TRENTON - Lucas Abbott of Metro-East Lutheran finished fourth in the race as the area's best finisher, while the Knights, Roxana, and Father McGivney Catholic all advanced as teams to the IHSA state cross-country meet in the Trenton Wesclin Class 1A boys sectional meet, held Saturday morning, Nov. 1, 2025, at Wesclin High.
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Pinckneyville won the team title with 62 points, with Murphysboro finishing second at 74 points, Metro-East was third at 84 points, the Shells finished fourth with 109 points, Fairfield came in fifth at 174 points, and the Griffins claimed the last team spot, finishing sixth with 191 points. Southwestern placed eighth with 285 points, O'Fallon First Baptist Academy was ninth at 295 points, Okawville was 12th with 318 points, Breese Mater Dei Catholic was 14th with 360 points, and Columbia finished in 19th with 425 points
The individual winner was Caiden Cook of DuQuoin at 14:57.94, with Pinckneyville's London Boman second at 15:22.26, in third place was teammate Pacer Szopinski at 15:27.06. Abbott came in fourth at 15:34.02, and rounding out the top five was Edgar Garcia of Murphysboro at 15:37.29.
Among the individual qualifiers for state next week, Cole Dachsteiner of New Athens led he way among local runners with an eighth-place finish at 15:49.19, Thor Springman of the Piasa Birds was 10th at 15:50.81, Adam Jansen of Belleville Althoff Catholic was 13th at 15:57.23, and Southwestern's Chase Kallal was the last local individual qualifier, finishing 20th at 16:14.72. The top 10 individuals on non-qualifying teams advanced to the state meet.
To go along with Abbott, the Knights saw Jack Shank have a time of 16:01.40. Dean Hemmer had a time of 16:22.16, Henry Reiseck came in at 16:41.32, and Lucas Getta had a time of 17:02.28. Roxana was led by Anthony Hardin, who was in at 16:10.44, with Easton Johnson having a time of 16:19.36, Noah Crump was home at 16:45.11, Peyton Pride had a time of 16:48.82, and Rylan Bisby was in at 16:53.24.
Connor Schmidt led McGivney with a time of 16:41.06, while Eli Germann was in at 17:04.10, Liam Schmidt had a time of 17:11.49, Adam Schmidt was right behind at 17:11.66, and Gabe Theims was home at 17:46.62. In addition to Springman and Kallal, the Piasa Birds saw Bram Beutel in at 18:10.82, Eben Makler had a time of 19:08.12, and Zack Bean's time was 19:15.86.
First Baptist was led by Henry Kohlenberger, with a time of 16:15.06, while Jackson Moore was in at 17:26.07, Laken Beck was home at 17:40.58, Bondi Devine had a time of 17:56.24, and Aiden Perry was in at 20:12.42.
Among local individuals in the race, Chase Lading of Maryville Christian was home at 17:40.09, and Aiden Green of Staunton was home at 17:07.49.
