Bulldogs finish fourth at Clinton Light Up The Night Invitational

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By Fred Kroner

In its season-opening cross-country meet on Saturday (Aug. 27), the Mahomet-Seymour girls’ cross-country team placed fourth in the 11-school Clinton Light Up The Night Invitational.

Individually, Ava Boyd was sixth in the varsity race with a 3-mile time of 18 minutes and 53 seconds.

Chloe Bundren ended 19th (20:44.1), Callie Jansen was 27th (21:21.6), Morgan Waisath was 31st (21:40.4), Hadley Grotelueschen was 34th (21:55.4), Lauren Bednar was 35th (21:59.0) and Ava Jansen was 44th (22:38.1).

There were 97 finishers.

“Ava Boyd raced against some of the state’s best runners.  Her time was less than 10 seconds off her lifetime PR,” M-S coach Jama Grotelueschen said. “Morgan Waisath ran a PR.”

Freshman Hadley Grotelueshen made her varsity debut.

“I’m really proud of the way all these girls showed up,” Jama Grotelueschen said. “It was great to get the first meet jitters behind us.

“While this team is certainly different from last year as we graduated eight athletes, I believe these athletes will show tremendous growth over the next couple of months. They should be fun to watch.”

In the open race, freshmen Camryn Nelson and Jinan Abdo placed fifth and sixth, in 23:11.7 and 23:13.2 respectively, in their first 3-mile high school race.

They were followed closely by Emmaline Culp in ninth place (23:35.0).  Hannah Hofbauer was next in 13th (in 24:47.3 and ran nearly a minute faster than last year at the same meet). 

Other Bulldog finishers were Isabelle Scheele (19th in 25:31.2), McKenzie Hissong (20th in 25:33.4), Meg Turner (21st in 25:35.3), Phoebe Truax (22nd in 25:41.6) and Grace Bednar (25th in 25:52.1). They were all within 21 seconds of one another and all came in under 26 minutes.

Team honors in the varsity race were shared by Class 2A state trophy contenders, Normal U-High and Rochester. They tied for first place with 52 points. Shelbyville was third (79), followed by the Bulldogs (95).

In the open division, Normal U-High edged M-S for team supremacy, 42-47.

M-S will return to action on Saturday (Sept. 3) at the Charleston Invitational.