Immanuel Lutheran students place in state, national competitions
On Oct. 15, the boys and girls cross-country teams from Immanuel Lutheran School in Batavia competed at the Lutheran State Cross Country meet in Bloomington, Illinois.
With more 25 schools represented that day and more than 300 boys and girls competing, the teams ran well. The boys' team earned 10th place with a score of 265 points. Leading the boys' team was Immanuel Lutheran School fifth-grader Sean Heetland, with a time of 13:29 and eighth-grader Ryan Allspach, with a time of 13:33 for the two-mile race. While the team did not qualify for the Lutheran National Cross Country meet, Sean's time earned him a spot to run at Nationals as a fifth-grade individual qualifier.
Immanuel's girls' team took fifth place in the state meet with a score of 113 points. Their fifth-place finish earned the girls' team a trip to Nationals the following weekend. The girls' team has qualified for Lutheran Nationals six out of the last seven years. Leading their team this year was eighth-grader Claire Bittner, with a time of 13:29 for the two-mile race. As an individual, Claire won eighth place in race.
The team's trip to the Lutheran National Cross Country meet, held at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin, occurred last weekend. Immanuel sent 11 girls and one boy to the National meet. Competition was tough, with schools attending from six different states. For the girls' competition, there were 169 girls running from 48 different schools. The Immanuel girls team won ninth place that day and was led by a 10th place finish from Claire Bittner, with a time of 13:21 for the two-mile race. Her 10th place finish earned Claire a medal as a second team All-American. For the boys' competition, there were 229 boys from 39 different schools. As an individual, Sean received 22nd place with a time of 13:10 for the two-mile race. This was Sean's best run of the year and he just missed an All-American medal by 1.5 seconds.
While their cross-country season has ended for 2016, the team shares a lot of good memories and they look forward to creating many more memories next year, as 17 members are returning to the team.