BOYS TENNIS
At Chicago suburbs: Princeton senior Jackson Mason advanced to the second day of the IHSA Class 1A state tournament with three wins Thursday.
Mason lost his first match 6-0, 6-0 to Wheaton St. Francis senior Umar Bajwa, a No. 5-8 seed, before bouncing back to win three matches in the consolation bracket.
In his first consolation match, Mason beat St. Ignatius College Prep’s Shiven Devnani 6-2, 6-4 then he defeated Newman’s Joel Rhodes 6-2, 4-6, 10-8 in the second round of the consolation bracket before topping Mt. Zion’s Ryne Reatherford 6-0, 6-1 in his third-round consolation match.
Mason will play Vernon Hills senior Roman Stukov, a No. 3-4 seed, in a fourth round consolation match on Friday.
BOYS TRACK & FIELD
At Charleston: Amboy co-op freshman Ian Hassler advanced to the finals in both throwing events at the IHSA Class 1A state meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Hassler threw the discus 48.4 meters for the fourth-best mark of the preliminaries Thursday, while he tossed the shot put a personal record 15.72 meters, which was 10th in the prelims.
The top 12 advance to Saturday’s finals in field events with nine earning medals.
Hassler wasn’t the only NewsTribune-area thrower to advance as Putnam County senior Alex Rodriguez earned a return trip to finals in the shot put with a toss of 15.81, which was ninth in the prelims.
Rodriguez also competed in the discus but did not qualify for finals, finishing 17th at 44.74.
Fieldcrest senior Micheal Beckett punched his ticket back to the triple jump finals with a season best leap of 13.55, which was sixth in the prelims.
Amboy sophomore Damian Bender qualified in the 300-meter hurdles by placing eighth in the prelims in 40.77 seconds. He also competed in long jump but did not advance as he was 43rd at 5.63.
Several other area athletes saw their seasons end Thursday.
Bureau Valley’s Andrew Roth finished 15th in the 110 hurdles (15.37) and 26th in the 300 hurdles (42.3).
Also for the Storm, Tucker Shane, Morgan Mahnesmith, Kyle Velazquez and Keenyn Richter finished 23rd in the 4x200 relay (1:33.09) and Alex Gallardo, Kayne Richter, Adrian Gallardo and Maddox Moore took 28th in the 4x800 relay (8:44.85) and BV’s 4x100 relay did not finish.
Henry-Midland’s Brecken Pyles finished 26th in the long jump (6.27) and did not record a height in the high jump, St. Bede’s James Arkins tied for 25th in the pole vault with a PR of 3.35 and Fieldcrest’s Braydin Eplin was 28th in the discus (42.73).
BASEBALL
Fieldcrest 8, Deer Creek-Mackinaw 2: The No. 5-seeded Knights scored eight runs in the fifth inning on the way to a win over the No. 4 Chiefs in a Class 1A Delavan Regional semifinal in Delavan.
Eli Gerdes doubled twice, drove in two runs and scored a run, while Layten Gerdes and Drew Overocker each went 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI.
Layten Gerdes was the winning pitcher as he gave up two unearned runs on two hits while striking out nine and walking four in six innings. Overocker pitched a perfect seventh with two strikeouts.
Fieldcrest (12-16) advances to play No. 1 Tremont (32-2) in the championship at 11 a.m. Saturday.
IVC 3, St. Bede 2: The No. 4-seeded Bruins took a 2-0 lead but the No. 5 Ghosts rallied with three runs in the fifth inning en route to a win in a Class 2A Mercer County Regional semifinal in Aledo.
Gus Burr was 2 for 4 with an RBI for St. Bede (23-13), while Drew Carboni went 2 for 3 and scored a run.
Gino Ferrari was the losing pitcher as he allowed three runs (one earned) on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks in 6 ⅓ innings.