This past weekend, Saint Joe Cross Country went through an emotional meet that ended the season for all but 8 athletes. The top seven girls and Zach Taylor made it out of Regionals to represent their team on Saturday, October 24th at Semi-State. 

On October 10th, the cross country post season was put in place. Making it through sectionals as the second and third best teams running at Erskine golf course, both Saint Joe teams were feeling confident going into regionals. At Oxbow park in Elkhart, the Indians took on 9 other teams for the chance to advance.

The Saint Joe girls team raced early in the morning. None of. them cracked the top 20 but they all ran well placing in the top 40.  This consistency brought the team to victory with 6 personal record times out of the 7 runners. As a result, the girls team as a whole finished in fifth place behind Mishawaka and will be representing Saint Joe in semi state!

Soon after, the boys team ran, with standout performances by Zach Taylor and Brendan Pruitt. The boys team unfortunately fell short of making it to semi state since they did not finish as a team in the Top 5.  Zach did move on individually to semi state – placing sixth out of the runners whose team did not advance. 

Saint Joe cross country has not been represented by both the girls and boys team in many years. Last year, alumni Josh Juday represented the Indians at semi state but this year there are 7 additional ladies also joining to represent! It is the first time in eight years that the Saint Joe girls cross country team has been represented in semi state.  This is a particularly impressive achievement considering there are no divisions in cross country and the squad must compete against large schools.  This weekend on October 24th at Huntington University, the Saint Joe boys and girls Indians of the cross country team will be representing Saint Joe proudly in what is likely to be their last race of the season!