Oct. 18 update: Sarah Vaughen placed 18th today at the IESA state meet in Normal. She ran the two-mile course in 12 minutes, 34 seconds.

PAXTON — Subfreshman Sarah Vaughen was the first to cross the finish line on Saturday at the Illinois Elementary School Association sectional meet at Paxton-Buckley-Loda.

Vaughen ran the two-mile course in a time of 13 minutes, 4 seconds, outpacing the field of 51 runners.

As one of the top five runners not qualifying as a team, Sarah advances to the IESA state championship meet to be held at Maxwell Park in Normal next Saturday.

On the boys side, Uni's team of Stirling Lemme, Henry Carlton, Wyatt Bensken, David Gong, and Andrew Ferguson placed sixth in the team results.

St. Matthew, PBL, and Monticello were the top three teams, qualifying for the state meet.