ST. JOSEPH — It was a phenomenal weekend for both cross country teams as they competed in the St. Joseph Spartan Classic on Saturday.

The boys finished with the best result at this meet since 1995, tying Bureau Valley for first place with 126 points in a field of 28 scoring teams. However, Uni lost the tiebreaker determined by the sixth runner and thus finished second. In 1995, the Uni boys squad won the meet.

In cross country, the first five runners on a team score points, and the team with the fewest points wins. In the event of a tie, the team with the higher placing sixth runner wins the tie.

Host team St. Joseph-Ogden, which beat Uni at two meets earlier this season, finished close behind in third with 129 points

The Uni girls also had success, finishing eighth out of 23 scoring teams.

Another impressive performance for the boys

Senior star Malcolm Taylor once again led the Illineks, finishing the 2.95 mile course 14th overall with a time of 16:04, followed by sophomore Albert Anastasio (18th, 16:16).

Sophomore Buck Walsh (32nd) and senior Isaac Chambers (33rd) finished third and fourth on the team with identical times of 16:33.

Junior Nathan Smith rounded off Uni’s scoring in 37th place with a time of 16:40. Smith is usually Uni’s second runner but was nursing a hip injury the week before the Spartan Classic. Saturday was the first time Smith had run in about a week. Had he been healthy, Uni would most likely have won the meet.

Junior Langston Allston-Yeagle was Uni’s sixth runner and finished the course in 17:21, good for 77th place. Allston-Yeagle was only 11 seconds behind Bureau Valley’s sixth runner (66th 17:10).

Sophomore Ziran Shang was Uni’s seventh and final runner, finishing 138th place overall with a time of 18:39.

Uni girls don't let small numbers stop them

The girls team finished eighth with a score of 264 points. Unlike the boys race, the girls ran a 1.97 mile course, which is much shorter than the normal three miles in a cross-country meet.

Junior Elizabeth Russell led the team with a 28th-place finish and a time of 12:31, with senior Elaine Gu close behind in 33rd place with a time of 12:44.

The next Uni runner was junior Katherine Allen in 58th place with a time of 13:11.

Senior Maddy Levin was fourth on the team and 67th overall, finishing the course in 13:21. Junior Brittany Scheid ended Uni’s scoring with a 119th place finish and a time of 14:11.

The girls only entered five runners in the meet, which is the minimum to receive a score.

Both cross country squads will not run again until the Cumberland Invitational on Oct. 11. The invitational will be their final meet before the state series begins with regionals on Oct. 25.