Category Archives: Sports

Sullivan golf ready to go despite weather delaying the season opener

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•August 21, 2024•

by E. Scott England

Last year, the Sullivan Golf team advanced both a boy golfer and girl golfer to the two-day state golf tournament. Brett Bushue earned 50th place in the tournament. Shae Ellis placed 38th. Bushue has graduated, Ellis is returning for her senior year.

Bushue wasn’t the only senior to vacate a spot on the course. Daniel Downs and Maverick Palmer have also graduated. Hannah Righter, Ava Shriver, and Ruby Haegen did as well. Haegen’s absence will definitely be noticed as she helped the team to several key wins including a conference title and a regional championship. 

Despite all that, head coach Andy Wagner is excited. “The SHS Golf Program is getting ready to go for the season, with a great staff in Assistants Nathan Becker and Hannah McMahan,” he says. But both the boys’ and girls’ teams are boasting a healthy lineup this year.  Read More

SOV Football

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•August 21, 2024•

Aug 30 vs Villa Grove

Sept 6 at Arcola

Sept 13 vs Cumberland OV Homecoming

Sept 20 At Argenta-Oreana

Sept 27 vs Cerro Gordo

Oct 4 vs Sangamon Valley Homecoming

Oct 11 at Nokomis

Oct 18 at Tri-County/Oakland

Oct 25 vs ALAH

SBD swimmers attend Regional and State Meets

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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.

Moultrie County Dive and Rescue visit Sullivan Blue Dolphins

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Moultrie County Dive and Rescue visit Sullivan Blue Dolphins
National Water Safety Month takes place each year in May. The Sullivan Blue Dolphins invited the Moultrie County Dive and Rescue to come speak with their younger swimmers. Yellow and Bronze group swimmers were visited by Joash Tiarks of the Moultrie County Dive Rescue. The swimmers had a very informative question and answer session on water safety with Mr. Tiarks. They were very thankful for the time he devoted to the swimmers and so grateful to have the Moultrie County Dive and Rescue in the community.

SMS Class 3A State Medalists 2024

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SMS Class 3A State Medalists
(Left to Right) First Row - Addie Patterson, Tenley Campbell, Emma Drake, Lyla Wright, Elin Watkins, Wren Wall, Karson Robinson, Natalie Stinson, Second Row - Aceon Fryman, Karson Ragsdale, Colt Wilson, Collin Shain, Nixon Dundee, Taevyn Dixon, Third Row- Easton Wickline, Asher Hendry, Payton Schum, Avery Renfro, Grace Crothers, Piper Conlin, Emma McCain, Anissa Herschberger. Not Pictured: Bryson Hill.
Julia Moody - All Conference 3200 and 1600M, Kelsie Hodge - All Conference 4 x 200, Devon Richardson - All Conference 4 x 200, Kharli Kelly - All Conference 4 x 200 , Mya Dyer - All Conference 4 x 200 
Shanice Brant - GRIT Award, Mae Dawkins - Co-Captain, Devon Richardson - Co-Captain, Julia Moody- Lady Redskin Award 
Riane Bear - IHSA Sportmanship Award & Class A 8th place high jump Medal (41st medal for SHS Track since 2010).

Girls track banquet awards

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Girls track banquet awards
SHS Girls Track held their end of year banquet Monday, May 20 at the VFW and the following awards were presented. 
Julia Moody - All Conference 3200 and 1600M, Kelsie Hodge - All Conference 4 x 200, Devon Richardson - All Conference 4 x 200, Kharli Kelly - All Conference 4 x 200 , Mya Dyer - All Conference 4 x 200 
Shanice Brant - GRIT Award, Mae Dawkins - Co-Captain, Devon Richardson - Co-Captain, Julia Moody- Lady Redskin Award 
Riane Bear - IHSA Sportmanship Award & Class A 8th place high jump Medal (41st medal for SHS Track since 2010).

Sullivan track has strong showing at State meet

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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

Sullivan softball advances past Shelbyville; Falls to St. Anthony

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•May 22, 2024•

Sullivan welcomed Shelbyville last Monday for the IHSA Class 2A Regional Quarterfinals. They made it through three innings before the weather decided to get involved. The rain delay eventually led to a postponement to the following day. On Tuesday, with the field still wet, both teams agreed to meet in Effingham to play at St. Anthony. The winner would then get a short breather before facing the number one seed St. Anthony Bulldogs.

Regional Quarterfinals

It’s been a rough season for the Shelbyville Rams. They were just 3-13 on the year and 1-8 in their conference. That didn’t stop them from coming out against Sullivan with all they had.  Read More

Riane Bear medals at State; Receives Sportsmanship Award

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•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