Seneca, Newark, Somonauk-Leland all advance girls to state finals: The Times Thursday Roundup

Girls track and field

Seneca, Newark, Somonauk all score advancers: At the IHSA Class 1A State Meet preliminaries held Thursday at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, numerous Times-area state qualifiers made the cut for Saturday’s finals.

Newark’s one-girl wrecking crew, senior Kiara Wesseh, advanced to Saturday’s finals in the 100-meter hurdles with a fifth-place time of 15.78 seconds, the 300 hurdles with a third-place 47.62 and the high jump with an event-best 1.53 meters. The Norsemen 4x200 team of Addison Ness, Tess Carlson, Brooklyn Hatteberg and Wesseh also advanced, placing sixth in 1:48.5, as did Carlson in the pole vault with a 3.05-meter jump and Ness in the triple jump with her ninth-place 10.54.

For Seneca, Teagan Johnson’s finals qualifying 3.05-meter jump in the pole vault was tied for the second-highest of the day. Evelyn O’Connor advanced in the 1,600 with an 11th-place, school-record run of 5:11.08. The 4x800 relay team consisting of Clara Bruno, Natalie Misener, Gracie Steffes and O’Connor posted the sixth-best time, 9:59.88. Faith Baker’s 12th-place throw of 10.91 meters in the shot put made the cut as well.

Somonauk-Leland’s Alexis Punsalan made it to Saturday in the pole vault, also clearing 3.05 meters.

Also competing in Thursday’s prelims but not advancing were: from Seneca – Cassidy Fosen (31st in 100); Misener (22nd in the 800); Lilly Pfeifer (29th in the 100 hurdles); the 4x400 relay team of Bruno, Misener, O’Connor and Lila Coleman (20th); Gabi Maxwell (33rd in the shot put and 23rd in the discus); and Coleman (28th in the long jump); from Newark – Hatteberg (30th in 200), Madison Sittler (25th in the 400), the 4x100 relay of Ness, Sittler, Isabella Creps and Hatteberg (19th); for Marquette – Maggie Jewett (23rd in the 400); from Fieldcrest – Macy Gochanour (20th in the 100 hurdles, 18th in the 300 hurdles) and Pru Magnan (22nd in the discus); from Earlville - Vyvienn O’Connell (T-15th in the pole vault); and from Somonauk-Leland – Punsalan (29th in the 200).

Class 2A and 3A preliminaries are scheduled to be held Friday.

Boys track and field

Krischel advances out of Dee-Mack: At the Class 1A Deer Creek-Mackinaw Sectional, Fieldcrest’s Caleb Krischel (4th in the 800-meter run, 2:01.02) was The Times-area’s lone state qualifier.

In the team standings, Hall (50) was fifth, Fieldcrest (30) ninth and FCW (21) 11th in the 15-team standings behind champion El Paso-Gridley (120 team points).

Softball

Ottawa 2, Normal Community 0: At King Field, the Pirates celebrated their senior night with a shutout victory over the Steelmen.

In the final regular season home games for Kendall Lowery, Mika Moreland and Peyton Bryson, Bobbi Snook and Bryson were the game’s heroes – Snook tagging a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to score herself and Maura Condon for the game’s only runs; Bryson (7 IP, 0 R, 5 K) allowing just four hits and no bases on balls in the complete game shutout. Mika Moreland was 2 for 2 for Ottawa.

Baseball

Stillman Valley 7, Sandwich 4: In the semifinals of the Class 2A Marengo Regional, the Indians (18-15) saw their season come to a close in large part due to a five-run fifth inning surrendered.

Quinn Rome, Nick Michalek and Chris Barbor drove home runs for the Indians, who scored one run in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings. Chance Lange (4 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 3 K) suffered the pitching loss.

Herscher 6, Seneca 0: In the semifinals of the Class 2A Herscher Regional, the Fighting Irish (20-8) had their season halted after being shutout out by Payten Young and their old conference rival.

Nathen Neal singled and Austin Aldridge doubled to account for Seneca’s only hits. Paxton Giertz (4 IP, 4 ER, 5 K) was dealt the pitching loss.

Herscher scored four runs in the third inning to open the scoring, adding insurance runs in the fourth and seventh.

Geneseo 8, Ottawa 7: At Richmond Hill in Geneseo, the visiting Pirates (15-16) led 7-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh only to see their old conference rivals rally for four runs and the walk-off victory.

Colin Fowler (1/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 K) took the loss in relief of starter Adam Swanson (5 IP, 4 ER, 2 K) and Alex Billings (1 IP, 2 ER, 1 K). Swanson singled, doubled and drove home two runs for Ottawa, with Jace Veith (RBI, three runs scored), Lucas Farabaugh and Packston Miller also adding two-hit days.

Streator 7, Plano 6: At the SHS Athletic Fields, the host Bulldogs (13-19) were held scoreless until plating five in the fifth and two more in the sixth in the win over their former conference rivals.

Cole Winterrowd (two RBIs), Jake Hagie (two runs scored) and Landon Muntz (two RBIs) provided two hits apiece toward Streator’s 10-hit attack. Zander McCloskey, Noah Camp and Joe Hoekstra added an RBI each in support of pitchers Muntz (4 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 6 K), winner Landen Cook (1 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 1 K) and save-getter Keegan Angelico (1 IP, 0 R, 2 K).