CROSS COUNTRY: Panthers win Sectional; Keith finishes 2nd

The Pinckneyville Panthers boys cross country team added their biggest chunk of hardware to date this season on Saturday, winning the Edwardsville Sectional to advance to the IHSA State Final Meet in Peoria on November 7. They'll be joined by Lady Panther Sophie Keith, who took second place in the girls' race at Edwardsville.

Three Panthers - Grant Batteau (6th), Cale Jausel (7th) and Garrett Johnson (10th) - finished in the top ten of the boys' race to help put PCHS on top of the field of 21 teams plus 15 additional individual runners. Dustin Bartnicki (17th) and Caleb Logan (29th) rounded out the top five for Pinckneyville's boys.

The Lady Panthers finished 11th as a team at the event, but Keith's 2nd place time of 19:51.15 will send her to Detweiller Park for the State Finals. Savannah Cheek (40th), Lindsey Taylor (89th), Hannah Porter (95th) and Madison Garavaglia (97th) made up the rest of PCHS's girls' top five.

Du Quoin's girls came up just one position shy of advancing, coming in 6th. Their team score was made up of finishes by Andrea Lopez (20th), Quinn Kirkpatrick (35th), Kate Smith (65th), Olivia Cravens (67th) and Chloe Hill (68th).