St. Mary's Girls Capture Third Conference Title Of School Year, Several To State, Other Area Athletes Also Shine In Conference

May 10 2023 1:48 PM | updated May 11 2023 1:23 PM |

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ALTON - St. Mary's eighth grade girls' track and field team recorded a first recently - capturing the conference title in three sports: track and field, volleyball, and basketball.

St. Mary's scored 133 points in the girls conference meet compared to St. Boniface's 129 points, SSPP-SJN's 92 points, St. Ambrose's 62 points, St. Mary's in Edwardsville's 50 points, St. Paul with 12 points, St. Elizabeth with 3 points and Holy Family with 2 points.

St. Boniface won the boys' conference meet with 137.33 points. St. Mary's of Edwardsville was third with 101.33 points, and St. Ambrose was fourth with 42 points. St. Mary's of Alton was sixth with 22 points.

"The three conference titles for girls is a first for the school," Hough said. "Each girl on the St. Mary’s track and field team had a top six finish and secured us points whether it was in a relay, an individual event, or both. This was 100 percent a team effort and it took everyone for us to secure the win. We had some injuries and we were coming off an eighth-grade camping trip so I was not sure how it would go, but they all stepped up. On the girls' side, Lilly Hannigan was the top-scoring athlete of the meet with 33 points."

In results provided by Coach Hough, some of the girls' highlights for the area were as follows: Hannigan won the 200 with a time of 28.33, while Allison Beltramea of St. Boniface was the 400 champion (1:06.97), Stephan won the 800 (2:45.0), Harper Dettmers of St. Boniface won the 1,600 (6:12.0), St. Mary's of Edwardsville: Aubrey Hattrump, Greta Deist, Emme McGaughey, and Addison Franke won the 4 x 100 relay (1:00.53), St. Mary's of Alton's Stephan, Izzy Hough, Morgan Rister and Lillian Hannigan won the 4 x 400 relay (4:49.46), Hannigan won the long jump (14-1), Mia Lopez won the shot put (26-4), and Peyton Delehanty of St. Ambrose was third (22-1). Dettmers won the high jump, clearing 4-2. Alivia Noss of St. Ambrose was first in the discus (60-11.5), while teammate Stella Frost and Alaina McDonald tied in third (59-4), and Lopez was fourth (57-8.5).

"Our boys' team is very young and we were missing both of our seventh graders and also had some out due to illness so we were relying solely on fourth through sixth graders," Coach Hough said. "Although we didn’t see many in scoring position, they all stepped up to the challenge. Parker Hough (mile): 4th Jeffrey Bagley, Kainan Kelly, Daniel Fitzgerald, and Christopher Loftus (4x1): 6th Tucker Hamilton, Ryan Lopez, Christopher Loftus, Kainan Kelly (4x2): 4th.

"This has been a great season for us. We have some rebuilding to do next year and we are hopeful we can recruit some additional kids, but I am very excited about what is to come. All of these kids have great attitudes and work well together! I think we will be seeing great things from all of our eighth-grade girls as they leave us next year. All nine girls will be heading to Marquette next year and all of them will be continuing on with athletics. Each of these girls also played an important role in our basketball and volleyball success this year so things look very promising for them!"

St. Mary's Girls Advance Several To SIJHAA State

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The St. Mary’s girls track team competed in the Regional meet at Belleville Althoff on Saturday, April 29 with the the following girls qualifying for the state finals at DuQuoin May 13: Mia Lopez: Shot Put (1st) Alex Stephan: 4x2 (1st), Hurdles (2nd), 800 (2nd), 4x4 (2nd) Morgan Rister: 4x2 (1st), 4x4 (2nd) Izzi Hough: 4x2 (1st), 4x4 (2nd) Katherine Fitzgerald: 4x2 (1st) Lilly Hannigan: 4x4 (2nd).

Other IESA Area Qualifiers - Class 1A

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Colby Goetten of Jersey St. Francis Holy Ghost qualified in the seventh-grade pole vault, Chloe McAdams, advanced in the seventh-grade shot put, Katera Ulery of Carrollton advanced in the eighth-grade shot put, and Chloe McAdams advanced in the seventh-grade girls discus throw with Hadley Lake of Carrollton.

Brookelyn Eilerman of Carrollton St. John and Ulery of Carrollton also advanced in the eighth-grade discus, while Jace Steinkuehler of Carrollton advanced in the boys discus with Landon Grafford of Carrollton St. John.

Neely Goetten of Jerseyville St. Francis Holy Ghost advanced in the eighth-grade long jump and the 100-meter hurdles.

Carrollton St. John advanced in the 4 x 100 eighth-grade relay.