By FRED KRONER
fred@sjodaily.com
Villa Grove/Heritage’s Meike Herbrandt qualified for state in the Class 1A long jump on Friday after placing third in the St. Joseph-Ogden Girls’ Track and Field Sectional.
She had a leap of 16 feet, 11 inches.
Herbrandt also placed seventh in the 400 meters (1:05.06), but did not advance to state in that event.
Villa Grove/Heritage totaled 11 points and placed 16th in the 17-school sectional.
The Blue Devils’ 3,200-meter relay placed seventh with a time of 13:16.79. Relay runners were Sophia Wegeng, Lily Lawrence, Kathryn Eisenmenger and Isabella Caceres.
Other top 10 placers for the team were Liberty Floyd (eighth in the high jump at 4-6) and Kirsten Foreman (10th in the long jump at 13-11).
The Class 1A portion of the state meet will start on Thursday at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston.
Baseball
Keagan Patterson had two hits and knocked in two runs on Thursday, but visiting Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond scored the tiebreaking run in the top of the fifth inning and held on for a 6-5 triumph over the Hawks.
Austin Grimm, who stole three bases, scored two runs.
Patterson (a double) and Carson Howard (a triple) both knocked extra-base hits for VG/Heritage, which had a seven-game conference winning streak snapped.
Nathan Chewning gave up one unearned run in three innings of relief, but took the pitching loss.
He walked one and struck out one.
On Friday, VG/Heritage lost a 7-3 decision to Cumberland in Toledo.
Evan Wilson pitched all six innings for the Hawks. He walked two and struck out six.
Ryan Cheatham drove in two runs and Nick Coffin had one RBI for the Hawks.
Patterson, Grimm and Mason Wyant scored the VG/Heritage runs.
On Saturday at home, the Hawks dropped a 3-2 decision to Unity.
VG/Heritage scored its runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by Coffin and a single by Kane Davison.
Davison was the game’s only player with more than one hit. He was 2-for-3.
VG/Heritage pitchers Patterson and Chewning combined to limit the Rockets to two hits.
Patterson permitted one hit and no earned runs in four innings. He walked five and struck out three.
Chewning yielded one hit and one walk in three innings.
The Hawks (17-10) return to action at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday in a Class 2A regional semifinal game against St. Joseph-Ogden at Unity High School.
Softball
The Hawks scored in double figures on Thursday for the fifth time this season, handing visiting Schlarman Academy a 12-7 loss in Broadlands.
Kenzie Davison belted an inside-the-park home run.
Teammate Melanie Smithenry swatted two doubles and a triple. She drove in four runs.
Another Hawk, Gracyn Allen, finished with a double and a single.
On Friday, the Hawks lost a 10-0 decision to visiting Oblong. Jada Davis had a single.
Heritage (9-15) returns to action on Tuesday in a Class 1A regional semifinal game with a rematch against Schlarman in the Schlarman Regional, in Danville.
