By Ben Cox
JMS Girls Basketball
The Jacksonville Middle School girls’ basketball team got a special visit this past week. Morgan Tuck, the current general manager for the Connecticut Sun and four-time national champion as a player at UConn, visited with the girls to talk about sports. Tuck also visited Illinois College. Tuck offered up lessons that only a professional athlete can give. Thank you for your visit, Ms. Tuck, and for working to inspire our young athletes.
High School Football
Jacksonville High School’s football season ended hard on the road. The #9 seed, Cahokia, put the hammer down early to beat the Crimsons 36-13 in Class 4A. The Crimsons end the season a respectable 6-5 and with a playoff win.
The WIVC will have at least one team in the semifinals of the 1A bracket. Brown County refused to be beaten a second time this season by Camp Point Central. A second half touchdown was the difference for the 16-8 win. The Greenfield-Northwestern Tigers took the Calhoun Warriors to the brink in classic WIVC South rivalry matchup of old. This battle likened itself to the many dogfights in the Dan Bowman-Ric Johns era.
The Tigers fell after Calhoun senior running back Jack Goode scored on a 10-yard run on the first play of overtime for a 22-14 win. While the Tigers will surely miss the nine seniors next year, they are likely to be back in the same position a year from now.
Meanwhile, Calhoun will travel to the east to face Casey Westfield in a tough quarterfinal matchup. Carrollton proved why the WIVC is such a tough conference as they smashed #3 seed Dupo on the road 34-19.
Carrollton and Brown County will have the north-meets-south portion of the conference match up for the quarterfinals. Brown County holds the edge in the lifetime series (8-3) and did beat the Hawks in the playoffs in 2005. This will be a fun watch for all WIVC fans.
High School Cross Country
The high school cross country season came to a close this last week at Detweiler Park in Peoria. In girls Class 1A, Sundara Weber, of Sandwich, took home the top spot.
Porta senior Maggie Zimmerman was the top finisher from the immediate area, placing 15th overall. Winnebago was the girls team champion.
In boys Class 1A, Gillespie senior Chaz Oberkfell repeated as state champion. The top finisher from the immediate area was Pleasant Plains senior Elijah Teefey, who placed fifth.
In the girls’ 2A race, Lombard Montini’s Sydney Gertsen was the top individual finisher, while Chatham Glenwood took home the team championship.
Three Chatham runners all placed in the top 10: Ashlyn Chopra (3rd), Sophie Rentmeister (4th) and Ali Londrigan (7th). Jacksonville sophomore Millie Schumacher finished 28th overall.
On the boys’ side of 2A, Bethalto-Civic Memorial runner Max Weber was the gold medalist. Dixon was the top boys team in 2A.
High School Girls Swimming & Diving
The high school girls’ swimming and diving season is in the postseason with sectionals held this past weekend. Unfortunately, none of our area athletes qualified for the state meet. A swimmer must win the event or beat the state qualifying time to advance to the swimming state finals.
There were some top 10 finishers despite the end of the season. Routt’s Clarissa Emmerick took 7th place in the 200-yard freestyle and 6th in the 100-yard breaststroke. New Berlin sophomore Marlow Burger finished 3rd in the 1-meter diving competition and 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke.
New Berlin’s Madigan Burger finished 7th in the 100-yard freestyle. Jacksonville High School’s Katrina Zimmer finished 9th in the 100-yard backstroke and 8th in the 100-yard freestyle.
Illinois College
The Illinois College women’s soccer team ended their season on November 7 in the semifinals of the Midwest Conference Tournament in Lake Forest. The Lady Blues fell to Lawrence 1-0 after a late goal by the Vikings. IC finishes the campaign with a 10-8-2 record. This was the first appearance in the Midwest Conference Tournament for the Lady Blues.
IC finished the season with a 6-2-0 record in Midwest Conference play, the best league record in program history, and the 10 wins overall are the second-most in program history.
Basketball season is underway on the Hilltop. The Illinois College men’s basketball team used a balanced offense and a stingy defense to cruise to an 88-36 victory over Principia in the opening round of the Bill Merris Invitational on November 7 at home.
The Blueboys would go on to win the invitational championship on Saturday against Simpson 83-71. IC will hit the road for the first time in the 2025-26 season when it travels to Bloomington for the Jack Sikma Invitational this coming weekend, starting with host Illinois Wesleyan.
The Illinois College women’s basketball team dropped its season opener, 94-90, to Principia in the opening round of the Laura Williams Memorial Classic down in Elsah.
The Lady Blues ended the weekend 0-2 overall after a tough loss to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 88-55. The Lady Blues are at home this weekend for the IC Invitational as they take on Westminster College on Friday, November 14.
The Illinois College men’s football team posted a 24-0 shutout victory over Cornell in a Midwest Conference contest on November 8 in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. IC improved 7-2 overall and 6-2 in Midwest Conference action. Local linebacker Drake Stuart helped to anchor the stingy defense with five solo tackles on the day. IC concludes the 2025 regular season with a trip to Beloit on November 15.
The Illinois College volleyball team closed out its regular season on November 8 falling 0-3 to Lawrence University (18-25, 23-25, 11-25) in Midwest Conference play. The Lady Blues finished the regular season with a 10-20 overall record, but closed out the conference season with a 5-3 record and will be the fourth seed entering the conference tournament. Conference tournament play begins on November 14 in Mt. Vernon, Iowa as the Lady Blues lock up with host Cornell.
The Illinois College men’s swimming team swamped Monmouth, 125-58, in a dual meet on November 8 at the Coultas Natatorium. The victory improved IC to 4-0 overall and moved its dual meet winning streak to 14, which dates back to last year.
Meanwhile, the Lady Blues’ swim team had four individual champions but were overcome by Monmouth 104-85. The men and women swimmers will take a break and return to action on November 21-22 at the Beloit Midseason Classic.
