April 24, 2026 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Spartans shine at Distance Night

Four members of the St. Joseph-Ogden High School girls’ track and field program got the chance to compete in one of the more noteworthy events on the track and field calendar.


SJO qualified its distance medley relay and ran this past Saturday at Distance Night in Palatine. The quartet of Hannah Rajlich, Ashlyn Lannert, Jillian Plotner and Cassidy Bagby finished eighth with a time of 13 minutes, 6.19 seconds, competing against much larger schools from throughout the state in an event that featured a 1,200-meter run, a 400 run, 800 run and 1,600 run.


Saturday night’s performance came after the Spartans were able to go through one meet last week amid inclement weather after last Thursday’s GCMS Invitational was canceled because of bad weather. The Spartans traveled to Tolono last Tuesday for a quadrangular meet with host Unity, Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman and Salt Fork.


The Spartans picked up wins in eight events, highlighted by Maclayne Taylor’s sweep in the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash. Taylor sped to wins in both events, taking first in the 100 in 12.55 seconds and following up with a win in the 200 in 26.54 seconds.


Rajlich also took first in the 800 (2:28.2), while the Spartans won three field events as Abbey Behrens in the high jump (4 feet, 10 inches), Grace Schmitz in the pole vault (9-4) and Atleigh Hamilton in the long jump (17-7) soared for the Spartans. SJO’s 400 relay (50.9) and 1,600 relay (4:24.8) also claimed first-place finishes.


Bagby in the 800 (2:29.8), Hamilton in the 300 hurdles (49.02) and Jenna Albrecht in the triple jump (32-11.5) all added second-place efforts, while the 800 relay (2:00.5) also came in second.


Angie Chahine in the 100 hurdles (19.05) and Lannert in the 300 hurdles (53.34) chipped in with third-place finishes in their respective events.


The SJO girls’ program is slated to take part in both the Urbana Invitational and Monticello Invitational this Friday, with both meets starting at 4:30 p.m.
Inclement weather has caused the SJO boys’ program to not compete in a meet since a quadrangular on April 9 at Rantoul.

The Monticello Invitational on April 12 and the Unity Invitational on April 18 were both canceled because of poor weather. The Spartans are slated to return to the track at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in a rescheduled Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Invitational before SJO hosts its annual Spartan Classic at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

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