Panthers finish 24th at state

Kokomo Tribune September 02, 2020

Western finished 24th out of 24 teams with a score of 583.

Joseph Packard led Western’s boys in 118th (17:05.9). Brayden Curnutt, Western’s usual leader, was 136th (17:12.2). Drew Caldwell was 167th (17:35.7), Matthew Edison was 173rd (17:38.5) and Pete Bradshaw finished Western’s scoring five in 175th (17:45.7). Also for Western Taylor Rathbun was 205th (19:12.5) and Charlie Conkle was 206th (19:16.0). The boys race had 207 runners.

“We could have been better. I talked to somebody a little bit ago and he asked how did it go, I said it wasn’t our best day but it wasn’t our worst day either,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. “It’s very difficult to adequately prepare for a race like this, especially given the circumstances of the last eight months and also that a year ago nobody would have predicted we’d be in the position we found ourselves in.”

The speed of the race was difficult to adjust to for the Panthers.

“Those guys that are going for top 10 spots or top 20 spots, a lot of those guys go out in under 4:40 mile pace,” Jewell said. “It’s very difficult to prepare for because we never see that.”

Curnutt tried to stay close to the leaders but lost steam in the final third of the race.

“Individually, Brayden was having a respectable race, but I don’t think he was quite prepared for how hard that race was going,” Jewell said. “He told me he never felt comfortable, like he was always on the verge of collapsing. He said he got to the 3K mark and thought, ‘Man, I’ve got 2 kilometers to go.’

“Joseph Packard had a good race. It was a nice, steady race … which is good for him. He had a good finish, he passed Brayden in like the last 100 meters of the race. Drew Caldwell had a good race for his state meet race. Pete was a little bit off [Saturday]. He had a slight foot injury earlier in the week and I don’t think he was ready to go because of that. And Matthew Edison had a typical Matthew Edison race where he was passing people coming in.”

Western’s first four finishers were seniors. The senior class goes out as Western’s first-ever squad to reach the boys state meet.

“We have two guys like Drew Caldwell come over to our school from Blackford, and then Matthew Edison came out [for cross country] after we’d been after him for three years,” Jewell said. “He told me after semistate, ‘Man, I wish I’d been doing that all along.’

“A lot of the fun is because we have a good team. It’s always great when you have a good team. These guys, they’ve made it a lot of fun. They’ve worked really hard. I don’t think people realize how hard they work to get where they want to be.”