MARION INVITE

Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, September 2, 2018

BY TRIBUNE STAFF REPORTS

GIRLS RACE

Northwestern's Lauren Longshore raced to a second-place individual finish while Western took second as a team in the Gold division of the Marion Invite at Indiana Wesleyan University on Saturday.

"Lauren had an outstanding race," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "Ran her race all the way through. Outstanding day for her. That's her season best."

Longshore crossed in 20:42 behind first-place Caylee Phillips of Van Wert (19:17). The Panthers earned a team score of 63, with Leo taking first with a team score of 56.

Western earned three top-10 finishes with Olivia Lushin placing seventh in 21:48 followed closely behind by Hannah Lushin (9th, 22:02) and Natalie Nicholson (10th, 22:05). Megan Hampshire was just outside of the top-10, taking 12th in 22:14. Alivia Ford was 28th (23:35).

“We definitely went to the meet with the mindset that we wanted to win this race,” Western coach Joni Neer said. “We knew we had an opportunity and there were probably going to be three teams vying for is. The Leo team that ended up winning, their top three runners were freshmen so that kind of surprised us where they were particularly, but we knew during the race that they were looking very good.

“Our girls hung in there, they ran pretty close together in a pack — the top four. I was really pleased with the race overall from those four girls.”

Casey Lechner was 15th for Northwestern (22:33), which placed fourth as a team with 139 points. Ella Deck was 25th (23:21), Sophia Yager-Motl 39th (24:27), and Kaylynne Fernandes 72nd (27:53).

"Six of our eight girls who ran [Saturday] had season-bests," Stevens said. "They competed really well. Fourth-place finish was really nice as a team."

Eastern's Ella Kantz finished 17th in 22:54. Also for the Comets, who were incomplete as a team, Victoria Leeder was 27th (23:31), Gracie McCain 75th (28:40) and Erin Matheny 79th (29:35).

"We've been working really hard on getting better at race strategy," Eastern coach Ben Cox said. "They were able to work on specific things and I know they felt good about the race. I did too."

Kokomo took eighth out of nine teams in the Purple large school race. Freshman Julynne Spidell was the top Kat, finishing 16th in 22:32.

"She ran very well and passed a lot of girls over the last half of the race," Kokomo coach Chad Salinas said. "Julynne is on the verge of a breakout meet; she is right where we want her to be at this point in the season as she is racing with heavy legs."

Sophomore Marina Magdelena was 38th (24:32) and junior Josilynn McNeil took 48th (25:42) for Kokomo.

BOYS RACE

Western logged the top local team finish on the boys side of the Gold division in Saturday's Marion Invite at Indiana Wesleyan University, taking sixth place with a team score of 178. Leo took first overall with a team score of 54, with Angola's Josiah Mortorff logging the top overall time in 16:53.

Joseph Packard and Brayden Curnutt took 28th and 29th respectively to lead Western, with Packard crossing in 19:03 and Curnutt in 19:07. Chandler Ciscell was 36th (19:33) with Pete Bradshaw right behind him in 37th (19:34). Evan Kretz finished 60th in 20:36.

“Boy did it get hot fast,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. “I’ve got a couple guys who struggle in the heat for whatever reason. Early on at the 1K we were, I think I saw, fifth place, and we didn’t really drop that many points along the way but other teams moved up a lot better. I think other teams went out more conservatively than we did. But this is a really young team.

“A year ago Joseph ran 21:12 on this same course and [Saturday] under abysmal conditions he ran a 19:03. At 1K he was 41st and he ended up 28th. There’s 13 people he picked off right there on the way through. Chandler ran a nice race. Chandler moved up quite well as the race progressed. JP probably had one of the best races he’s ever ran. Joseph PRed by 24 seconds.”

Northwestern was 10th as a team with a score of 220. Jacob Myers logged the Tigers' top finish crossing 34th in 19:18. Also for Northwestern were Isaiah Kanable (44th, 19:53), Jace Cournoyer (47th, 20:09), Jeremy Bell (48th, 20:11) and Mitchell Harrell (70th, 20:58).

"We had a really good practice week," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "To come out and have the heat we did [Saturday] I thought the guys did really well. The guys are still coming along and they are working hard."

Eastern placed 11th as a team with a score of 235. Brayden Richmond logged the top area finish, taking 22nd place in 18:40. Jack Johnson was 42nd (19:52) for the Comets, Caleb Vogl 53rd (20:19), Owen Taylor 59th (20:35) and Seth Snyder 96th (22:40).

"Our top three guys have been working hard on strategy," Eastern coach Ben Cox said. "Brayden is obviously our quickest guy right now. Jack and Caleb have been instrumental in our progress."

Kokomo was 10th out of 11 teams in the large school Purple race. Leading the Wildkats was senior Julian Wallace in 18th place with a time of 19:08. Junior Nat Elkin placed 52nd (21:03), freshman Travarion Corbin 73rd (22:40), junior Ethan Poole 85th (23:38), and freshman Isaac Elkin 86th (23:50).