Kokomo Tribune October 19, 2020

LOGANSPORT — Western boys cross country standout Brayden Curnutt pumped his fist as he crossed the finish line at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning. With more than a dozen seconds of cushion ahead of his nearest competitor, he could savor the moment.

“It felt amazing, just to get that win for the team and give them a chance, it felt great to come across that line in first place,” Curnutt said after taking first in the Logansport Boys Regional on Saturday.

His effort helped spur the Western boys to second place as a team. Warsaw was first with a team score of 38, Western followed at 49 and that 11-point gap was the closest margin between any of the top five squads. Culver Academies was third at 92, Plymouth fourth at 107, and Manchester fifth at 153. Those squads advance to next Saturday’s New Prairie Semistate.

Eastern finished just a spot outside of the advancing five in sixth with a score of 168. Carroll was seventh (192), Northwestern ninth (213) and Peru 10th (249).

After Curnutt took first in 16:27.8, Western’s Joseph Packard was sixth (16:55.5), Drew Caldwell was 12th (17:06.4), Pete Bradshaw was 14th (17:12), and Matthew Edison was 16th (17:24.1).

“Brayden ran a great race,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. “The plan was to sit back and let somebody else lead and then control the last mile. The surge that he threw down just past the two-mile mark was awesome to see. He looked like he was a rocket taking off.”

Curnutt said that around the 3-kilometer mark he took charge.

“I made the move to take first place coming out of the berry patch and I was feeling good,” he said. “I needed to get first to give the team a chance. At that point it was just game on.”

Warsaw took its ninth straight regional title. Western moved up two spots and continued an upward trajectory.

“Two years ago we didn’t even make it out of this meet,” Jewell said. “We lost our sectional by eight points two years ago, last year we won by 36, this year we won by 83. Last year we got fourth at the regional. This year we were second not by a whole lot.”

Western didn’t dethrone Warsaw but did shave 56 seconds off its best cumulative time of the season and strengthened its resolve to contend for an advancing spot next week.

“We did OK, but they’re just a little bit better than us,” Jewell said of Warsaw. “Next week it’s a much bigger deal. Teams that have somebody way up front have a built-in advantage, because … if I’ve got a front runner that runs 16:20 and their first guy runs 16:40, that’s tremendous for us because especially if my team is right with them, there’s going to be a lot of other individuals there that really build that [scoring margin] up.

“These guys [Warsaw] are actually ranked No. 4 in our semistate and we’re No. 5. If we bring it on next week like we’re capable, it’s going to be a good day.”

Curnutt likes how the Panthers set themselves up for the semistate.

“We wanted to give ourselves a chance and hopefully this gives us some good momentum going into next week,” he said.

“Hopefully we can just make it down to Terre Haute and run on Halloween [the State Finals’ date].

Brayden Richmond led Eastern, taking eighth in 16:57 and is one of five local individuals advancing to the semistate along with teammate Caleb Vogl (18th, 17:30.1), Maconaquah’s Isaiah Wittenberg (17th, 17:24.9), Carroll’s Mason Ray (21st, 17:33.5), and Northwestern’s Caleb Champion (24th, 17:45.8).

Alex Legg led Peru in 41st (18:27.9).

The boys semistate is at 12:15 p.m. Kokomo time at New Prairie.

Maconaquah’s girls squad took third to advance to the semistate, and Northwestern’s Hannah Moore and Kokomo’s Julynne Spidell finished 2-3 to lead local individuals at the Logansport Regional.

Warsaw won the team competition by a nose with a score of 64, a point ahead of Culver Academies. Mac was next at 112, followed by Rochester (122) and Winamac (141) to round out the advancing teams. Western was sixth (146), Cass seventh (151) and Carroll eighth (155).

Culver Academies’ Alexis Allen was the fastest individual, crossing the finish line in 18:27.8. Moore followed in 19:15.3 and Spidell in 19:29.1.

Abby Jordan led Maconaquah in seventh (20:10.1). Karli Miller was 12th (20:28.6), Lauren Driscoll was 23rd (21:00.3), Abby Heath was 44th (22:22.5), and Rachel Eby was 53rd (22:58.2).

Along with Moore and Spidell, four more locals are advancing as individuals. Carroll is advancing two runners as Chloe Goodrich was ninth (20:13.6) and Isabelle Altic was 18th (20:52). Cass also advances two as Makenna Leicht was 11th (20:26.9) and Liberty Scott was 15th (20:35.3).

Cami Caldwell (28th, 21:16.9) and Sarah Manuel (29th, 21:17.7) led Western and finished just outside of advancing spots.

The girls regional is 11:30 a.m. Kokomo time at New Prairie.

“The boys really worked well together last year, and I want them to continue that,” Cox said. “We’d like to have another year of strong conference and sectional races, and a stronger regional race than last year. We’re also aiming for Brayden and Caleb to race at the top of the field in the sectional and regional rounds, and hopefully the semistate round as well.”

Junior Jordan Armogum and freshman Kamp Miller lead the newcomers.