By Fred Kroner
Led by two top-10 runners, the Mahomet-Seymour Junior High boys’ cross-country team secured a Class 4A IESA state berth based on their performance at the sectional meet held at Lake of the Woods on Saturday (Oct.7).
Eighth-grader Adam Smigielski ran fourth in the 85-runner race, completing the 2-mile course in 11 minutes, 17.7 seconds.
Teammate Caleb Zulauf, a seventh-grader, was eighth in 11:38.4.
All of the Bulldogs’ other sectional entries finished among the top 22 runners.
Eighth-grader Noah Crane was 15th (11:49.0), eighth-grader Liam Burwell was 18th (11:50.0), eighth-grader Henry Welch was 19th (11:54.0), seventh-grader Abdel Abdo was 20th (11:54.5) and eighth-grader Carter Alderks was 22nd (12:03.7).
Morton copped the team crown with a composite score of 45 points. Runner-up M-S totaled 62 points and third-place Normal Kingsley ended with 93 points.
The top three teams all qualified for state, which will be held on Saturday (Oct. 14) at Normal Parkside. The boys’ race will begin at 2:30 p.m.
“Our boys’ team had a stellar day as well,” coach Lisa Martin said. “We knew that going into the meet that Morton would be tough to beat. We have raced them and knew it would take our best day to finish ahead of them.
“The great thing is that we had to race one of the state’s best teams in our sectionals. Winning sectionals would have been nice, but to get to go head-to-head with the team that you are racing next weekend is a huge bonus to help us in setting goals.
“With recovering from some late week illnesses and a couple of nagging injuries, we proved ourselves to be a team that Morton will be watching for again next weekend. We handled our own adversity well and still gave them a great race.
First to cross the finish line for the Bulldogs today was Adam Smigielski (11:17), our team’s consistent leader all season. I have said this before, Adam is a poised and confident runner.
“He watches, studies and learns and makes his race strategy look effortless. He is such a great leader for our whole team. He benefited from racing two of the state’s best runners on his home course, keeping them in sight at every turn. Looking forward to what Adam will accomplish this weekend at state.”
Schools are allowed to add three alternants to their state rosters in case substitutions are needed. The remainder of the M-S state roster will include eighth-grader Elijah Beyer, eighth-grader Kiptyn Fan and seventh-grader Grant Morphew.
