Bulldogs race to share of Apollo Conference Championship
By Fred Kroner
Junior DeAngelo Hughey played the starring role as a four-event winner on Thursday (May 4), helping the Mahomet-Seymour boys’ track and field team to a share of the Apollo Conference championship.
Hughey won three individual events at Charleston – two in personal-best times – and anchored the victorious 400-meter relay.
In the process, Hughey was part of three Apollo Conference records and broke one M-S school record.
He won the 100 meters (personal-best 10.98 seconds), the 200 meters (school- and conference-record 22.07 seconds) and the 400 meters (conference-record 49.72 seconds).
Hughey teamed up with sophomore Travis Hoffman, junior Jayvon Irwin and senior Cole Marshall for a first-place finish in the 400-meter relay. Their combined time was a conference record 43.23 seconds and they prevailed by .76.
Hughey’s margin of victory in the 400 meters was 1.96 seconds. He won the 200 by .30.
The previous Bulldog school record in the 200 meters was 22.14, set in 2011 by Andrew Jacob. The previous Apollo Conference record in the 200 was 22.34 and the previous 400-meter conference record was 50.04. The previous 400-meter relay record was 43.54 seconds.
In the 100 meters, he edged Irwin (11.18) in the most unusual outcome of the meet.
Irwin’s seed time didn’t warrant a berth in the fast heat. He was instead assigned to the second heat which he won with what turned out to be the day’s second-best time. It was also his personal-best performance.
The Bulldogs needed every point they could muster. When all of the tabulations were completed, M-S and Mount Zion each had accumulated 151 points and were declared conference co-champions.
In third place in the seven-school event was Effingham with 62 points.
Based on pre-meet rankings in each event, M-S was seeded to score 32 fewer points than Mount Zion.
M-S had two other individual Apollo Conference titlists besides Hughey, who only ran on relays a year ago at the conference meet.
Hoffman captured top honors in the 300-meter hurdles (42.56 seconds), winning by 1.14 seconds. In the 110-meter high hurdles, Hoffman tied for second with a time of 16.68 seconds in his first time running the event.
A first-year hurdler, Hoffman has moved onto the M-S all-time top-10 list in the 300-meter hurdles.
Senior Robert Byron was the discus champion (148 feet) and added a runner-up finish in the shot put (46 feet). Byron won the discus by 18 feet, 4 inches.
The other M-S runner-up was pole-vaulter Ty Clark, who sailed 13 feet, 6 inches.
Like Hughey, Marshall placed well in all four of his events.
Besides his leg on the winning relay, Marshall was second in the triple jump (41 feet, 9 inches), third in the long jump (19 feet, 1 inch) and fourth in the 200 meters (personal-best 22.65 seconds).
Marshall established a new PR in the 200 for the second time in a week and now ranks ninth on the all-time M-S sprint list for that distance.
Four other Bulldogs who placed among the top-10 recorded personal-best performances.
They were: Auggie Gaudio (third in the 1,600 meters in 4:40.07), Caleb Boykin (third in the shot put at 44 feet. 1 inch), Alex Carpenter (fourth in the pole vault at 11 feet, 6 inches) and Lukas Nykaza (sixth in the 300-meter hurdles in 47.11).
Eleven other Bulldog runners and three entries in field events also secured top-10 finishes.
The runners were: Joshua Franklin (fifth in the 400 meters in 52.79 seconds), Hayden Grotelueschen (fifth in the 3,200 meters 10:19.29), Blake Dillman (sixth in the 800 meters in 2:11.89), Ethan Ramirez (sixth in the 1,600 meters in 4:42.45), Ben Wallace (sixth in the 3,200 meters in 10:29.69), Ethan Peterka (seventh in the 800 meters in 2:12.09) and Jaxon Themanson (ninth in the 110-meter high hurdles in 20.68).
The school’s other top field-events placers were Boykin (third in the discus at 119 feet, 2 inches), Quinten Goodie Jr. (seventh in the triple jump at 37 feet, 6 inches) and Jack Meyer (10th in the long jump at 16 feet, 1 inch).
The Bulldogs’ other three relays all fared well.
Crossing the finish line in third place was the 1,600-meter foursome of Kaden Jackson, Hoffman, Franklin and Parker Wilkins. Their combined time was 3:32.97.
Wilkins was a late fill-in and had less than 10 minutes to warm up for what was his only event of the meet.
The M-S 3,200-meter relay, which featured Kaden Jackson, Peterka, Lukas Carey and Ramirez, ended fourth in 8:35.16.
The 800-meter grouping of Irwin, Alex O’Brian, Matthew He and Ryken Kirby finished fifth in 1:35.11.
M-S returns to action on Wednesday (May 17) in the 16-school Mattoon Class 2A Sectional.
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Mahomet-Seymour’s freshmen-sophomore team also won team honors in the Apollo Conference Freshmen-Sophomore Meet on Saturday (May 6) at Mattoon.
The Bulldogs accumulated 138 points and outdistanced runner-up Mount Zion, which scored 24 points. Third-place Charleston totaled 79 points.
M-S athletes established personal-bests in 10 events, including three by sprinter Travis Hoffman.
Hoffman was the meet champion in both the 200 meters (23.98 seconds) and the 400 meters (52.52 seconds). He was fourth in the 100 meters (12.15 seconds).
Also registering multiple personal-bests were field event performers Quinten Goodie Jr. and Oliver Smith.
Goodie was third in the triple jump (38 feet, 7 inches) and seventh on the long jump (16 feet, 5 inches).
Smith was the runner-up in the shot put (36 feet, 10 inches) and fourth in the discus (96 feet, 1 inch).
Both had PRs in both of their events.
Other PRs belonged to pole vault winner Ty Clark (14 feet), Auggie Gaudio (third in the 3,200 meters in 10:20.65) and Henry McMurry (fourth in the 3,200 meters in 10:37.69).
Three M-S athletes, besides Smith, produced second-place finishes: Blake Dillman (800 meters in 2:04.19), Lukas Nykaza (300-meter hurdles in 47.46 seconds) and Ethan Ramirez (1,600 meters in 4:42.48).
Teammate Jack Meyer was a top-10 finisher in two events (fourth in the long jump at 17 feet, 4 inches) and seventh in the triple jump at 33 feet, 9 inches).
Other team leaders were Seth Christensen (fourth in the pole vault at 10 feet, 6 inches), Kaleb Kasper (fourth in the 1,600 meters at 5:01.98) and Cody Barnhart (ninth in the discus at 79 feet, 7 inches).
M-S runners combined for two relay wins, including the 3,200-meter foursome which logged a season best time of 8:43.72. Sharing the baton were Parker Wilkins, Kaden Jackson, Nykaza and Ethan Peterka.
The fastest splits were by Jackson (2:07.6) and Peterka (2:08.4).
The other victorious relay for the Bulldogs was the 1,600-meter grouping of Jackson, Wilkins, Nykaza and Dillman. They covered the distance collectively in 3:38.23.
The team’s fastest splits were by Dillman (50.6) and Jackson (54.0).
The Bulldogs’ 800-meter relay unit took fourth in a season-best 1:43.36. The featured runners were Jael Briones, Raife Humes, Camden Wood and Dylan Smith.
The quickest splits were turned in by Briones and Wood, at 25.0 seconds apiece.
Also capturing fourth place was the 400-meter relay, consisting of Landen Dowers, Landen McConkey, Meyer and Smith. They were timed in 48.67 seconds, a season’s best.
