Olney , IL — The Carterville girls punched their ticket to the State Cross Country meet in Peoria this upcoming weekend after a stellar performance at the Olney 2A Sectional. Carterville placed 3rd overall, falling only to top ranked Chatham Glenwood and Rochester. Molly Robertson raced to a 2nd place finish in 18:03 for the 3 mile course, followed by teammates Lyla Seaman in 20th place (19:03) and Laney Sambursky in 28th place (19:23). Carterville’s final 2 scoring runners, Dani Williamson and Marcela Wood, had to maneuver around runners throughout the race to cross the finish line in 56th (20:18) and 71st (20:44) place respectively. Lillian Carsrud (21:26) and Liesel Balmforth (22:10) also competed for the Lions, both setting PR’s for themselves in the process. There were 138 total runners. The Boys XC Sectional race can be described as fast and furious, with several top ranked teams competing. Carterville ended the day in 14th place among the 18 teams and 137 runners. The Lions had their first 3 runners within a second of each other with August Anderson placing 51st (16:34), James Samples 53rd (16:35:22), and Reece Scott 54th (16:35:24). The final 2 scoring runners, Rowan Beyke and Mason Webb, tried closing the gap with their front runners and ended in 83rd place (17:06) and 90th place (17:11) respectively. Nick Korte (18:08) and Jack Robertson (18:18) also had strong performances while competing for the Lions. Highland won the race, followed by Mahomet Seymour in 2nd place and Marion in 3rd place.