Shane Hulsey, Sports Writer
RIVERTON, Ill. — The tone of Mark Thomas’ voice almost never changes. This was the case even as the Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team fell behind in the first half of Wednesday’s Class 1A Riverton Sectional championship game against Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin. “If we keep this at 2-1 at halftime, we’re fine,” the Raiders…
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QUINCY — Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. In 2023, the Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team reached the Class 1A Sacred Heart-Griffin Regional championship game, but the host Cyclones upended the Raiders 4-2. This was the final game of Mark Longo’s 34-year career as the Raiders’ head coach. Longo…
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CANTON, Mo. — Until a year ago, Drew Mallett had no intentions of participating in the decathlon. “I didn’t even know if colleges had that stuff or not,” Mallett said. Now, the Culver-Stockton College sophomore and Highland High School graduate is headed to this week’s NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships after winning the Heart…
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CANTON, Mo. — Delaney Straus is no stranger to a heavy workload. The past two years, Straus has played guard for the Culver-Stockton College women’s basketball team while also participating in multiple events, including the heptathlon, for the track and field team. She is also double majoring in accounting and business administration. “Sometimes you just…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — The Pleasant Hill softball team received a special delivery on the way to Saturday morning’s Class 1A Camp Point Regional championship game. “The Fourth of July committee in Pleasant Hill was selling donuts at the four-way stop, and I guess they saw the bus getting ready and they said, ‘Stop by…
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'I just hit it': Patton's OT goal after lightning delay sends Raiders to sectional championship game
RIVERTON, Ill. — Lightning strikes delayed the game, but Makayla Patton’s strike decided it. At the end of a scoreless regulation, lightning near Riverton Middle School forced a 30-minute delay in Friday’s Class 1A Riverton Sectional semifinal between the Quincy Notre Dame and Alton Marquette girls soccer teams. Seven and a half minutes after the…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — Karly Peters knew exactly what was on the line and exactly what to do. In the bottom of the seventh inning of Wednesday’s Class 1A regional semifinal, Peters stood on second base as Lauren Miller stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, two outs and the Camp Point Central softball…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — It was deja vu for the Pleasant Hill softball team ahead of their Class 1A Camp Point Regional semifinal game against Mendon Unity on Wednesday. The Wolves’ 2022 season ended in a 13-inning loss to Unity in the regional semifinals in Camp Point when Pleasant Hill was the No. 1 seed…
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QUINCY — Greg Altmix plans on finishing his coaching career at Quincy Notre Dame. “I plan on being here until I can’t do it anymore,” Altmix said. At 57 years old, the newest QND boys basketball coach has been roaming the sidelines for more than half his life. Even though he has embraced the salt-and-pepper…
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PAYSON, Ill. — Ashton Ertz and Josh Cook share more than just a record. Ertz, a senior center fielder for the Payson Seymour baseball team, has 86 career hits. This mark puts him in a tie with Cook, a 1993 Payson Seymour graduate who spent time in the Houston Astros and New York Mets farm…
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PARIS, Mo. — Palmyra senior Hailey Kroeger isn’t finished. Finished setting school records in the javelin that is. Kroeger’s new high mark of 38.95 meters at the Class 3 sectional at Paris High School on Saturday helped her win the event and qualify for the state track and field championships, which will be held May…
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CANTON, Mo. — Trevor Biggerstaff felt like he let a state championship slip away in 2023. Biggerstaff got off to a blistering start on the first day of the Missouri Class 1 boys golf state championships at the Country Club of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. Starting on the back nine, he shot an even-par 36…
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PARIS, Mo. — A little friendly competition never hurts, especially when a trip to state is on the line. Carson Hicks and Luke Sheppard used their competition to catapult themselves to berths at the Class 3 boys track and field state championships, taking place May 17-18 at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City. The Palmyra pair…
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PARIS, Mo. — Even after she crossed the finish line, Canton sophomore MaryKate McReynolds wasn’t sure if the Tigers’ 4×100-meter relay team had qualified for state. It was only after she saw her school’s name next to the No. 4 indicating fourth place on the scoring monitor that she knew they had done it. “I…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — No baseball team in Hannibal High School history has ever won 20 games in a season. That will remain the case for at least one more day. The Pirates had a chance to become the first team to reach the 20-victory plateau Friday, but Hillsboro edged out them 2-1 in eight innings…
