Arbogast’s spirit powers Mahomet-Seymour Junior High cross country team in first meet
By FRED KRONER
In its season-opening meet on Thursday (Aug. 17) at Tolono Unity, the Mahomet-Seymour junior high girls’ cross-country team had the individual winners in both the 2-mile race for seventh- and eighth-graders as well in the 1-mile race for sixth-graders.
Cecily Smith beat teammate Paige Jansen to the finish line in the race for seventh- and eighth-graders. Her winning time was 13 minutes and 45 seconds. Jansen crossed the finish line in 13:48.
In the race for sixth-graders, the day’s champion was Ashley Martin, who was timed in 6 minutes and 29.38 seconds. She beat the runner-up by 7.52 seconds.
Their efforts were certainly significant, but hardly the highlight of the day in a non-scored dual meet.
M-S coach Lisa Martin explained why the meet’s most noteworthy performance was recorded by Addelyn Arbogast, who placed 34th in the 2-mile race with a time of 22:43.
“It was Oct. 16, 2022, when I logged into my computer to scroll through Facebook, glancing at the usual posts and enjoying others’ experiences,” Martin said. “One particular post stopped me in my tracks.
“This post was sharing a link to a ‘Go Fund Me.’ It was a picture of a young lady that had just finished her cross-country season (for the Bulldogs) on Sept. 27 at Tolono Unity in the Champaign County Championship meet.”
The post was about Addelyn Arbogast.
“I opened it as quickly as I could to learn that Addelyn was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had emergency surgery,” Martin said. “Soon after, her mother shared a video of Addelyn learning to walk again.
“In this video was the quote, ‘if it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.’”
Earlier this month, Bulldog Taylor Mills submitted that quote to be considered as the team motto for the 2023 season.
“Little did we know that when Taylor submitted this quote and our team selected it as the motto, that it would be a big motivator for Addelyn,” Martin said.
On Thursday (Aug. 27) – nearly 11 months after she’d run her last race on the same course at Tolono – Arbogast returned to action with her team.
Martin was not only the coach, but also one of the cheerleaders.
“I had the privilege of greeting this young lady as she crossed the finish line after running 2 miles on the very same course,” Martin said. “As you can imagine, the coaches were so proud to see what she accomplished.
“The power of a strong community and the grit and determination of one of the strongest athletes we have ever coached persevered. We welcomed Addelyn back to the cross-country race course. A lot of great stuff happened, but this was something that we will never forget.”
A seventh-grader, Arbogast finished her comeback race nearly 3 ½ minutes ahead of the final finisher in the girls’ seventh- and eighth-grade portion of the meet.
Led by Smith and Jansen, M-S secured nine of the top 10 spots in the girls’ 37-runner race for seventh- and eighth-graders.
Other team leaders were Kennedy Ashby (third in 13:51), Finley Smith (fourth in 3:54), Phoebe Graham (fifth in 14:01), Ava Cvengros (sixth in 14:36), Emma Dewitt (seventh in 14:48), Yuna Kim (eighth in 14:56) and Rilynn Nelson (ninth in 15:32).
Two other teammates captured finishes among the top 15. Emerson Grindley was 13th in 16:23.1 and Kaitelyn Waisath was 14th in 16:23.4.
In the 35-runner 1-mile race for sixth-graders, eight of the top 10 runners were Bulldogs.
Trailing Ashley Martin were Chandler Mills (fourth in 6:45.14), Roya Beere (fifth in 6:49.92), Brooke Patrick (sixth in 6:53), Brinley Hillard (seventh in 6:57), Cicely Brokish (eighth in 6:58), Jane Hartman (ninth in 7:04) and Kennedy Wallace (10th in 7:08).
M-S is scheduled to return to action on Thursday (Aug. 24) at Danville North Ridge.
