NEW PRAIRIE INVITE

Kokomo Tribune - Wednesday, September 16, 2018

BY TRIBUNE STAFF REPORTS

Maconaquah ran to the top area finish in the AA girls race, placing sixth as a team with a score of 216. Karli Miller led the Braves with a seventh-place finish in 20:10. Mac's next top runner was Annie Isenburg in 25th (21:27). Haley Salinas was 43rd (22:00).

Western followed right behind Mac with 236 points in seventh place.

The Panthers had a pair of top-40 finishes in Natalie Nicholson (22nd, 21:22) and Hannah Lushin (31st, 21:39) with Megan Hampshire falling just outside of the top-50 (53rd, 22:26).

Northwestern's Lauren Longshore took ninth individually at 20:29. Casey Lechner, despite falling at one point, finished inside the top-40 at 37th (21:52). Ella Deck took 58th in 22:37.

"Lauren ran an exceptionally good race," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "Casey took a spill but got back up and collected herself. Those girls both in the top-40 was good and a 15th-place finish as a team, I was pretty happy with that. I was really glad to get a decent day to run."

Ella Kantz logged Eastern's top finish, taking 54th in 22:27.

"They raced pretty well, we were happy for them in how they worked on their race strategy," Eastern coach Ben Cox said. "We had a couple kids PR and felt pretty good about how everybody finished."

Sadie Carter paced Peru, which was incomplete as a team, with a 24:11 run.

West Lafayette took the top overall team spot with a score of 110. Twin Lakes' Maggie Gutwein logged the top individual finish out of 193 individuals, crossing in 19:02.

In the A small school division, Cass took fifth as a team at 197 with Makenna Leicht finishing third in 20:18. Manchester took the top team spot at 91, and North Miami's Nicky Scher was first overall in 20:11.

In the AAA large school division, Kokomo was 30th out of 31 teams with freshman Julynne Spidell logging Kokomo's top time, crossing in 22:41 for 112th place.

"Julynne Spidell has been consistent up to this point in the season," Kokomo coach Chad Salinas said. "That will need to change over the next few weeks and I fully expect her to make that next step in her progression. We will see her times really start to drop over her next few races and I am really excited to see how she finishes this season."

Pike was the team winner with a score of 108, while the top individual finish belonged to Elkhart Central's Lauren Dibley in 18:38.

BOYS RACE

Western logged the top area finish at Saturday's mega invite, taking the 12th team spot in the AA boys race with a score of 324.

"We moved up three places and picked up 43 points from around the 2K to the finish," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "You want to be patient and let the race come to you and we did a good job of that."

Brayden Curnutt paced the Panthers with a 39th-place run of 18:33. Pete Bradshaw and Joseph Packard finished just outside of the top 50 with Bradshaw finishing 54th (18:57) and Packard 56th (18:57).

"Our times aren't necessarily the best in the world but I think by our conference meet in two weeks we'll see quite a bit of improvement across the board," Jewell said.

The rest of the area schools in the AA medium race finished in a team pack, with Northwestern in 15th (458), followed by Peru (16th, 466), Maconaquah (17th, 474) and Eastern (18th, 479).

Mac's Sam Bourne had the top area finish, taking 19th in 17:56.

Jacob Myers was Northwestern's first runner across, taking 35th in 18:29.

"Jacob ran his best time of the season and most of the other guys, four of our top seven varsity guys had season bests," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "The 15th place finish, that's one of the best we've had up there in a long time. Overall for the boys team, I'm very, very happy with how they ran. All-in-all it was a good day."

Peru's Adam Garner was 25th in 18:16 and Eastern's Brayden Richmond went 42nd at 18:48.

"We’ve been working very, very hard on how we approach the race and how we work through a race and the boys really, you could see in the way they ran and their splits, that their hard work is starting to pay off," Eastern coach Ben Cox said. "We had a really good day, four guys PRd and I’m very happy with that."

Bellmont took the top overall spot in the AA race with a team score of 60 on five top-20 finishes. Wheeler's Hudson Hall finished first overall out of 194 runners in 16:50.

Kokomo finished 32nd with a score of 947 in the AAA large school race. Julian Wallace logged the Kats' top finish in 18:55, good for 136th place.