Saturday, October 18, 2003
This is redemption day for Laura Boltz.
After defending her IHSAA Marion Girls Cross Country Sectional championship on Tuesday, the Eastern senior has her eyes firmly set on another strong race during the regional race on the same four-kilometer course at Indiana Wesleyan University.
She went into last year's regional at Manchester with thoughts of advancing to the semistate, but those hopes were dashed when she fintshed 16th. Only the top 15 advance.
"It was really frustrating to win the sectional and go in thinking I had a good shot at the semistate and then missing it by one place" Boltz said. "My cousin was getting married that day and ! cried the whole way to the wedding, I'd had to pick between cross country and band and then I found out the band missed out too. I was really disappointed."
Running as an individual, Boltz will be looking for a top 15 finish to earn a trip to Fort Wayne for the girls semistate as will individuals Addie Rayl of Tri-Central and Andrea Harper from Tipton and the teams from Western, Northwestern and Kokomo.
The boys contingent heading back to Marion is led by defending sectional champion Kyle Walsh and his Western Panther teammates. Joining them will be teams from Kokomo and Northwestern and Taylor's Christopher Sinnett, Tipton's Sam Compton-Craig and Eastern's Derek Woods.
The regional begins at 11 a.m. with the girls race and the boys will follow. Five teams from the Carroll (Allen) Sectional will also be competing and the top five teams wilt advance.
To make up for the disappointment of 2002, Boltz worked even harder in the offseason to make up for it.
"I ran a lot this summer. I had almost 400 miles," she said. "It was a lot, especially coming off of track where I missed going to state by one place. I was tired of being a little bit not good enough, a little short, and it was frustrating.
"I think I'm sitting good. I felt really good Tuesday. I know the course and rye had the chance to run the course before - that will help. If rm in it mentally and run well, I'll have a good chance."
The regional championship is one of 12 goals the Western girls team set for themselves at the start of the season.
"We believe that Carroll will give us a strong meet," Western coach Dana Neer said. "I think we'll place well. I think Amy Kempf will be a favorite to win and their second girl is Jenna Pointer. I think we'll be able to put three runners in before [Pointer places] and our fourth will be about where she is. The question mark is how many of their girls get in before our fifth.
"Winning is very much within the realm of possibility," Neer said. "Last year was a new experience and we were happy to go to the semistate, but we want to go as champions this time. We're going and believing in the possibility of what we might do."
Annina Gruber, Brittany Stellhorn and Anna Hurlock have provided the Panthers with a strong grouping at the front of nearly every race they've run this season. Megan Clearwaters has moved up and dosed the gap behind them. Cassie Myer has run fifth while Becky E1liott was recovering from an illness, but she returned at the sectional and finished 21st despite not having run for more than a month.
"Annina has run well all year and Anna is running very mature as a freshman. Becky's ability to believe she can race with these girls is vital right now," their coach said.
Stellhorn will be competing in the regionat for the fourth time in hen career and that's proven beneficial to the team.
"Brittany has stepped up with her leadership. Brittany's track record is that she excels late in the season and in these big meets" Neer said. "She knows where she's at in the race and what she has to do. I think her wisdom on the course helps Anna. Their interaction of seeing each other and running side by side gives them the energy to carry on."
Western's boys are shooting for a top-five finish, something Neer believes is totally within reason. That would give No. 2 runner Jim Jackson another week to heal from his leg injury.
"I see us in one of two positions: 1. Running a very good race and finishing fourth; or 2. Running a solid race and finishing a strong fifth," the coach explained. "I think we would have to run extremely unwise and poorly to not advance.
"This is frustrating for Jim on two fronts. Personally, it's his senior year and there are some lofty goals he and we have set for him and they're not coming to fruition. The other is everybody means well, but they're asking `when are you going to get back? How come you can't just run? Can't you gut it out? The answer is no, he really can't. He has to answer those questions a lot."
Walsh is familiar with the people who will be challenging him.
"He's run with nearly everybody there and knows the lead runners who will give him the strongest competition," Neer said. "He's a strong favorite to win and Kyle knows that. I think he'll be strong and have a great race."
Northwestern's girls continue to focus on running better and better races.
"We've talked about what a significant accomplishment this was [getting to the regional]. We're getting better as the year goes on," Tiger coach Pete Schroer said. They want to feel good about themselves, be relaxed and comfortable. They're focused on this race.
"Katie McCool said something before the sectional that really impressed me. She told them 'we have to have the right attitude and if this is important to you, you have to reach down inside and pull it out.' That's what's going to happen [today]. They'll see how important it is to them and if it is, then they'll reach inside themselves."
The Tigers boys are young and the regional will be a good building experience for the future of the team.
"We think we have a tremendous future with the young guys. If the future occurs as good as it might, we can credit what our senior leaders [John Bahler and Michael Rudy] did to help them along," Schroer said. "They're all working together and thinking long term."
The Widkat boys and girls are also fairly young and they're headlng into the regional hoping to run closer to some of the teams that beat them in the sectional.
"We know the consistency of our sectional and that Huntington North and Columbia City are tough," KHS coach Ricke Stucker said. "Most of our kids have no clue the different levels in cross country. There wasn't much of a difference between the NCC and sectional but there's a big difference between the sectional and regional. And it's a completely different world once you reach the semistate. The rookies have to adjust to that."
Stucker believes senior Bryan Phillips has the best chance of moving on for the Kats.