Jiminez-Magana qualifies for sectional cross country meet
By Mark Jurgena
By virtue of her time at the Class 3A Quincy Regional on Oct. 22, Collinsville High School sophomore Catalina Jiminez-Magana qualified for Saturday’s sectional at Normal.
She ran a time of 23:15.20 on the three-mile course at Bob Mays Park. That time placed her 38th overall but it also grabbed her the final individual qualifying spot among those athletes not qualifying for the sectional based on the score of their team.
“Catalina’s only a sophomore and I think it’s awesome because she ran track last year for the first time and she did not run cross country,” said CHS coach Darryl Frerker. “And here she is going to sectional. It’s been a nice development over the season to get her into the postseason.”
Three other Kahoks finished close together in the final standings.
Claire Garke, Morgan Laing, and Georgia Cox finished 49th -51st at the meet.
Garke finished at 26:12.80 with Laing coming in at 26:25.20. Cox ran a 26:36.90.
Danielle Cary ran a 28:39.90.
Edwardsville edged O’Fallon 39-48 to win the team title at the regional.
The Panthers were led by the individual champion at Quincy in freshman Ellie Bush who ran an 18:35.00. She barely beat out her teammate senior Britney Brown. Brown ran an 18:35.30.
Boys race
Collinsville’s boys team also competed at Mays Park but was unable to send anyone into the next round of competition.
Andrew Gonski led the way for the Kahoks with a time of 18:04.10. That was good for a 39th place finish.
Brian Castro ran an 18:42.20 for 47th place.
Yared Benitz-Salgado finished with a time of 20:24.40. That earned the CHS freshman 63rd place.
Will Slazinik ran 21:30.20 while James Kline ran 21:57.30. Benjamin Simpkins finished in 23:14.80.
O’Fallon ran away with the regional crown scoring a minuscule 20 points to far outdistance Edwardsville’s 63 points for the title.
Dylan Ybarra of O’Fallon won the individual crown with a time of 15:49.80 to lead a clean sweep of the top three places by the Panthers at the meet.
