Allen: “Great things happening with this young team.”

BY FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com

Mahomet-Seymour girls’ cross country placed 14th on Saturday in the 20-school Wheaton Invitational, which features primarily Class 3A schools.

The meet is structured so that all No. 1 runners from a school run against only the No 1s from opposing schools. That format is held through the No. 7 runners, followed by races in a freshmen-sophomore division as well as a junior-senior division.

The Bulldogs’ Elizabeth Sims finished 10th in the race for No. 1 runners, but registered a season-best 3-mile time of 18 minutes, 12.2 seconds.

M-S had one other top 10 placer. At No. 4, Klein Powell was 10th with a time of 19:29.5, which was the second-best time by any Bulldog on the course on Saturday.

Other Bulldog performances in the varsity race: Ella Scott (16th in the No. 2 race, 20:06.8); Grace Lietz (13th in the No. 3 race, 19:35.5); Emily Bednar (17th in the No. 5 race, 20:48.0); Chloe Allen (11th in the No. 6 race, 20:00.8) and Olivia Bunting (12th in the No. 7 race, 20:26.8).

In the 254-runner freshmen-sophomore race, Callie Jansen ended in 34th with a time of 20:21.2.

Also, in that race, Delaney King was 57th in 20:58.4; Alyssa Christensen was 161st in 23:47.0 and Hannah Hofbauer was 178th in 24:07.8.

“Freshmen Callie Jansen had an amazing race, her personal best so far, earning herself a place for us on varsity,” M-S coach Kristin Allen said. “Great things happening with this young team.”

In the 211-runner junior-senior race,  Shaelin Ruzich was 90th in 22:06.1;  Ella Wolters was 126th in 23:21.0 and Gretchen Scheele was 149th in 23:56.1.

Of the 16 runners on this year’s Bulldog roster, four are juniors, nine are sophomores and three are freshmen.

M-S returns to action on Tuesday in the Normal University High Invitational.

The Bulldogs’ boys’ team will also participate in the same meet.