Sims and Powell recieve Apollo Conference Honors
By Fred Kroner
A showdown between state-ranked Class 2A schools on Tuesday (Oct. 13) ended with 24th-ranked Mount Zion topping 25th-ranked Mahomet-Seymour for first place in the Apollo Conference girls’ cross-country meet.
Mount Zion had a composite score of 46 points. Runner-up M-S ended with 60 points. Charleston (95) was third in the eight-school event.
Two Bulldog juniors captured all-conference honors for placing among the top 10 in a field of 61 competitors.
The race was run in two waves of five runners (per school), starting about 30 seconds apart.
Elizabeth Sims placed third for M-S in the 3-mile race, registering a time of 19 minutes, 24.4 seconds. Klein Powell was eighth in 20:20.8.
“Elizabeth had a great race and looked more like herself after being out for a couple weeks earlier this season,” M-S coach Jama Grotelueschen said. “Klein also received all-conference honors and had possibly her best race of the season.”
Eight other squad members participated in the varsity race and each one secured a finish in the upper half of the field.
Freshman Ava Boyd was 12th (20:42.0).
“Ava Boyd just missed all-conference,” Grotelueschen said. “Ava, who was also out for a couple weeks this season, was a very tough competitor for our team on Tuesday.”
Incredibly, the next seven Bulldogs’ participants were in a pack within 25 seconds of one another.
Junior Delaney King was 18th (21:09.1).
She was followed by sophomore Callie Jansen (19th in 21:16.3), junior Emily Bednar (21st in 21:16.8), junior Grace Lietz (24th in 21:27.9), junior Chloe Allen (25th in 21:28.0), senior Olivia Bunting (27th in 21:32.5) and senior Shaelin Ruzich (28th in 21:34.0).
“Callie Jansen and Emily Bednar worked together to push the pace in Wave 2,” Groteueschen said. “Shaelin, who missed the three previous meets, was asked to step up and run the varsity race at literally the last minute.
“Without missing a beat, she agreed, ran a great race, and showed the competitor that she is.
Allen, Bunting and Ruzich all recorded their best times of the season.
“These girls continue to work well together, which is no surprise as this is what they do every day in practice. We need all of the girls to continue to push one another as we approach the postseason.”
In the open race, the first seven finishers were from M-S.
Leading the pack was senior Ella Wolters, the individual winner, who posted a 3-mile time of 21:30.2.
“Ella Wolters ran an amazing race,” Grotelueschen said. “She beat her lifetime PR, set just two weeks prior, by 25 seconds.
“Her time put her squarely in the mix with our pack of runners in the varsity race.”
Following Wolters were Alyssa Christensen (second in 22:30.6), Lauren Bednar (third in 22:37.4), Gretchen Scheele (fourth in 23:29.4), Cece Abramson (fifth in 23:59.7), Hannah Hofbauer (sixth in 24:08.4) and Meg Turner (seventh in 24:10.6).
Scheele and Hofbauer each registered their top times of the season.
Other M-S participants in the open race were: Fiona Taylor (10th in 25:47.7), Emily Bergia (11th in 26:33.3), Zoe Joyce (12th in 26:35.6), Sadie Wilcoxon (14th in 28:29.5) and Natalie Parrott (15th in 29:21.0).
M-S returns to action on Saturday in a seven-school meet in Monticello at Lodge Park. Others in the field besides the Bulldogs and the host school are Paxton-Buckley-Loda, Stanford Olympia, St. Joseph-Ogden, St. Thomas More and Urbana Uni High.
The Bulldogs will be joined by four state-ranked Class 1A schools on Saturday: No. 1 Monticello, No. 11 Olympia, No. 16 St. Thomas More and No. 20 St. Joseph-Ogden.
