ALAH XC runs fast at St. Joseph Spartan Classic
The ALAH Knights cross country team brought home the third place team trophy from the 49th Annual Spartan Classic race held on the streets of St. Joseph on Saturday, September 25. Pictured here with the team plaque are: Coach Lyle Dorjahn, Jacob Adcock, Jace Green, Logan Beckmier, Jacob Duzan and Lyle Adcock. The Knights will be hosting and running the LPC conference meet at Lovington Grade School next Saturday, October 2. The boys are defending conference champs and would really appreciate a huge crowd to come see them defend their title!!
The Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond cross country squad went north again on Saturday, September 25 to run the 49th version of the Spartan Classic. Taking only a boys varsity scoring group of 5, they toured the 3 mile course on the streets of St. Joseph.
Lined up at the start with 23 teams totalling 156 runners, Head Referee Bob Rice fired his pistol at 9:00 am on a beautiful crisp autumn morning.
Knight runners again forged toward the front with their top 4 again chasing Ryder James of PBL. Logan Beckmier was closest clearing the mile and 2 mile marks in 5:00 & 10:10 respectively. Staying in their usual tight pack, Jace Green, Jacob Adcock, and Lyle Adcock were 10 and 20 seconds behind at both mile posts. Jacob Duzan, still affected by spring track injuries trailed his mates about a minute off the pace.
Racing to an exciting conclusion around the storied track at Dick Duval Field, Beckmier leads his teammates to the line in a big PR of 15:23 finishing 4th overall and for the 2nd week in a row, gathering the award for top Placer of his Junior contemporaries. PBL’s James blazed the course in an incredible time of 14:21.
Jace Green continues his consistency finishing off a PR of 16:07 in 13th position. Jacob Adcock goes 15th lopping over 25 seconds off his personal best running 16:09.4. Brother Lyle Adcock continues to gain fitness in his return from injury finishing steps behind in another PR of 16:09.7 at 16th place overall. Jacob Duzan completed the Knight’s scoring in 74th position duplicating his time of near 18 flat from the previous week.
The top 4 Knights received trophies for their top 25 finish and Duzan medaled as a top 100 finisher.
In the team race, #2 SJO held service on their home court and dominated the event with 65 points. Decatur St Teresa (#7) showed improvement scoring 104 to gather 2nd place with the ALAH Knights just behind with 116. Our locals out ran state ranked teams from Monticello, Tuscola, Shelbyville, PBL, Unity, and El Paso Gridley.
Next up, the boys and girls run the Lincoln Prairie Conference Championship on Saturday, October 2 at 9:15am in Lovington.
ALAH is hosting this event for the first time on a very spectator friendly course around Lovington Grade School.
Cross Country Senior Day ceremony honoring Jace Green and Jacob Duzan will be conducted at conclusion of the meet. Please support your Knight’s runners at their only home meet of the year as they attempt to repeat as conference champions.
