PACK MENTALITY

Kokomo Tribune October 30, 2020

By BRYAN GASKINS

The seniors on Western's state-bound boys cross country team are shown in Jackson Morrow Park. They are, from left: Zac Cline Brayden Curnutt, Matthew Edison, Drew Caldwell, Cade Shock and Joseph Packard. Kelly Lafferty Gerber | Kokomo Tribune


Western’s boys cross country team was an emerging squad last year when it won the Logansport Sectional for the first time since 2013 and later qualified for the New Prairie Semistate for the first time since ‘14.

Football player Matthew Edison took notice.

From an outsider’s perspective last fall, I kind of saw how the team was doing, and I saw that something really special was going on,” he said. “Over the winter, I ran with them during track training and I kind of decided that I wanted a change and that we could do something really special as a team.

Edison made the switch to cross country for his senior season. Blackford transfer Drew Caldwell also joined the team as a transfer. And the Panthers had all of their postseason runners back from last year.

The result? One of the best seasons in school history.

Western broke West Lafayette’s 24-year ironclad grip on the Hoosier Conference title, repeated as sectional champion and rode the momentum to a spot in the State Finals on Saturday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute. The boys race is at 3 p.m.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for four years, to have a chance at state, and to do it with these guys around me is just very special,” said senior Brayden Curnutt, the Panthers’ No. 1 runner.

The Panthers are first-time state qualifiers.

We’ve trained harder this year and we’re very serious because we knew we could make it there,” said senior Joseph Packard, the No. 2 runner.

Curnutt, Packard and junior Pete Bradshaw led the Panthers’ returning group, which also had seniors Zac Cline and Cade Shock, junior Taylor Rathbun and sophomore Charlie Conkle.

Caldwell and Edison, both seniors, quickly settled into the top five of the lineup.

I would say it took us from good to great,” Curnutt said of the additions.

Caldwell came in with good experience after running two years at his previous school.

It’s a lot different than Blackford,” he said. “I was the [No. 1 runner] at Blackford, always forced to lead. This year, I’ve been able to relax a little bit and just fall in and do what needs to be done for the team. It’s different. You don’t feel that pressure. You just know the guys are going to do what they need to do for you, and you’re going to do what you need to do for them.

We’re all right there, pushing each other, making sure we’re fighting for each other.

Edison also pointed to a strong bond as one of the squad’s defining characteristics.

“I really think it comes down to being a brotherhood,” he said. “This team is very close. I think it’s the closest team I’ve ever been a part of in anything. We push each other every day in practice.

Edison has come on strong in recent weeks.

My goal is to keep improving every meet and I feel like I’ve really done that this year,” he said. “It’s not really comparable time-wise sometimes because courses [differ], but I try to go out and just improve upon myself every day, every week so I can get better every meet.

The Panthers’ postseason lineup shows Curnutt at No. 1, Packard at No. 2, Bradshaw at No. 3, Caldwell at No. 4, Edison at No. 5, Rathbun at No. 6 and Conkle at No. 7.

The drive for state started last fall, one week after the Panthers’ 2019 season drew to a close with the semistate. Curnutt and Bradshaw

Pete Bradshaw

Taylor Rathbun

Charlie Conkle

spearheaded winter workouts. Once COVID-19 wiped out the spring track season, the workouts resumed with a focus on the fall.

We left semistate last year with kind of a bittersweet taste in our mouth,” Curnutt said. “We were the first [Western] team to make it since 2014, but we didn’t finish as high as we wanted and I didn’t finish as high as I wanted. Coming into this year, even before [Caldwell and Edison joined], we had a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to prove to everyone what we were capable of.

The Panthers have certainly accomplished that goal. They have been locked in seemingly throughout the season. In recent weeks, they won the Hoosier Conference and sectional meets, were runners-up in the Logansport Regional and then took fifth place in the semistate. The top six teams at semistate advanced to state.

Individually, Curnutt won the conference, sectional and regional meets and was fifth in the semistate.

I’ve been really confident about what I’ve been able to do,” he said. “The training that Coach [Gary Jewell] sets up really puts us in the best position to succeed. I give all the credit to him.

Curnutt is shooting for a top-25 finish and accompanying all-state spot in the state meet.

Packard is a strong No. 2 runner — he was runner-up in conference and sectional — and Bradshaw, Caldwell and Edison are close together time-wise. Add it all up, and the Panthers are state bound, the lone public school with less than 1,000 students in the 24-team field.

There’s 24 teams and if they actually seeded them, we’d be seeded No. 23. Anything we can do to improve on our perceived seed is good,” Jewell said. “I think there’s a lot of teams that go down [satisfied to have made state] and then don’t run particularly well. It’s like when we made semistate last year, we didn’t want to just be happy to be there, we wanted to go accomplish something while we were there. That’s kind of what we want to do on Saturday.