1 at Sullivan and at Chrisman’s Cow Chip Classic Saturday, September 5 at 11:00am.