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QUINCY — Surya Reddy immediately knew something was wrong. During his No. 2 singles match in the Western Big 6 Conference regular-season finale against Galesburg on Monday, Reddy retreated to chase down a long ball from the Silver Streaks’ Keaton Empey. “I tripped and fell, then I put my (left) hand out to brace myself,”…
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QUINCY — Preston Trinh’s swan song was a beautiful tune. Trinh, a senior, has played in the Quincy High School varsity boys tennis team’s lineup since he was a freshman. He played at No. 5 singles and No. 3 doubles last season, but he has been shuffled out of the Blue Devils’ lineup this season. …
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — Abbie Martin never panicked. Two and a half minutes into overtime of the Hannibal girls soccer team’s regular season finale against Hickman on Monday, Kewpies defender Hattie Hayes’ turnover in the middle of the pitch came right to Martin about 20 yards from the Hickman goal. Martin gathered, turned and rifled a…
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QUINCY — Prior to last Tuesday’s Mark Twain/Becky Thatcher Relays at Hannibal’s Porter Stadium, Quincy High School junior Xander Colombo could count on one hand the amount of times he had thrown a javelin. “That was only my third or fourth time throwing this thing,” said Colombo, holding the javelin in his left hand. Still,…
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QUINCY — Maddie Sidwell won the deciding battle, and the Pleasant Hill softball team won the war. Sidwell’s bases-clearing double with two outs in the top of the eighth inning broke a 2-2 tie and propelled the Wolves to a 5-2 win over Quincy Notre Dame in the QND Softball Slam at The Backyard on…
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LIBERTY, Ill. — Maverick Henry couldn’t stop smiling as he rounded the bases following his three-run home run in the second inning of the Brown County baseball team’s 15-0 five-inning victory over Liberty on Friday. As Henry approached third base, Hornets coach Jared Hoots — with a smile on his face as well — told…
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CARTHAGE, Ill. — Ian Bentzinger sees his motivation staring back at him every day. The Illini West senior sprinter currently holds the fifth fastest time in the 100-meter dash in Class 1A across the state with his school-record 10.82 seconds, which he ran at the Lee Calhoun Invitational on April 5 in Macomb. At the…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — Kane Wilson’s diving stop in the fifth inning of the Hannibal baseball team’s 3-0 victory over Mexico at the Veterans Sports Complex on Monday did not result in an out, but the Pirates shortstop made arguably the most important play of the game. With a runner on second, no outs and the…
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PLEASANT HILL, Ill. — McKinley Lowe, Ava Wombles and the Pleasant Hill softball team are on quite a roll. The Wolves are 14-2 and are outscoring opponents by nearly six runs per game. The pitching staff, which consists of Lowe and Wombles, has recorded six shutouts and given up one run on four other occasions,…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — It takes a certain toughness to play catcher. As Camp Point Central freshman infielder Caleb Petersen put it, “There’s no such thing as a good sissy catcher.” His older brother is as tough as they come and has an iron man streak to prove it. Cole Petersen, a senior, has caught…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — Hannibal girls soccer coach Eric Hill did not write a script for Thursday’s North Central Missouri Conference game against Mexico, but if he would have, it would have looked something like the Pirates’ 8-0 victory at the Veterans Sports Complex. “We put on a show,” Hill said. It lasted only 51 minutes.…
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QUINCY — Whew. That was the collective reaction from the Quincy Notre Dame soccer team when freshman Sierra Thomas scored in the 58th minute to break a scoreless draw in QND’s 3-1 win over Burlington Notre Dame on Tuesday at Advance Physical Therapy Field. “You could feel the air come out of the balloon a…
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QUINCY — There’s a first time for everything. Clark County baseball coach Shaun Parker delivered that message to his team before Tuesday’s game against Quincy Notre Dame. The Indians listened and believed in what Parker said. Clark County scored a 4-0 victory at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield for the program’s first victory against QND.…
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QUINCY — Off the field, Quincy Notre Dame junior Abram Wiewel is a light-hearted jokester. On the field, he turns into a junkyard dog. “When I’m pitching, I get into a completely different mindset,” Wiewel said. “I want to hunt you down and destroy you.” Monday, Wiewel annihilated the Mendon Unity baseball team’s offense, throwing…
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QUINCY — There wasn’t enough time for prom to become a distraction. Quincy Notre Dame softball coach Eric Orne hopes the post-prom letdown won’t be either. The Raiders needed a tidy 1 hour, 10 minutes to dispatch Jacksonville on Saturday morning, rolling to a 12-0 victory in five innings at The Backyard. It allowed enough…
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