Bode and Mills finish IESA meet at All-State runners, boys place fourth, girls ninth
By Fred Kroner
Mahomet-Seymour’s junior high cross-country squads produced two individual All-State runners and two top-10 team finishes on Saturday (Oct. 15) in the Class 3A IESA state meet at Normal’s Maxwell Park.
The boys’ squad placed fourth in the 27-school event, led by All-Stater Tate Bode, an eighth-grader who finished the 2-mile course in 11 minutes and five seconds. He ended in 17th place.
The M-S girls’ team captured ninth, also in a 27-school field. The team leader was All-Stater Taylor Mills, an eighth-grader who completed the course in 12 minutes and 14 seconds.
None of the Bulldogs’ seven entrants in the boys’ race ran at state a year ago.
The team’s top four placers at state entered the finish chute within 34 seconds of one another.
Following Bode were Cody Moen (33rd in 11:20.4), Tayten Gergen (57th in 11:36.2) and Noah Crane (59th in 11:39.9).
Rounding out the state lineup were Adam Smigielski (112th in 12:06.0), Jack VanHoorn (132nd in 12:13.2) and Liam Noonan (158th in 12:23.3).
Gergen moved up from 71st at the race’s mid-way mark and ran equal splits for each of his miles.
“The coaches are proud of this group,” M-S coach Lisa Martin said. “Not one of these athletes raced at state last year on our championship team. This group worked hard. Really hard.
“They achieved goals we didn’t know to set going into the start of the season. They quickly showed us that it was time to set new goals as they won every meet, but one.”
There were 233 runners in the boys’ Class 3A state race.
Martin estimated that when all of the meet results were compiled for the season, M-S had a cumulative record of 195-4.
The state championship trophy was won by Chatham Glenwood (135 points), followed by Morton (166), Arlington Heights South (179) and M-S (190).
M-S and Morton started the race side-by-side.
“The boys’ team was in Box 2, right next to Morton, the only team that had outraced them this season,” she said. “Being on the outside can have an advantage or it can be visually deceiving since it is located outside of the straight line push to the first turn.
“Our boys got out well and used it to their advantage.”
The M-S girls’ team had six runners finish the 20-mile course within 63 seconds of each other.
Trailing Mills were Anniston Huff (41st in 12:40.8), Norelle Eilts (97th in 13:09.0), Jaci Kellenberger (100th in 13:10.9), Kennedy Ashby (111th in 13:15.0) and Ava Watkins (116th in 13:17.8).
The other M-S state runner, Zoey Wallace, turned in a 13:29.5 and finished in 132nd out of 236 competitors.
Mills ran 47 seconds faster than she did a year earlier at state. Huff showed an improvement of 42 seconds, Kellenberger dropped 15 seconds and Ashby improved by 14 seconds since the 2021 state finals.
Eilts, a sixth-grader, and Watkins, an eighth-grader, were first-time team members this season. Wallace was in the varsity lineup for the first time this season.
“The coaches are so proud of this group,” Martin said. “They did it the right way. They won nearly every race this season (including the Champaign County meet).”
Martin estimated the team’s overall record for all meets this season at 195-12.
When the girls’ race started, the “feels-like” temperature was 38 degrees. The Bulldog runners were undaunted by the weather or their starting position.
“The girls found themselves in Box 19, right in the middle of the field,” Martin said. “There are pros and cons to being in the middle.
“For one, it is a direct line to the first turn after the long uphill. It could also mean that we would get ‘smushed’ by the large groups of people on both sides of us. The girls got out well and started with using the center box as an advantage.”
Chatham Glenwood captured the team title in the girls’ race (62 points), followed by Arlington Heights South (183) and Batavia Rotolo (196). M-S was ninth with 275 points.
When the M-S team bus returned to town on Saturday mid-afternoon they were escorted into the village by the Mahomet Police Department.
