Cross country: Field set for Gary Coates Invitational at Princeton

The annual Princeton Gary Coates Invitational cross country meet will run Saturday at Zearing Park.

The F/S boys 2.0 mile-race will get things start at 9 a.m. It will be followed by the girls at 9:25 a.m., the varsity boys at 10 a.m. and the open boys and girls race at 10:30 a.m.

Awards will be held at 11:15 a.m.

Amboy-LaMoille, Bureau Valley, Fieldcrest, Hall, Mendota, L-P, St. Bede, Morris, Morrison and Newman will join the Tigers along with Kewanee, Knoxville, Lowpoint-Washburn/Roanoke-Benson, Mercer County, Orion, Rockridge and Sherrard.

The Morris girls and the Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio boys won last year’s team titles. Race winner Brock Loftus of Ohio has graduated and moved on to Heartland College in Normal.

Morris has elected to send its top seven varsity runners on both the boys and girls teams to the First to the Finish meet in Peoria on Saturday, and send its remaining runners to Princeton.

The highest returning boys’ runners are Colin Delagrange of Lowpoint (5th), Derek Coulter of Mercer County (8th), Elijah House of Bureau Valley (10th) and Lucas Schaab of Newman (11th).

The top five returning runners for the girls are Olivia Thomsen of Orion (2nd), Natalee Martin of Kewanee (5th), Hallie Shemek of Sherrard (7th), Eden Mueller (9th) and Sophia Santiago (10th) of Mercer County.