By Fred Kroner
The top seven runners for Mahomet-Seymour’s girls’ junior high school cross-country team finished the Saturday (Sept. 18) M-S Invitational within 55 seconds of one another.
The meet was held at the Lake of the Woods on the Swiss Valley course, which has been the M-S home course since 2017.
Their efforts kept the Bulldogs in the running for a team title in the 13-school meet, but M-S fell just short of Normal Kingsley.
Kingsley ended with 55 points. M-S was a close second with 57 points. Third-place Normal Parkside had 68 points and fourth-place Tolono Unity ended with 77 points.
The first three Bulldogs in the 83-runner race were separated by just one second in the 2-mile race.
Madalyn Marx and Anniston Huff each traversed the course in 12 minutes and 50 seconds and placed eighth and ninth, respectively. Taylor Mills was a step behind in 10th place at 12:51.
Other M-S leaders were Hadley Grotelueschen (14th in 13:19), Jaci Kellenberger (16th in 13: 20), Hannah Martin (21st in 13:39) and Marley Cloward (22nd in 13:45).
The Bulldogs dominated in the 146-runner girls’ open race.
In addition to having the first six finishers, M-S had 18 of the first 25 runners.
Ella Walk was the meet winner, finishing the 2-mile course in 13 minutes and 48 seconds.
Rounding out the top six were Abi King (second in 13:51), Kennedy Ashby (third in 13:53), Emma Busch (fourth in 14:10), Cecily Smith (fifth in 14:11) and Annaleise Ruzich (sixth in 14:11).
Those six crossed the finish line within 23 seconds of one another.
Other Bulldog leaders were: Isabel Lietz (ninth in 14:33), Jinan Abdo (10th in 14:42), Zoey Wallace (13th in 14:47), Adella Bird (14th in 14:49), Erika Johnson (17th in 14:55), Cameryn Nelson (18th in 14:57), Jaycee Fancher (19th in 14:58), Lainey Howard (20th in 14:59), Cora Tandy (21st in 15:02), Emily Ramirez (23rd in 15:06), Caroline Mercer (24th in 15:11) and Claire Waggoner (25th in 15:18).
“The results of the girls’ open race really do prove that we are deep in talent this year, taking nine of the 10 top spots in the race and 15 of the top 20,” M-S coach Lisa Martin said. “Ella Walk got out to a commanding lead and never looked back.
“Teammates Abi King and Kennedy Ashby were right there to support her as they cruised to the finish line within five seconds of each other. Walk is an experienced eighth-grader, while King and Ashby are both sixth-graders.”
On Thursday (Sept. 16), M-S claimed team honors in a five-school meet in the team’s home-opener on the Swiss Valley course.
Marx (12:55.22) and Mills (12:55.28) raced each other to the finish line with Marx recording the photo-finish victory.
The Bulldogs’ Huff ended in third place (12:57).
Five of their teammates covered the course in less than 14 minutes.
Grotelueschen was seventh (13:30), Kellenberger was eighth (13:31), Cloward was 11th (13:56), Ashby was 12th (13:58) and King was 13th (13:59).
Eleven other M-S athletes finished among the top 40 runners in a field with 128 competitors.
They were: Lietz (15th in 14:07), Waggoner (17th in 14:16), Busch (19th in 14:27), Walk (23rd in 14:41), Smith (24th in 14:42), Johnson (26th in 14:55), Ruzich (27th in 14:56), Bird (30th in 15:02), Wallace (31st in 15:03), Nelson (37th in 15:16) and Howard (38th in 15:17).
M-S returns to action on Thursday (Sept. 23) at Monticello in a meet that will also include Clinton.
