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Ottawa’s Gwen Jimenez advances to 2A state finals in shot put: The Times Friday Roundup

Sandwich’s Sunny Weber secures chance to defend 2A 1,600 title

Ottawa's Gwen Jimenez throws shot put during the Class 2A Sectional track meet on Wednesday, May 13, 2026 in the Jeff Prusator Athletic Complex at Mendota High School.

Ottawa junior Gwen Jimenez, shown making a throw at last week's Class 2A Mendota Sectional track meet, advanced from Friday's state preliminaries and into Saturday's finals. (Scott Anderson)

By Brian Hoxsey

Girls track and field

Ottawa’s Jimenez, Sandwich’s Weber advance to finals: At the IHSA Class 2A State Finals held Friday in Charleston, Pirates junior Gwen Jimenez placed 10th in the preliminaries of the shot put to advance to Saturday’s finals.

Indians senior Sunny Weber, the defending state champion in the Class 2A 1,600-meter run, advanced to Saturday’s finals by running the eighth-fastest preliminary time of 5 minutes, 07.70 seconds. Weber is also scheduled to run the 3,200 in Saturday’s finals.

Sandwich senior Sunny Weber

Sandwich senior Sunny Weber (Bill Stone )

Ottawa freshman Kendall Justice (400-meter dash, 32nd, 1:03.21), Streator sophomore Kinslee Sweeden (discus, 16th, 33.39 meters) and Sandwich junior Alayla Harris (100-meter hurdles, 27th, 16.14 seconds) fell short of advancing to the finals.

Boys track and field

Landin Stillwell

Landin Stillwell (Brian Hoxsey)

Somonauk/Leland sending four athletes to 1A state meet: At the Class 1A Oregon Sectional, the Bobcats had a trio of individuals and a relay team advance to next week’s state meet in Charleston.

Landin Stillwell ran to a first-place finish in the 1600-meter run (4 minutes, 30.60 seconds), Jackson Brockway placed runner-up in the 400-meter dash (53.37 seconds), and Gunnar Swenson finished fourth in the 800 with a state-qualifying time of 2:01.10.

The S/L 4x800 relay team of Stillwell, Brockway, Swenson and Caden Hamer placed second in 8:14.24 to advance.

Baseball

Sacred Heart Griffin 6, Marquette 4: At Springfield, the host Cyclones led throughout after a three-run first in dealing the Crusaders (32-2) just their second loss of the season.

Beau Thompson and Jaxsen Higgins each doubled for Marquette, with Alec Novotney, Anthony Couch and Grant Dose each recording RBIs. Novotney (loss, 2 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K), Easton DeBernardi (3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K) and Griffin Dobberstein (1 IP, 2 BB, 1 K) combined efforts on the mound.

Galva 5, Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell 3: At rural Streator, the visiting Wildcats scored two runs in the top of the seventh in the victory over the Warriors (2-19).

Reece Pelnarsh had two of WFC’s three hits and stole a base, while Blaine Bates had a pair of RBIs. Brayden Matsko (7 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K) suffered the loss.

Sandwich 7, Reed-Custer 4: At Sandwich, the Indians trailed by four runs before plating four in the fourth and three more in the fifth in the victory over the Comets.

Chase Clark (double, RBI) had two hits for Sandwich, while Jeffery Ashley, Cash White and Nick Michalek each had an RBI. Arlo Budd (7 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) earned the win on the hill.

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Brian Hoxsey

Brian Hoxsey

I worked for 25 years as a CNC operator and in 2005 answered an ad in The Times for a freelance sports writer position. I became a full-time sports writer/columnist for The Times in February of 2016. I enjoy researching high school athletics history, and in my spare time like to do the same, but also play video games and watch Twitch.