Despite missing key members of both their boys and girls teams, the host Panthers claimed the team championships at Saturday morning's Western Cross Country Invitational.

Western's boys were first with a score of 53 while Frontier posted a 59 for second. Northwestern (68) was third and followed by Kokomo (85), Tipton (141) and Taylor 045).

Panther senior Kyle Walsh won the race in 16 minutes, I second in his final home meet, but his running partner and fellow senior Jim Jackson missed the race due to an injury he suffered on Thursday. Michael Marley was fourth at 17:20 with Eric Walsh eighth in 18:04, and Andy Snow ninth at 18:05 for Western.

"Our boys really unified, and pulled themselves together without [Jackson]," Western coach Dana Neer said. "The only dark cloud was that Jackson couldn't run in his final home meet."

Carleton Smith paced Northwestern with a third-place finish of 17:16 and Matt Ullmer was 10th for the Tigers at 18:10. Bryan Phillips was the top runner for Kokomo, finishing second at 16:33, Christopher Sinnett came in fifth at 17:33 for Taylor. Tipton's Robert Cote was 16th in 18:38.

While Becky Elliott has been out for Western, the Panther girls were also without Cassie Myer, who has been running fourth. Yet, they still won the team title with 29 points. Northwestern was second at 40, and Kokomo rounded out the top three with 60. Taylor and Tipton were incomplete.

Western's Annina Gruber won the race in 16:14, six 'seconds ahead of runner-up Danielle Glick of Taylor. Freshman Anna Hurlock captured third for the Panthers in 16:39 with Megan Clearwaters fifth at 17:16,

"The girls were just the same. [Elliott] is just starting to train again and [Myer] may be getting sick. Brittany Stellhorn was suffering from bronchitis and really struggled with the air in the morning," Neer said. "Megan ran the race of her season. She moved on from Logansport to this meet and continued to step up.

"Our teams are coming together, and getting stronger, those who are able to run, and when the others are back we'll be stronger"

Katie McCool led Northwestern's pack in sixth at 17:20 and followed by Sarah Bauson in seventh at 17:26, Lauren Sewell in eighth at 17:31 and the 10thplace finish Of Katie Tryling at 17:52.

Adrienne Shepherd was the top Kokomo runner in fourth at 17:05 and Sarah Lee added a ninth place finish at 17:51. Andrea Harper was Tipton's top runner at 18:09.