Mahomet-Seymour finishes second at Lee Halberg Invite

By Fred Kroner

Five Mahomet-Seymour runners finished among the top 20 on Saturday (Sept. 10), helping the Bulldogs to a runner-up finish in the 45^th-annual Lee Halberg  boys’ cross-country invitational, in Springfield at Lincoln Park.

Normal Community won team honors with 68 points. M-S was just behind, with 69 points. In third place in the 13-school meet was Mundelein with 99 points.

The Bulldog leader was the meet runner-up, Augustus Gaudio. His 3-mile time was 16 minutes and 36 seconds.

Teammates trailing him were Ben Wallace (15^th in 17:43), Blake Dillman (17^th in 17:51), Henry McMurry (19^th in 17:56), Lukas Nykaza (20^th in 17:58), Grant Smysor (22^nd in 18:03) and Emmett Kearns (42^nd in 18:38).

In the junior varsity race, M-S’ Kaleb Kasper ran second in the 78-runner event in 18:14.

Other M-S JV finishers were: Hayden Grotelueschen (third in 18:23), Zach Wilcoski (fifth in 18:57), Lukas Carey (10^th in 19:09), Colin Johnson (23^rd in 21:05), Gavin Fan (24^th in 21:10) and Alex Carpenter (63^rd in 24:20).

M-S won the team title in the JV division with 36 points. Runner-up Normal Community totaled 58 points.

In a 2-mile race for 39 freshmen, M-S’ Corban McMinn was 15^th in 13:12, Henry Carpenter was 19^th in 13:57 and Ben Schultz was 38^th in 24:57.

M-S returns to action on Saturday (Sept. 17) in the Richard Spring Invitational, in Peoria.