Ethan Peterka leads Bulldogs at unofficial junior high boys’ state cross-country meet
By FRED KRONER
Six students from Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School competed in the unofficial boys’ state cross-country meet on Sunday at Chillicothe and combined for a fifth-place finish in a meet with 18 teams.
Since it was not an IESA event, they couldn’t officially represent the school, but were running as members of the M-S Bulldog Club. They were also not coached by any of their school coaches.
The invitation-only meet was sponsored by ShaZam Racing. Even though there are multiple classes in school competition, all Sunday participants ran in the same race regardless of whether they were normally in Class 1A, 2A or 3A.
The M-S Bulldog Club was led by eighth-grader Ethan Peterka, who was 36th. His 2-mile time was 11 minutes, 54.41 seconds.
Teammates who trailed him were: seventh-grader Auggie Gaudio (50th in 12:07.85), seventh-grader Justus Vrona (54th in 12:09.43), sixth-grader Sean Dady-Dreher (61st in 12:12.09), eighth-grader Ty Clark (81st in 12:25.58) and seventh-grader Henry McMurry (89th in 12:31.09).
In all, there were 161 competitors in the boys’ race. The M-S Bulldog Club runners were returning to action after a 17-day layoff since their last meet.
Among seventh-graders at the unofficial state meet, Gaudio was 10th.
The split between the top five runners was 31 seconds.
Sunday’s race was the final one of the cross-country season.
