Concluding the cross country season, senior Alex Lopez and sophomore Simon Lane competed in the IHSA State Cross Country meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria on Nov. 5. Running the three-mile course, Alex placed 155th out of 258, with a time of 17:33, and Simon placed 175th, with a time of 17:49.

The competition was held in the rain, and Alex said he thought they did all right given the unfavorable weather conditions.

“It was pouring rain and it was very muddy,” Simon said. “We did not run fast, but neither did literally anybody else. It was a weird day, but it was fun to go out there.”

The team competed at the sectional meet on Oct. 29 at Harvest Christian Academy. While the team did not qualify for state, Alex was the No. 7 individual qualifier out of 10 and Simon was No. 10.

“We got very close to making state as a team,” Simon said. “Within a couple seconds probably would have done it here or there.”

Except for a few setbacks, Alex said the season went well overall.

“It was all right, but we both got an injury,” he said. “Simon got a stress fracture, and I had a knee injury in the middle of the season.”

Despite the injury keeping him from running for some time, Simon said that he thinks this season was more successful than last year’s.

“The season was pretty good, we made quite a significant improvement from last season,” Simon said. “Everybody ran faster and people were working a lot harder.”