The Beardstown Middle School Track team hit the road to Canton for their first meet of the season competing in a triangular with the host Little Giants and the Ducks of Havana. The Tigers had a handful of first place finishers and a slew of medal winners.
All four Tiger wrestlers representing Beardstown in last weekend’s State Tournament action picked up at least one win. None of the grapplers was able to bring home a medal but all four had very good weekends and great seasons. Beardstown sent two individuals to the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Fresh/Soph State Tournament and two individuals to the Illinois Elementary School Association State Tournament. Brothers Maddox and Alcantar Medrano qualified for the Tigers at the Fresh/Soph level and Jude Dawson and Kellen Brown competed in the junior high event.
In their first year in the West Central Conference, the Beardstown Tigers were well represented on the winter sports’ All Conference Teams. A total of eleven Tigers received All Conference honors in girls’ basketball, boys’ basketball, and wrestling.
Earning a First Team selection in girls’ basketball was sophomore Camila Salazar. Her sister, senior Delma Salazar, was named Honorable Mention.
Congratulations to the Beardstown Tiger 6th grade basketball team and coaches for their 2nd Place finish in the Havana tournament.
Four more Beardstown Tiger wrestlers have qualified for State Tournament action. Two high school freshman/sophomores and two junior high wrestlers placed in the top four in the Sectional Tournament to advance. The Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association sponsors the Fresh/Soph State Tournament and Beardstown’s Alex Armenta, and Maddox and Alcantar Medrano all qualified for the Sectional held at Granite City. Armenta, wrestling at 106 pounds, lost by technical fall to the number one seed from Cahokia in round one and fell again by tech fall in round two to bow out of the tourney.
The AC Central seventh grade volleyball team are the 1A Regional Champions. The Knights, seeded #1 in their own regional, followed an opening round bye with a regional semifinal win over fifth seeded Springfield St. Agnes 25-16, 25-9. In the Championship game last Thursday, the Knights took down #2 seed Springfield Calvary in a thriller, 22-25, 25-18, 25-22, to win the title and advance to Sectionals. They were scheduled to play undefeated Carrollton St. John’s at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 4 in Virginia. The eighth-grade team was the number four seed in the Calvary Regional and were eliminated from post season play in the opening round by Jacksonville Our Savior by scores of 25-20, 25-16.
A poor start, red hot free throw shooting by the opponent, a failure to defensive rebound and a missed call by the referees, all combined to contribute to the season ending loss in the first round of the regional by the Beardstown Tiger varsity basketball team. On the road at Illini West, the Tigers fought back from a cold start and had a late lead but could not hold on to it in losing a heartbreaker 46 to 45 to the Chargers.
The Beardstown High School freshman-sophomore and the Beardstown Middle School wrestling teams competed in Regional Tournament action last week with a host of Tiger grapplers qualifying to move on to the Sectional Tournament.
Beardstown’s Garrett “Chunk” Dailey picked up one win against two losses at last week’s IHSA State Tournament in Champaign.
The burly junior, wrestling at 285 pounds, lost his first match by fall to David McCarthy of Chicago De LaSalle High School. McCarthy would go on to place 5th overall in the state. In the next day’s wrestle back bracket, Dailey won by fall in 1:39 over Jared Claunch of Bryon. Just over an hour later Chunk’s season ended in a heartbreaker as he lost a 2-1 decision to Roy Phelps of Chicago Hope. Although the final defeat was a tough one to swallow, Dailey will be back on the mats for the Tigers next year.
The Beardstown boys’ basketball team closed the regular season on a four-game winning streak to push their record to 22-9 on the season, giving Coach Eric Anderson and the Tigers the most wins in a season since 1996. The orange and black started last week with a West Central Conference home win over Augusta Southeastern. The win gave the Tigers a 5-4 mark in the conference and was the second victory this season over the Suns, following a Turkey Tourney win. Beardstown hit five of 10 three-pointers and shot 45% from the field overall in the win. It was 14 to 9 in favor of the Tigers after one quarter, and they led