Byron and Marshall win events at Class 2A boys’ track and field Sectional
By Fred Kroner
Nine Mahomet-Seymour individuals and two of the school’s relays will be headed to the Class 2A boys’ track and field state meet next week at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston.
The Bulldogs’ qualifiers secured their advancement on Wednesday (May 17) by virtue of their performances in the Mattoon Sectional.
M-S had two sectional champions, and both were in field events.
Robert Byron was the dominant discus thrower, recording a toss of 166 feet, 1 inch to outdistance the runner-up 11 feet, 2 inches.
Cole Marshall prevailed in the triple jump, with a personal-best leap of 42 feet, 11 inches. He beat the runner-up by three inches and moved up to sixth place on the all-time M-S leader board.
Byron and Marshall also advanced in a second event.
Byron produced a personal-best in the shot put (50 feet, 8 inches) and took second. Marshall ran seventh in the 200 meters (personal-best 22.35), but had a time that was better than the pre-determined state-qualifying standard.
Also moving on to state in two events was sprinter DeAngelo Hughey. He placed second in the 200 meters (personal-best 21.47 seconds) and in the 400 meters (personal-best 48.04 seconds).
Both of his times were school records. He lowered his own 200-meter mark, which had been 22.07 and he knocked off Cully Welter’s 1990 time of 49.0 seconds in the 400 meters by almost a full second.
The Bulldogs’ other individual qualifiers were pole vaulter Ty Clark (second at 14 feet), 300-meter hurdler Travis Hoffman (second in a personal-best 40.83 seconds) and 400-meter runner Blake Dillman (fourth in a personal-best 50.55 seconds).
In his first year hurdling, Hoffman’s time ranks eighth on the all-time M-S career list.
The state-bound M-S relays are the 400- and 1,600-meter foursomes.
The 400 grouping of Hoffman, Jayvon Irwin, Marshall and Hughey was timed in 43.07 seconds. The time ranks second on the all-time M-S record board.
The 1,600-meter unit of Dillman, Joshua Franklin, Kaden Jackson and Hoffman crossed the finish line in 3:24.63. The time is tied for third all-time on the Bulldogs’ record board.
In all, M-S athletes, who placed among the top 10 in individual events, registered 12 personal-bests.
Others reaching that plateau in addition to the various state-qualifiers were Franklin (fifth in the 300-meter hurdles in 42.23 seconds), Caleb Boykin in the shot put (fourth at 44 feet, 6 inches), Auggie Gaudio (fifth in the 1,600 meters in 4:35.67), Ethan Ramirez (seventh in the 1,600 meters in 4:38.96) and Ethan Peterka (eighth in the 800 meters in 2:05.81).
Gaudio narrowly missed the state-qualifying standard, which was 4:35.35.
The Bulldogs’ other top-10 individuals were pole vaulter Alex Carpenter (sixth at 11 feet), sprinter Irwin (seventh in the 100 meters in 11.37 seconds) and distance runner Hayden Grotelueschen (10th in the 3,200 meters in 10:17.83.
Irwin needed a 11.13 to qualify for state.
One other Bulldog relay fared well.
The featured runners on the seventh-place 3,200-meter relay were Lukas Nykaza, Henry McMurry, Kaleb Kasper and Grant Smysor. Their combined time was 9:02.62.
The Bulldogs were a close second in the team standings. Sectional champion Mount Zion totaled 89 ½ points. Runner-up M-S ended with 87 points. Third-place Urbana had 61 points.
Fifteen schools at the sectional scored points.
The Bulldogs’ state-qualifiers will return to action at EIU on Thursday (May 24).
