MSJHS boys’ cross country wins Tom Appenzeller Bulldog Invitational
By Fred Kroner
Mahomet-Seymour’s boys’ junior high cross-country team emerged victorious in the 15-school Saturday (Sept. 16) Tom Appenzeller Bulldog Invitational at Lake of the Woods.
M-S’ composite point total in the varsity race was 69 points. Runner-up Normal Metcalf finished with 105 points. Following them were Clinton (112), Monticello (114) and Normal Kingsley (117).
Adam Smigielski was the Mahomet-Seymour pacesetter, covering the 2-mile course in 11 minutes, 18.6 seconds. He placed fifth.
Other Bulldog leaders in the 98-runner varsity field were Caleb Zulauf (11th in 11:39.2), Liam Burwell (14th in 11:46.4), Carter Alderks (15th in 1:50.8), Abdel Abdo (24th in 12:19.0), Eli Beyer (27th in 12:21.3) and Grant Morphew (34th in 12:30.4).
In the boys’ junior varsity race, M-S dominated the 12-team field.
Led by individual champion Henry Welch (12:27.7), the Bulldogs finished with a cumulative score of 21 points. Monticello (87) was the runner-up, followed by Normal Kingsley (125), Normal Metcalf (148) and Bloomington Evans (150).
Welch had plenty of company on the leaders’ list in the 110-runner field.
He was one of 10 Bulldogs to finish among the top 16. Following him were Kiptyn Fan (third in 12:45.6), Greyson Grotelueschen (fourth in 12:51.2), Graham Smolich (sixth in 12:53.0), Gavin Vanskike (seventh in 12:54.8),Hunter Shingleton (ninth in 13:16.0), Garen Johnson-Farkhoyan (10th in 13:19.0), Jake McCoy (11th in 13:19.3), Gavin McMinn (13th in 13:35.5) and Dominic Bruns (16th in 13:42.1).
In the 88-runner boys’ open race, the first six finishers were wearing M-S jerseys.
Race champion Eric Webber was timed in 12:27. Trailing him were Luca Vanderstraeten (second in 13:45), Kylar Nargelenas (third in 13:46), Luke Nickrent (fourth in 14:00), Wyatt Kearns (fifth in 14:10) and Bernardo Allan Pinto (sixth in 14:20).
Other top M-S runners were Josh Dilger (eighth in 14:32), Corbin Moser (10th in 14:34), Marlon Grimaldi (11th in 14:44), Tommy Bushman (12th in 14:54) and Parker Ashby (15th in 15:19).
On Thursday (Sept. 14), the Mahomet-Seymour’s boys’ cross-country team finished first in its own six-school meet at Lake of the Woods.
The Bulldogs’ team composite score was 27 points. Runner-up Mount Zion finished with 62 points and was followed by Sr. Joseph (66), Holy Cross (94), Potomac (117) and SMART Academy (182).
Eleven of the top 19 finishers in a race with 113 competitors were from M-S.
Runner-up Smigielski was timed in 11 minutes and 24 seconds for the 2-mile layout. He was two seconds behind the meet champion.
Teammates following him in the top 10 were Caleb Zulauf (third in 11:43), Noah Crane (fourth in 11:49), Burwell (eighth in 12:14) and Alderks (10th in 12:27.
The first nine Bulldog runners complete the course within one minute of each other.
The remaining team leaders were Abdo (11th in 12:37.1), Morphew (13th in 12:38), Will Bednar (14th in 12:39), Fan (15th in 12:43), Welch (17th in 12:47), Beyer (18th in 12:49) and Grotelueschen (19th in 12:51.3).
“The Bulldogs owned their home course,” M-S head coach Lisa Martin said. “Some athletes saw personal-best times on a tough course and others identified areas that they could focus on going into our home meet (Saturday) on the same course
“It was a very productive evening. The weeknight meets are often used as training. We do not taper to prepare for a Thursday night. This means that our runners’ legs are often a little heavy due to decent workouts throughout the week. But, in theory, this sets us up for a strong showing in our Saturday invitationals. Our athletes showed that they can work hard during the week and still pull off some great races with great times.”
M-S will return to action on Thursday (Sept. 21) in a junior varsity meet at Clinton and then on Friday (Sept. 22) in the Dunlap Invitational varsity meet at Detweiller Park, in Peoria.
