1971 Centralia High School Cross-Country Team
The Centralia Sports Hall of Fame
1990 Team Award Winner

   This dedicated group of runners swept everything in Southern Illinois and then proved they could compete with Northern Schools as they placed second in the State meet. 

   The 1971 Orphans Cross Country team was an awesome bunch of hard-working dedicated runners. They won all six of their dual and triangular meets, eight invitational meets, the South Seven conference, and finished fourth in the 44 team Peoria Invitational, a preview of the state meet, and second in the 42 team Mattoon Invitational.

   With Mike Heitkamp, Paul Reynolds, Charlie Simpson and Stan Vannier leading the way the team romped to titles in the District and Sectional meets and went to the State meet at Peoria to prove they could compete with the Northern Suburban schools for the title.

    With Heitkamp finishing 20^th, Reynolds 29^th, Simpson 24^th, Vannier 49^th, Doug Segar 89^th, Ben Reynolds 132^nd, and Marc Profancik 139^th, the Orphans proved what they had set out to do. They finished second tro perennial power Elmhurst York (67) with a score of 136 while Maine East had 137 and Riverside-Brookfield 138.

    All told, CHS finished ahead of 313 teams on its meet schedule with only five opponents beating the Orphans team-wise. Several members of the team went on to compete at the collegiate level with Heitkamp at Missouri, Paul Reynolds at Illinois, Vannier, Simpson and Profancik at SIU-E.