Today's Sports

For all of the excitement of two Vandalia boys track athletes making the state meet, there was just as much disappointment, as a senior missed qualifying by just a fraction of a second.

Senior Ryan Ambuehl qualified in two events and sophomore Ben Strobel qualified in one for this weekend’s Illinois High School Association state track championships on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

In the 800-meter run, senior Wade Cowger placed third, and his time was just six-hundreths of a second over the automatic state-qualifying time.

MACON – Senior Shaunna Rainey got one last home run trot, but otherwise, there wasn’t much excitement for Ramsey in its final game of the season.

The Lady Rams held an early 2-2 tie, but the sectional semifinal game slipped out of hand in the top of the fourth when Cumberland added eight runs on the way a 13-3 win in six innings at Meridian High School.

One small-school athlete from the area has qualified for the Illinois High School Association Class A state track meet.

Chase Riley, a freshman at South Central High School who runs for the Patoka/South Central co-op track team, placed second in the 200-meter dash at the Lawrenceville Sectional to qualify for state.

His time of 24.05 seconds allows him to be the only freshman qualifier in the 200.

Preliminaries in the 200-meter dash will be held on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Thursday at about 2:15 p.m.

ST. ELMO – Mulberry Grove was outlasted by Altamont in a 12-inning regional championship game last Friday, losing 4-3 on a bloop single in the bottom of the 12th inning.

Deidre Ledbetter’s flare to left was the third straight single of the 12th, and easily brought in the winning run at the St. Elmo Regional, ending a hard-fought game that saw both teams bring a tremendous amount of effort.