PIT changes course

Saturday’s running of the Princeton Invitational cross country meet will be held at Zearing Park, due to the repaving of the blacktop at City-County Park.

The change will mark the first time the PIT has not been held in City-County Park since 1987 when a 5K race was held on the streets of Princeton. It will be the second time PHS hosted a meet at Zearing Park in three years with the 2007 regional held there.

The meet will involve 19 area teams, beginning with the 9 a.m. F/S boys’ races. The girls will run at 9:25 a.m. with the varsity boys to follow at 10 a.m. There will be an open race at 10:30 a.m. with an awards presentation to follow at 11:15 am.

Area harriers in the races will come from Amboy/LaMoille, Bureau Valley, Hall, Kewanee, LaSalle-Peru, Mendota, Ohio, Princeton and St. Bede. Other schools represented include Aledo, Deer Creek-Mackinaw, Fieldcrest, Sterling Newman, Orion, Polo, Prophetstown/Erie, Rock Falls, Rockridge, Sherrard, Sterling Newman and Wethersfield/Annawan.

Sterling and Ottawa Marquette have opted ot of the PIT in favor of the Peoria Woodruff Invite.

Sterling Newman, ranked No. 6 in 1A, is the boys’ team to beat, Hall’s Scott Janusick and T.J. Mosbach and Bureau Valley’s Derrick Johnson and Nate DeVenney will try to keep the pace with Newman’s Dylan Reyes and Jake Trancoso. DeVenney is nursing an injury.

There will be no ranked girls’ teams in the mix. Leading area runners include Mendota’s Haley Sack, Hall’s Liz Mosbach and PHS’ Emma Makransky and C.J. Rhodes.

• Princeton’s Zach Holmbeck finished second in the JV race at Saturday’s Oregon Invite.