Early week wins for Mahomet-Seymour athletes

By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com

The girls’ soccer program, along with both varsity track and field teams at Mahomet-Seymour, posted wins to start the week while the softball squad dropped two narrow non-conference decisions.

Athletes from the C3 Special Olympics team also placed at Sunday’s gymnastic competition.

The baseball team did not have any games the first three days of the week.

Girls’ soccer

Meredith Johnson-Monfort’s hat trick and one goal from Haley Lester enabled the Bulldogs (14-2 overall) to remain unbeaten in Apollo Conference action with Tuesday’s 4-1 triumph over Charleston.

M-S is 6-0 in Apollo matches. Charleston is 5-2 in league play. Both losses were administered by the Bulldogs.

Brooke Benson had two assists in the Charleston match.

Goalkeeper Sarah Hohenstein had three saves and Marina Moore had one save.

In the junior varsity match, M-S (12-0-2) blanked the Trojans, 3-0.

Girls’ track and field

The Bulldogs were winners of a four-school meet they hosted on Tuesday.

With wins in seven individual events and one relay, M-S totaled 86 points. Runner-up Centennial had 55 points and was followed by Champaign Central (48) and Rantoul (46).

Jessica Franklin was triumphant in three events: the 100-meter hurdles (16.11 seconds), the 800 run (2:18.00) and the long jump (17 feet, 0 1/4 inches).

Mara Pletcher won the pole vault (12-1), Sylvia Byron won the 300 hurdles (49.49), Rose Fried won the triple jump (30-2 1/2) and Amanda Franklin won the discus (94-10).

Runners on the victorious 1,600 relay (4:15.68) were Lakeida Nichols, Pletcher, Destiny Pryor and Madi Balbach.

In six events where M-S athletes prevailed, the runner-up was a teammate.

Alexa Franklin was second in both hurdles races. Nichols was second in the long jump while Kailey Bell was second in the pole vault. Other runner-up finishes were registered by Brisa McGrath (800) and Payton Turk (discus).

In the shot put, Hailee McCall-Ochs was the team’s top placer, ending second, just ahead of teammate Amanda Franklin.

Gretchen Scheele took third in both the 400 and 800 races. Stacey Irwin was third in the 200.

Boys’ track and field

M-S totaled 110 points to capture team honors in the Pontiac Relays.

The meet is structured such that two varsity and two freshmen-sophomore athletes had their times or distances totaled to determine event winners.

The Bulldogs claimed first place in the pole vault, shot put and discus in field events.

On the track, M-S won the 1,600 relay, the 3,200 relay, the middle-distance relay, the 1,600 run and the freshmen-sophomore hurdles.

Softball

The Bulldogs (8-7) lost close decisions on consecutive days, suffering a 4-2 setback to Buffalo Tri-City and 3-2 in extra innings at Villa Grove.

Aubrie Shore was the lone Bulldog with hits in both games. She drove in two runs in the Villa Grove loss.

She also pitched two complete games, firing a four-hitter against Tri-City, In that game, she walked five and struck out four.

Against Villa Grove, she scattered five hits, didn’t allow an earned run while matching walks and strikeouts with three.

Kameryn Brotherton had two hits against Tri-City in a game where M-S held a 6-4 edge in hits.

Layne Acree’s double was the team’s only extra-base hit in the contest.

On Tuesday, Shore and Ashley Campbell each had doubles. Campbell was 2-for-3, accounting for half of the M-S hits.

Gymnastics

Ten of the 11 girls of the Champaign County Communities (C3) who competed at Sunday’s Special Olympics gymnastics competition in St. Louis got a gold medal and all eight boys who participated will advance to the State competition after they received at least one gold.

MSHS Senior Andrew Moseley received a silver in floor and gold in his vault performance. Junior Alek Altstetter silver in floor and gold in vault and eighth-grade student Preston Hodges got a gold medal in floor and silver on the vault.

MSHS Freshmen Samantha Hamilton competed in five events Sunday, receiving silver on balance beam, gold in floor, gold in uneven bars, gold in vault and a gold medal in the all-around.

Seventh-grade student Jayden Fondren received gold in balance beam, gold in floor, gold on uneven bars, silver in vault and she also got gold on all around.

Eighth-grade student Izzy Gonzalez was unable to compete due to illness.