Hall's Janusick ninth at Amboy

Hall's Scott Janusick (right) leads the pack at the start of Monday's Amboy Invitational (right), heading a pack including teammate T.J. Mosbach (left) and Bureau Valley's Tevis Mott. (Photo courtesy Mendota Reporter)

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AMBOY — In one of the most competitive 1A races outside of the IHSA cross country meet, Spring Valley Hall’s Scott Janusick surprised even himself by placing ninth out of 252 runners at the 36th annual Amboy Columbus Day Invitational.

Janusick, who was 99th at this meet a year ago, ran his best time ever, 15:03 to help Hall to 18th place out of 33 teams entered.

“I’ve put a lot of hard work and came prepared,” Janusick said. “By far, this was one my best race of the year.”

Bureau Valley placed eighth with Derrick Johnson and Joe Von Holten finishing 27th and 28th in identical times of 15:31.

“The boys ran well,” BV coach Dale Donner said. “We had three in the top 45. Last year, we had no one in the top 45.”

Westmont won the meet 151-168 over Winnebago. Both of those teams, along with fourth-place Sterling Newman, will be at the same sectional as Bureau Valley, making it one of the toughest in the state.

“I’m optimistic about our chances (making state). We’re working hard,” Donner said.

Hall placed 18th with 434 points, picking up a 26th from T.J. Mosbach (15:28).

St. Bede was paced by Szymon Ligas’ 106th-place finish in 16:52.

Princeton did not have any varsity runners, focusing on the F/S meet which they won for the first time since 1989. PHS ran its upperclassmen in the open race.

In the girls race, Elizabeth Mosback of Hall was 27th and Emma Makransky (19:15) of Princeton 48th.

“Emma  looked very good with one of her best runs of the season,” PHS coach Pat Hodge  said.

Hall (663) placed 23rd, PHS (763) 31st and St. Bede (802) 33rd of 33 teams. BV girls opted to run the open race instead of varsity.

St. Bede’s Lucy Stanke was 82nd and Hall’s Dan-iela Acamovic  was 125th.

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