Peterson punches ticket to nationals with 7th-place showing at Region 4 Championships

GENEVA — Sandburg men's cross country runner Andrew Peterson punched his ticket to the NJCAA Division II Championships with a seventh-place finish in Saturday's Region 4 Championships at Settler's Hill Golf Course.

Peterson, coming off a runner-up showing at the Arrowhead Conference Championships, crossed the line in the 8-kilometer men's race in 29 minutes, 9.82 seconds. The top 15 runners earned spots on the All-Region 4 team and automatically qualified for nationals. Peterson will race at nationals on Nov. 8 at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Freshman Finn Martin came up just shy of joining Peterson at the national meet, placing 16th. While Martin finished on the outside of earning all-region honors, his time of 30:49.5 was a personal best by a significant margin. His previous PR was 32:25.4 at the Heartland Invitational.

Mathias Kiprotich also placed in the top 20 for the Sandburg men, finishing 20th in 33:55.14. The Chargers finished third as a team with 66 points.

Moraine Valley scored 18 points to win the men's championship. Sauk Valley's Charles Link was the men's winner with a time of 27:02.66.

Freshman Faith Rotich was the leading finisher for the Chargers women's team, placing 20th in the 5K race in 25:36.19. Linda Koech, who placed fourth at the Arrowhead Conference meet, was 21st in 25:38.93.

Sandburg scored 82 points, finishing fourth in the team standings. Moraine Valley scored 18 points to easily win the team title. The Cyclones' Eva Zimmerman was the region champion with a winning run of 19:57.69, finishing 1:21 ahead of runner-up Kaylee Sweikar from Sauk Valley. 

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