Area sports on a good run lately

Our area has seen some noteworthy athletic accomplishments and recognitions in recent weeks.

For example, the Notre Dame girls golf team repeated as state champions, including the individual title for Sarah Bell, who eagled a shot from 93 yards out as her final stroke of her high-school golfing career. Congratulations are in order to the Bulldogs, who crushed the next-closest school by 36 strokes in a weather-shortened, one-round tournament. It looks like Notre Dame has built another winning tradition. Great job, ladies.

Cape Girardeau Central’s cross-country coach, Luke Beevor, ran the Chicago Marathon in an incredible time: 2 hours, 29 minutes and some change. That was 60th among 45,000 entrants. He is an elite runner, without question, and he could’ve sported a top-30 finish without some cramping issues during the race and some struggles with a calf injury during his training. But what a race. We look forward to seeing where Beevor, 33, and originally from Luton, England, winds up on the national stage in the years to come.

Hats off to the Southeast Missouri State University women’s soccer team. The team extended the program’s academic success with an eighth-straight Team Academic Award from the United Soccer Coaches. This goes to schools that are part of the United Soccer Coaches College Services program with a minimum GPA of 3.0. The Southeast program earned a 3.64 GPA for the 2016-2017 academic year.

And, finally, congratulations to the new inductees of the Cape Girardeau Central High School Hall of Fame: baseball standout Rhett Pierce, soccer star Craig Scheer, football star Jeff Tullis and the entire 1962 football team that went undefeated.

What accomplishments from several corners of our athletic universe in Southeast Missouri. Well done, all.