Bulldogs take top 7 spots at IESA Class 3A sectional meet
By FRED KRONER
A perfect score in cross-country means a school had the first five finishers in a meet.
On Thursday (Oct. 15), the Mahomet-Seymour girls’ cross-country program achieved perfection-plus in a five-school IESA Class 3A sectional meet at 13 Acres Park.
Schools were allowed to enter up to seven individuals in the lone postseason event sanctioned by the Illinois Elementary School Association. M-S athletes swept the top seven spots in the girls’ 2-mile sectional race.
Avah Turner was the meet champion, registering a time of 12 minutes and 53 seconds. She was six seconds in front of teammate Chloe Bundren. Turner and Bundren are both eighth-graders.
That duo was followed by five more Bulldogs.
Seventh-grader Madalyn Marx was third (13:02), eighth-grader Ava Jansen was fourth (13:04), sixth-grader Taylor Mills was fifth (13:05), seventh-grader Hadley Grotelueschen was sixth (13:16) and seventh-grader Haley Reed was seventh (13:18) in a 33-runner field.
There was little separation between the M-S entries. The top five completed the race within 12 seconds of one another. The top seven were within 25 seconds of one another in the season-ending meet.
“Our girls’ team got out quickly and took an early lead,” M-S coach Lisa Martin said. “Not knowing what to expect from our competition, our runners led the way for what would be a meet full of great performances.
“The really cool part is, we had a group of about 15 runners this year that could have been in this meet and the results would have been similar. We have so much depth.”
M-S’ sectional champions finished with a perfect team score of 15 points. Second-place Champaign Edison had 55 points and was followed by Urbana (89), Danville North Ridge (105) and Champaign Franklin (137).
Martin said her emotions have been on a roller-coaster ride the past four months.
“From hearing in July that we wouldn’t have a season, until now when we just completed our 2020 cross-country season, coaches are grateful for the opportunities we have been given this year,” Martin said.
Both the girls’ and boys’ teams had a post-race surprise as the Cornbelt Fire Department and the Mahomet Police Department escorted the sectional championship teams throughout the village.
