Several local high school cross country runners punched their tickets to Peoria by virtue of strong finishes in sectional meets on Saturday. 

In the Class 1A Benton Sectional, Columbia’s Ethan Hogan placed fourth and Columbia’s Calvin Range placed seventh overall to qualify for state. Hogan’s sectional finish time in the 2.92-mile race was 14:51.40. Range finished with a time of 15:29.50. 

Dupo’s Peter Taylor placed 23rd and Valmeyer’s Oscar Hoerr placed 25th at the sectional, but did not qualify for state.

In the Class 1A girls race, Columbia’s Madison Missey placed 19th overall to also qualify for state, which takes place Nov. 5 at Detweiller Park in Peoria. Missey finished with a sectional time of 18:44.70.

In the Class 2A Chatham-Glenwood Sectional, Waterloo’s Joe Schwartz placed 13th to qualify for state yet again. Schwartz, a senior, finished with a time of 15:47 in the three-mile race. The first place finisher ran a time of 14:06.30.

In the Class 2A girls race, the Waterloo girls placed fifth to qualify for state as a team. 

The Bulldogs were led by Cameron Crump (14th place), Ava Rau (20th place), Angelynn Kanyuck (24th place) and Danielle Mudd (26th place). Crump’s finish time was 18:30. The first place finisher in this race had a time of 16:43.50.