Pirate Poms, Streatorettes dance way to IHSA State Finals: The Times Saturday Roundup

Competitive dance

Streatorettes, Pirate Poms advance to IHSA State: At the Mahomet-Seymour Sectional held Saturday, both Streator and Ottawa’s competitive dance teams advanced to next weekend’s IHSA State Finals at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington.

Ottawa’s Pirate Poms earned the sixth and final advancing spot in the Class 2A competition, earning 79.80 points for their routine. La Salle-Peru finished ninth with its 76.77, while Bradley-Bourbonnais' 85.27 was tops in the 2A portion of the sectional.

Streator’s Streatorettes placed fifth to earn one of six advancing spots in the Class 1A field, scored with 81.70 points. Fieldcrest, with a 78.30, placed ninth in the field of 18, while Morris with its 92.07 – best of any team in any class in the sectional – won the 1A sectional title.

Boys wrestling

Radke 3rd for Streator at ICE Meet: At the Illinois Central Eight Conference Meet in Wilmington, Streator’s varsity received a third-place finish from Aydan Radke at 215 pounds. Radke went 3-1, winning the third-place match with a third-period pin of Manteno’s Carter Nunley.

Marquette 6th at Mitton: At the Bob Mitton Invitational in Orion, Marquette placed sixth of a dozen teams with 134 team points led by a 4-0 day and championship at 215 pounds from Alex Schaefer. Schaefer won the championship by second-period pinfall over Kewanee’s Alejandro Duarte.

Landyn Mcemery (175) and Reily Leifhert (165) added runner-up finishes for the Crusaders, with Koby Clark (120) placing third.

Seneca 2nd in Rochester: At the Rochester Invitational, the Fighting Irish scored 193.5 team points to finish second behind Lincoln’s 242.5 in the 18-team field.

Leading Seneca with 3-0 records and championships in their weight brackets were Jeremy Gagnon (285 pouns), Nick Grant (165) and Raiden Terry (113). Landen Venecia (190) added a second-place finish.

Girls wrestling

Ottawa 2nd at I-8 Championships: At the Interstate 8 Conference Championships, Ottawa (111 team points) finished second to champion Kaneland (163) in the six-team field, with Morris (100) third and La Salle-Peru (62) fourth.

Ottawa was led by championships captured by Chloe Carmona (120 pounds) with a pinfall win over teammate Ciara Bolf for the title and by Juliana Thrush (235), who won her weight class without having to wrestle.

Alivia Butler (145), Ava Weatherford (140), Isabel Gwaltney (100) and Bolf (120) added runner-up individual finishes, with Evy Grady (110) and Lexi Swain (125) placing third.

Seneca 4th at Harvard: At the Harvard Girls Open, the Fighting Irish (115 team points) placed fourth in a 20-team field.

Sammie Greisen (135 pounds) won the title in her weight class by going 3-0, capping it off with a first-period pinfall victory over Hononegah’s Bella Castelli. Adding second-place finishes for Seneca were Catalina Pacheco (130) and Haiden Lavarier (140), with thirds scored by Haven Nicolaides (115) and Emma Spittler (125).

Boys bowling

Taylor, Walter close at sectional: In the Alton Marquette Sectional contested Saturday at Bowl Haven Lanes, both of the area’s sectional qualifiers – Streator junior Cody Taylor and Ottawa senior Caden Walter – saw their season come to a close.

Walter shot a 1,210 six-game series (high games of 269, 201 and 200) for the Pirates. Taylor marked an 1,120 (201, 196) for the Bowlin' Bulldogs.

The tentative individual cutoff came in at 1,313 pins.

Boys basketball

Lexington 62, Fieldcrest 57: In the third-place game of the 113th McLean County/HOIC Tournament at El Paso, the third-seeded Knights had to settle for fourth with the loss to No. 5 Lexington.

Eddie Lorton scored 21 points, Kash Klendworth put in 20 and Jordan Heider scored 10 to lead Fieldcrest.

Streator 63, Rochelle 38: At Rochelle, the visiting Bulldogs trailed by four after one quarter but ultimately won their seventh in a row and remained undefeated in 2025, overwhelming their former conference rival to move to 17-4 on the season.

Nolan Lukach poured in 28 points to go with 11 rebounds, Matt Williamson scored 10 points and handed out five assists, and Tristan Finley scored seven points to pace Streator.

Leland 59, Alden-Hebron 16: At Leland, the host Panthers rolled past their visitors for the nonconference victory.

Earlville 40, Parkview Christian 38: At Earlville, the host Red Raiders improved to 7-14 on the season with the nonconference win.

Sandwich 59, Marengo 46: At Sandwich, the host Indians picked up the Kishwaukee River Conference win to move to 12-10 overall, 5-2 in the KRC.

Dom Rome (28 points, seven rebounds) and Griffin Somlock (14 points) led Sandwich.

Girls basketball

Fieldcrest 78, Fisher 43: In the consolation title game of the 44th McLean County/HOIC Tournament at El Paso, the sixth-seeded Knights made hasenpfeffer of the ninth-seeded Bunnies, led by TeriLynn Timmerman’s 28 points, 24 more scored by Pru Mangan and 13 points off the hands of Macy Gochanour.

Boys swimming

L-P co-op wins own Pentathlon: At La Salle, Tucker Ditchfield placed second individually Saturday in the L-P Pentathlon to help the Cavaliers to the team title.

The Cavs tallied 13,385 points to beat Metamora’s 13,370.

Ditchfield racked up 3,606 points to finish behind Metamora’s Ethan Stone (3,886). He won the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.76.

Also for L-P, Bo Weitl (3,355) placed fourth, Caleb Strand (3,252) was fifth, and Jonathan Neu (3,172) was sixth.