Area Sports

by Mark Jurgena COLLINSVILLE — The winter sports season in Illinois is quickly fading as the IHSA conducted its third of five championship weekends at the end of February. Boys Wrestling In dual team boys wrestling at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington, former South Central Conference rivals Vandalia and Roxana battled it out for third…

by Mark Jurgena COLLINSVILLE — After getting snowed out at Principia College on Feb. 16, the Collinsville girls track team made their debut on Feb. 22 at the Joe Elliott Early Indoor meet at the Marion High School HEC Building. Collinsville took fifth place out of 20 teams with 49 points. Mascoutah won the meet…

by Mark Jurgena COLLINSVILLE — The turn indicates the break between the three morning games and the three afternoon games. They sat in fourth place after day one and had fallen to sixth with only three games left. Then they started to climb.  Collinsville eclipsed Mascoutah to stand in fifth with two games to play…

By Anthony Jones [email protected] TROY — When wrestler Colby Crouch won his first IHSA State Championship in 2022, he became just the fifth Knight to capture an individual title in any sport. By earning his second title on Feb. 17, he now stands alone as the only two-time IHSA champion in school history. The senior’s…

By Anthony Jones [email protected] TROY — After opening their postseason with a 56-45 comeback win over Salem, Triad earned a regional semifinal matchup with Effingham. Headed into their Feb. 12 showdown at Salem, Effingham held a 26-4 overall record. The Flaming Hearts’ impressive mark earned them a ranking of ninth in the latest Associated Press…

By Anthony Jones [email protected] TROY — For the first time in 14 years, Triad has recorded consecutive 20 win seasons on the basketball court. “I think anytime you can get to 20 wins, that’s a success. Especially when we lost 80-85% of our production from last year and to be able to turn right around…

Editor’s Note: This article was written and submitted by the Triad Girls Bowling program. TROY — Triad Senior Brylee Proffitt bowled her way to a top ten finish landing in eighth place at the 2024 IHSA State tournament held Friday, Feb. 16 and 17 at The Cherry Bowl in Rockford. With a field of over…

by Mark Jurgena COLLINSVILLE — The Collinsville girls basketball season came to a close on Feb. 12 after falling to Edwardsville 59-35 in the opening round of their own Class 4A regional tournament. Talesha Gilmore again led the way with her 16th double-double of the season. The junior scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds…

by Mark Jurgena COLLINSVILLE — How many possessions were left? That had to be the question on the mind of Kahok fans at Alton on Feb. 16 as the purple and white battled for an outright SWC championship. The answer: Just enough. Alton led the Kahoks 45-41 with 3:25 to play and had shown several…

by Mark Jurgena The first set of IHSA state finals have finished with Southern Illinois showing quite nicely. Boys Wrestling Preston Waughtel of Carlyle capped off a perfect season with a state title in Class 1A. He went 50-0 at 113 in claiming his first state title as a freshman. Tyson Waughtel, a junior, lost…