WESTERN BOYS XC RULES HC

Kokomo Tribune - Monday, October 5, 2020

BY TRIBUNE STAFF REPORTS

Led by a 1-2 finish from Brayden Curnutt and Joseph Packard, Western’s boys cross country team won the Hoosier Conference meet Saturday for the first time since joining the league. The Panthers’ victory ended West Lafayette’s 24-year run of conference titles.

The Panthers put up a score of 27 at Rensselaer’s course to win the nine-team meet. West Lafayette was second (44), Northwestern third (135), Hamilton Heights fourth (139), Rensselaer fifth (152), Tipton sixth (169), Benton Central seventh (172), Twin Lakes eighth (179), and Cass ninth (180).

Curnutt finished in 16:12 to pace the field, followed by Packard in 16:29. Also for Western, Pete Bradshaw was sixth and Drew Caldwell seventh (both in 17:05) and Matthew Edison 11th (17:16). All five made the all-conference team.

"Brayden ran his best race of the season," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "He figured out how to deal with the discomfort associated with racing a long time ago. This season he’s just been rolling.

"Joseph has been on the verge of a major breakthrough for the last five weeks. He was probably the fastest guy on the course over the last half of the race. It was good to see him finally break down that barrier."

Just 64 seconds separated Western’s first runner from its fifth.

"Probably the best statistic of the day was we had our best cumulative time of the season," Jewell said. "Our time of 84:09 was our lowest since the 2008 season."

Caleb Champion led Northwestern with a 12th-place finish in 17:27 to take a spot on the all-conference team. Isaiah Kanable was 17th (17:58), Caden Lechner 26th (18:24), Colin Feazell 40th (19:24) and Caden Cothern 45th (19:33).