“Best Of” Overall–Female Co-Athletes of the Year
Sophie Bowers – Vandalia: Sophie has been known as an all-around athlete in the area for several years now and faced her biggest test this year showing resilience as she came back from a pair of surgeries on her knee and shoulder to stand out in two sports in 2023-2024. This winter, while wrestling boys Sophie compiled an 18-5 record on the season before putting on a dominant showing in the IHSA girls state tournament and rolled through her opponents to claim the state championship of the 125 pound weight class and the first IHSA girls wrestling title for Vandalia and will look for a second in the upcoming 2024-2025 season. Sophie then followed that her wrestling championship up by running in her first high school season as a junior and not even getting in meets until mid-April, made her name known as a top area sprinter. Sophie would place in the top 3 in the 100m Dash and the 400m Dash in each of her few times on the track in the regular season, running a personal best each meet before taking second in the 100m Dash at the Altamont 1A Girls Sectional to qualify for the IHSA 1A State Track Meet. Bowers ended up taking 22nd in the rainy preliminary round of the State Finals with a promise afterwards that she’d be back and better in her senior year.
Peyton Osteen – Altamont: Peyton is in a special class for female athletes in the area as one of just a few four-sport athletes. In volleyball, Peyton reached a big career milestone in 2023, surpassing 1,000 career assists with 337 this season while also racking up 88 kills. From the service line, Osteen would have 39 aces on the season and would also total 227 digs on the season. Osteen was named National Trail Conference Second Team All-Conference. In basketball, Peyton was a steady contributor for the Lady Indians averaging 7.3 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game, 2 assists per game and 2.9 steals per game as a key member of the history making IHSA 1A 3rd Place State team. Spring would be the busiest season for Peyton as she split time between the Lady Indians softball team and Altamont track team. On the field, Peyton hit .230 with a .356 on base percentage and .635 slugging percentage while drawing the most walks in the team with 12 and stealing 7 bases while leading the team in runs scored with 18. At the track, Peyton competed in the discus for the Lady Indians, throwing in six invitational meets and one regular triangular meet. Peyton would finish in the top 6 in each meet except one including a fourth place finish in the National Trail Conference meet and a fifth place finish in the Sectional Meet. Peyton will now focus on just one sport as she is continuing her athletic and volleyball career at Lincoln Trail Community College
“Best Of” Presented by Hosick Motors
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