It was a very impressive performance from the PORTA-AC Central boys’ track team last Friday afternoon on the campus of Western Illinois University for the Lee Calhoun Invitational. The Jays won First Place in the very competitive, eighteen team event, outscoring second place Monmouth-Roseville by 21.5 points, 97 to 75.5. The Lady Bluejays finished in fourteenth place out of seventeen teams.
It was an exciting last week of baseball for the PORTA-AC Central Bluejays with a nine-inning loss, an eighth inning win, and a two-hit shut out win. The 2-1 week moves the Jays record to 7-6 on the season.
Mother Nature wiped out the beginning of the week, but the Jays got back in action on Friday when they traveled to Riverton and battled the Hawks on another cool and misty afternoon. Riverton took the early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first, but the Jays tied it up in the top of the second on three consecutive singles by Hunter Roberts, Brody Landon and Jett Kerrick, and a sacrifice fly by Barrett Morse. Kendall Davis, who got the start on the mound, settled in, and kept Riverton scoreless over the next five innings, striking out eight. On offense, the Jays had multiple chances, outhitting Riverton 11 to 6
Following a five-game gauntlet in four days last week, the PORTA-AC baseball team has fought their way back to the .500 mark at 5-5 for the season. Outstanding offense has been the key so far with the team batting .362 and averaging eleven hits and six runs per game. The week did not start out very well, with winnable games turning into losses at both North Mac and Springfield Southeast. The Jays bounced back by winning at Canton on Friday and then winning twice on Saturday in the Jacksonville High School Jamboree.
The boys and girls track teams for PORTA-AC Central both dashed to first place finishes in a six-team meet last week in Havana.
Bryson Schachtsiek brought home first place in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and the long jump. Isaac Rennecker won both the high jump and the triple jump. Kade Parker won the 1600-meter run and Justin Zimmerman was second. Daxton Trueblood won the 800-meter run and Quincy Stuhmer was second. Jacob Vogel finished second in the 100 and third in the 200 and Noah Hardy placed third in the 400 meters.
Returning all but three players from last year’s sixteen-win team, this year’s PORTA-AC Central baseball team has high hopes for the season. Head Coach Brett Leischner along with assistants Doug Blakeman, Rick King, Devon Roach, Jared Canterbury, and Dave Leischner are eager to build on a successful 2023 campaign. Coach Leischner knows it won’t be easy but feels the pieces are there to push towards twenty wins, improve on a 4-4, fifth place conference finish and make some hay in the postseason. According to Leischner, “there are high internal expectations this season. The schedule is very competitive, and the Sangamo Conference is one of the best small school conferences in the state. This year could prove to be a great one if we can stay healthy and pull together as a team.”
The PORTA-AC Central Baseball Team got off the schneid after losing their first two games of the season, winning twice last week over Havana and Payson Seymour before falling to North Boone to move to 2-3 on the season.
It was a slow start to the season for the PORTA-AC Central baseball team as they lost twice on the road last week. They dropped a tough one in the opener, losing 5 to 3 to Litchfield, then got doubled up 11 to 5 by Lewistown-Valley-Cuba with one bad inning costing them dearly.
The PORTA-AC Central boys’ basketball team’s season ended last week with a semifinal loss to the Riverton Hawks in the Athens Regional.
The Bluejays had snapped a lengthy season ending losing streak with a nice first round win over arch-rival Athens at their place to advance. The Jays could not get their offense on track in the loss to Riverton and fell by a final score of 46 to 30. They found themselves within striking distance, down 34 to 24 after three quarters but the offensive struggles continued in the fourth ending their season. PORTA-AC finished with a 13-19 record.
Two Sangamo Conference losses on the road ended the regular season for the PORTA-AC Central Bluejays dropping them to 1-8 in the conference and 12-18 overall in a rebuilding season. The Bluejays gave a very good Auburn team all they wanted for three quarters before falling 59 to 41 to start the week then dropped a disappointing decision to Standford Olympia 52 to 47.
A tough stretch for the PORTA-AC Central boys basketball team got even tougher as the Jays dropped two tight conference games to good teams last week to push their losing streak to five games. PORTA-AC has lost eight of their last nine to fall to 12-16 on the year and 1-6 in the Sangamo Conference.