Sullivan Blue Dolphins with Head Coach Jason Drury and Coach Nichole Hendry after a 1st Place finish in Terra Haute.

•July 31, 2024•

The Sullivan Blue Dolphins Swim team has had a busy summer, but as they near the start of a new school year the long course season comes to a close. SBD kicked off long course with the annual THT Summer Steam meet in Terra Haute, IN where they once again walked away with the 1st Place Trophy. The team then traveled to Springfield, IL for the Capital City Classic where they ended the meet with 1271 total team points.

SBD Summer Championship Team, left to right: Scarlett Perrott, Mack Pogue, Jace Van Uytven, Addy Hendry, Grant Martin, Asher Hendry, Nathan Rafferty, and Emily Crosier (not pictured Emerson Risley).

This put SBD in 4th Place out of the 18 teams that attended. The final meet of long course took the team to Champaign for the Illinois Open. At the conclusion of this meet the team announced its Summer Championship Team swimmers which would continue on to the Regional and State Championship meets. We wish those swimmers good luck as they continue on. While the end of long course season means summer break for the swimmers is almost over, the team is excited to kick off short course season with team tryouts on August 26th.

Mason Booker looks down the track as Kaden Guest watches the baton into Booker’s hand for a first exchange in the 4x100m.

•May 29, 2024•

by E. Scott England 

Head Sullivan track coach John Bertetto looked at the regular season meets and added up all the competitors Sullivan has faced leading up to the state series. If the record was kept by how many of those teams were beaten by Sullivan, the record for the track team would be 161 wins and just a tick over 20 losses. This over .800 winning percentage leaves little to wonder how Sullivan qualified for 10 of the 18 events for the state preliminaries

Starting last Thursday, the IHSA Class 1A Boys State Series was held at O’Brien Field on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. The meet got underway early on with Brett Bushue competing in both the high jump and pole vault. The starting height on Thursday was 1.80m for the high jump. After missing his first two attempts, Bushue cleared the bar to move on to 1.85m. Unfortunately, that is where his bid for advancing to Saturday’s finals ended. He instead turned his attention to the pole vault. Read More

•May 22, 2024•

by E. Scott England

The IHSA Class 1A Girls State Series was held last week at O’Brien Field on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. Sullivan sent four girls to Charleston for the competition that began on Thursday with state final qualifying. 

Riane Bear started the day with high jump, along with 38 girls from across the state. The starting height was 1.50m, which Bear easily cleared on the first attempt. At the end of the first round, 22 girls moved on to tackle the height of 1.53m. Bear’s first two attempts just missed clearing the bar. The third time was a charm as she easily passed over the bar. Seven more girls were eliminated at this height which set the field of 15 to move on to Saturday. Bear finished fourth in the prelims. Read More