All seven Mahomet-Seymour runners place in top 20 at Clinton Invitational
By Fred Kroner
The Bulldogs turned in a strong performance on Saturday (Aug. 28) in their first girls’ cross-country meet of the season.
Competing in the 19-school Clinton Invitational, M-S had all seven of its varsity runners place among the top 20 in a field of 79 participants.
Their efforts helped M-S place second as a team. Normal U-High won with a total of 32 points. M-S was next with 40 points, followed by Pleasant Plains (96) and Clinton (114).
Sophomore Ava Boyd ran a career-best 3-mile time of 19 minutes, 45.06 seconds and finished fourth individually.
Freshman Chloe Bundren was just behind Boyd, covering the course in 20:01.88 for sixth place.
Other Bulldog participants were Elizabeth Sims (10th in 20:20.89), Klein Powell (11th in 20:23.31), Ava Jansen (12th in 20:37.61), Callie Jansen (15th in 20:39.14) and Emily Bednar (20th in 21:29.38).
In the open division, the two top runners were from M-S, which outdistanced Normal U-High, 27-52, for team supremacy. Bloomington Central Catholic totaled 55 points and fourth-place Clinton had 93 points.
Senior Grace Lietz beat senior Delaney King to the finish line in the open race. Lietz’s winning time was 21:19.10. King’s time was 21:24.06.
Their times were so good that they would have placed 19th and 21st, respectively, in the varsity race.
Eleven other Bulldogs competed in the 56-runner open race.
They were: Morgan Waisath (fourth in 22:08.22), Lauren Bednar (eighth in 22:59.93), Emmaline Culp (14th in 23:59.18), Alyssa Christensen (15th in 24:00.09), Isabelle Scheele (25th in 25:01.62), Chloe Allen (26th in 25:17.01), Hannah Hofbauer (33rd in 25:42.27), Gabby Reeves (34th in 25:43.85), McKenzie Hissong (39th in 26:57.16), Meg Turner (46th in 28:39.51) and Natalie Parrott (54th in 31:36.14).
For the day, seven freshmen made their high school debuts: Bundren, Culp, Hissong, Ava Jansen, Reeves, Scheele and Waisath.
M-S will return to action on Saturday (Sept. 4) in the Charleston Invitational.
