Mahomet-Seymour ends season ranked 23rd by milesplit.com
By Fred Kroner
The Mahomet-Seymour Cross-Country Club took on a new identity for its final postseason race of the year on Saturday (Nov. 7) and exceeded the expectations of the state’s experts on the sport.
Competing in Chillicothe at the unofficial Class 2A girls’ cross-country state meet, the seven runners representing M-S teamed up to end 14th in a 20-team field.
In the final state rankings compiled by milesplit.com, the Bulldogs were rated 23rd.
The season-ending meet was regarded as the unofficial state meet since it was not sanctioned by the IHSA.
“The girls ran very competitively on Saturday and capped off a terrific season,” said Jama Groteueschen, who coached the Bulldogs throughout the IHSA portion of the season. “The race was a 5K in distance and took place on a difficult course.
“According to the milesplit representative, it runs about 1 minute, 10 seconds slower than Detweiller where the IHSA State Championships normally takes place. Our runners had terrific support of teammates and family members encouraging them along the course.”
Jim Sims was the registered coach for the Mahomet-Seymour Cross Country Club.
The meet champion was GTXC with a team composite of 123 points. The M-S Cross-Country Club totaled 336 points. GTXC consisted of runners from Chatham Glenwood High School, which one week earlier won the sectional title in the same meet where M-S competed, at Olney.
Two juniors set the pace for the Bulldogs. Elizabeth Sims placed 26th, completing the 5-kilometer course at Three Sisters Park in 19 minutes, 57.83 seconds.
Sims cracked the 20-minute barrier in all three of her postseason races. She was followed by teammate Klein Powell (53rd in 20:39.63).
In all, there were 160 competitors.
Powell showed the greatest improvement of any M-S athlete during the race. She stood in 78th place after the first mile.
The five teammates who followed Sims and Powell were packed within 15 seconds of one another.
Freshman Ava Boyd placed 112th in 21:45.03. She was followed closely by senior Shaelin Ruzich (119th in 21:50.63), sophomore Callie Jansen (120th in 21:51.01), junior Emily Bednar (122nd in 21:56.35) and junior Delaney King (124th in 22:00.17).
The Mahomet-Seymour Cross-Country Club worked its way up in the team standings as the race progressed. The group was 16th after one mile, 15th after two miles and climbed to its final place of 14th after 5 kilometers.
“Our four seniors (Olivia Bunting, Shaelin Ruzich, Gretchen Scheele and Ella Wolters) were assistant coaches and led most of the practices in the week leading up to the race,” Grotelueschen said. “I believe the girls enjoyed the extra training days together and really had fun participating in this event.
“We are grateful to ShaZam Racing and milesplit for being creative and stepping up to host this event for our runners.”
