BOYS AND GIRLS XC: Raab, Rudy, Cage, Griffin qualify for state meet

By Tribune sports staff - Oct 28, 2025

Western seniors Camden Raab and Miles Rudy, Kokomo senior Cooper Cage and Lewis Cass senior Aftin Griffin all qualified for the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals through the Brownsburg Regional on Saturday.

At regional meets, the top five teams qualify for state and the top 15 individuals from the remaining teams also advance.

In the boys 5K race, Raab took second place in a school-record time of 15:13.8, Rudy was fifth in a personal-best 15:23.1 and Cage was 24th in 15:53.4.

Ben Davis senior Aboubakar Ibrahim won the race in 15:11.9.

"Camden nearly scored a monumental upset by running down the overwhelming favorite," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "Last year Ibrahim seemingly came out of nowhere and won by nearly eight seconds. This year Cam chased him to the line. The crowd was roaring when they sprinted by. That's not something you see every day."

Raab's time broke Chris Williams' school record of 15:22.7 set at the 1980 state meet.

Jewell said Rudy ran a steady race to take his top-five finish. Rudy's time of 15:23.1 ranks third-best in program history.

"Outside of sectional competition I don't think we've ever had two runners finish that high at regional [or semistate under the old tournament setup]," Jewell said.

Raab and Rudy are both returning to the state meet after making it last year.

Cage is Kokomo's first state qualifier since Jeremy Breedlove in 2013.

"Cooper ran a strong beginning of the race and then held on the last 1K to solidify his spot in the state meet," Kokomo coach Jordan Ousley said. "Cooper has had a great season and we are excited to get an opportunity to represent Kokomo at the state meet."

The state meet is Saturday at Terre Haute.

Team-wise, Western took seventh place in the 25-team regional, two spots shy of advancing as a team to the state meet. No. 4-ranked Carmel won the meet with a score of 81 points and No. 6 Avon (105), No. 12 North Central (108), No. 9 Brownsburg (137) and Ben Davis (164) rounded out the top five.

No. 19 Zionsville (192) was sixth and Western (224) edged No. 22 Harrison (232) for seventh.

"We came up a bit short in the team standings, but this regional is crazy competitive. I can't think of a better way to describe it," Jewell said. "Every year there are six or seven ranked teams and just to finish in the top 10 is a major accomplishment."

Beck Bennett was third for the Panthers and 34th overall in a personal-best 16:01.8. Bennett was one spot off the last individual advancing spot, missing out by less than a second to Zionsville's Nate Corcoran (16:01.1). Maddox Carver was 98th in 16:52.2 and Avery Franklin was 123rd in 17:07.8.

"It's amazing what our team accomplished this year. We have a collection of guys who never won anything in middle school and yet we were in the conversation about qualifying for state," Jewell said.

Also for Kokomo, which finished 18th, Preston Arreola (17:02.9) was 113th, Benjamin Wallace (17:31.6) was 160th, Leo Serra (17:58.6) was 191st and Maurice Wright (18:48.6) was 216th.

Northwestern took 14th place. Mason Broeker led the Tigers and took 52nd overall in 16:18.9, Bryan Burkhalter was 84th in 16:41.4, Ryland Barnes was 86th in 16:42.7, Isaac Everson was 93rd in 16:48.8 and Colen Lechner was 96th in 16:51.2.

For Cass, Kaiden Hughes was 91st in 16:47.6, Colton Copeland was 125th in 17:08.5, Ben Jay was 153rd in 17:26.7 and Sam Vendeburg was 204th in 18:26.4. For Maconaquah, Joel Loshnowsky was 172nd in 17:43.2, Christian Collins was 187th in 17:57 and Abel Robison 199th in 18:11.4.