By Fred Kroner
In a 49-school field on Saturday (Sept. 11) at the First to the Finish cross-country race at Peoria’s Detweiller Park, Mahomet-Seymour’s girls’ cross-country team placed 11th in the Class 2A division of the meet.
Separate races were held for 1A, 2A and 3A competitors.
The 2A team champion was Grayslake Central (96 points) followed by Dunlap (114) and Vernon Hills (117). M-S’ composite score was 358.
The Bulldogs were ranked eighth in Class 2A in the most recent milesplit.com state poll.
M-S entered 10 runners in the race and each one finished among the top half of the 432-runner event.
Sophomore Ava Boyd was the Bulldogs’ leader. She covered the 3-mile course in 19 minutes, 24.6 seconds. Boyd finished 33rd.
Freshman Ava Jansen was the next M-S placer, coming in 61st in 20:00.3.
Boyd and Jansen both posted career-best times.
Other M-S participants were Chloe Bundren (73rd in 20:15.0), Callie Jansen (97th in 20:38.1), Grace Lietz (100th in 20:41.8), Emily Bednar (124th in 20:58.6), Delaney King (153rd in 21:17.0), Klein Powell (175th in 21:38.3), Elizabeth Sims (184th in 21:44.8) and Morgan Waisath (196th in 21:54.1).
Waisath’s time was also a personal-best.
“Our underclassmen continue to impress as they all had their first experience at Detweiller Park (the state-meet course) this weekend,” M-S coach Jama Grotelueschen said. “The strength of this team is how well they work together and pick each other up. That was very evident today.”
There was also a combined open race for athletes in 1A, 2A and 3A.
Naperville North captured the open title with 17 points. Lyons (42) was second. M-S was 17th (540).
Forty-three teams participated.
In a field of 595 runners, M-S’ Lauren Bednar was 68th in 22:13.9.
Chloe Allen finished 135th in 23:14.2 and teammate Emmaline Culp was 164th in 23:35.0.
Bednar, a sophomore, and Culp, a freshman, also registered career-best times.
Other Bulldog runners were: Alyssa Christensen (212th in 24:24.7), Meg Turner (257th in 24:57.7), Isabelle Scheele (268th in 25:05.4), McKenzie Hissong (341st in 26:13.6), Hannah Hofbauer (371st in 26:37.2), Gabby Reeves (406th in 27:12.1), Natalie Parrott (465th in 28:41.5) and Emily Bergia (475th in 29:13.4).
M-S will return to action on Saturday (Sept. 18) at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational at Detweiller Park.
