Janusick and Johnson medal; Storm finish eighth
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| The Bureau Valley Storm warm up for Saturday’s 1A state cross country finals in Peoria. They finished eighth, the third best finish in school history. (BCR photo/Chris Yucus) |
PEORIA — The weather finally warmed up, and so did area runners, as Hall’s Scott Janusick and Bureau Valley’s Derrick Johnson medaled at Saturday’s class 1A state cross-country finals held at Detweiller Park in Peoria. The Storm finished eighth amongst the 20 teams competing, with a score of 215.
Janusick, who came through the chute 14th with a time of 15:35, finally got a chance to put his trademark sunglasses to real use, as the weather cooperated for the for the race with sunny skies and temps in the 60s, after cold and wet conditions the past two weeks at the regional and sectional races.
“This is about perfect, the hotter it gets the better I run,” said Janusick.
“I felt really good,” said Janusick, Hall’s fifth all-stater in school history, who was competing for a top-10 finish before dropping a few places down the final stretch.
“For Scott, one great thing is the progression being made,” said Hall coach Tom Keegan about his standout runner, who finished 24th at state a year ago. “There’s some feedback for him, that some of things he’s doing, he’s doing them right.
Johnson, a sophomore for the Storm, placed 23rd, crossing the finish line at 15:51, his fastest three-mile time this season.
“It’s mixed feelings I guess,” Johnson said, “I’m really happy, but people beat me that shouldn’t have beat me.”
Johnson said he had mixed feelings about the warm race conditions as well, as he thought it would benefit him, but perhaps not his teammates.
“Our team runs well in the cold, with the exception of me, so I was a little uneasy with the nice weather,” Johnson said.
Derrick’s older brother Trent Johnson was the Storm’s second-best runner, finishing 33rd at 16:24. The Storm senior said that he was very glad to better last year’s 76th place finish, and end his prep cross-country career with his teammates at state.
“These are an awesome group of guys,” Trent said. “Our goal all year was to make it to state. I think we all ran real good races.”
Sophomore Ryan Johnson (67th, 16:44) and juniors Cody Taylor (75th, 16:48) and Nate DeVenney (97th 17:07) rounded out the scoring for the eighth-place Storm, with Jeremy Culver (124th, 17:32) and Kenny Catton (151st, 18:28) also running.
“We’re very happy with how we finished,” said Storm coach Dale Donner, whose squad finished sixth last year at state. “It’s an honor to get down there and place in the top 10. It’s a super accomplishment to finish two years in a row in the top-10, hopefully we can continue that tradition next year.”
Princeton sophomore C.J. Rhodes, the area’s lone female qualifier for state, came in 66th at 20:03.
“I’m really glad to have had a chance to run at state,” said Rhodes, “It’s something I’m definitely going to remember.”
“It was kind of a mixed bag for C.J.,” said Princeton coach Pat Hodge. “She had her best ever first two miles, but ran out of gas on mile three.”
Hodge said that Rhodes’ accomplishments were very impressive given that she split time between the sports of volleyball and cross country this fall.
“Needless to say, she did a great job for a girl that without as much training as most of those out there today, coming off the volleyball court. I was proud of her effort,” Hodge said.
Hall senior T.J. Mosbach, who qualified for state as an individual, along with Janusick, placed 49th, finishing at 16:23.
Mosbach, who was disappointed with his finish, said that he knew it just was not his day early in the race.
“I just didn’t have it today,” Mosbach said.
“It was one of those days where he just didn’t feel a whole lot of energy,” Keegan said. “It just wasn’t in the cards to have his best performance.”
“One race doesn’t define a season,” Keegan said. “His goal was to get to state, he achieved that, and that’s something to be extremely proud of. The body of work he had over the season was pretty good proof of what he did.”
• Notes: Rockford Christian junior Justin Rehfeldt captured the 1A state crown with a first-place time of 15:13. Sterling Newman, Bureau Valley’s Three Rivers Conference running mates, took home the 1A team title with a score of 122, one point ahead of second-place Canton (123), Carlinville claimed the third-place trophy with a score of 175.
In the girls’ 1A race senior Kelly Curran of Blomington Central Catholic was the winner at 17:46. Winnebago hoisted the first-place team trophy with a tally of 123, Decautur St. Teresa finished second at 127, and Elmwood was third with a score of 129.
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