Sunday, October 19, 2003

MARION -- The beginning of Saturday's IHSAA Marion Boys Cross Country Regional looked more like the start of the 100meter dash than it did the beginning of a five-kilometer race.

Bursting out of the chute like greyhounds after Sparky the remote-control rabbit at a dog track, two Huntington North runners shot into the lead, looking to leave the field behind.

And that was perfectly fine with Western senior Kyle Walsh.

"They did exactly what I wanted," Walsh said of the Huntington North runners. "They went out in front and pulled me along that first mile. I was fifth at the mile.

"Once I was on the backstretch and away from the wind, I made a big surge. I wanted to surge and get a big lead and not have them close to me any more:'

When Walsh became the first runner to finish the race on the Indiana Wesleyan University course, no one was close to him. Walsh's victory helped the Panthers qualify for next weekend's New Haven Semistate on the campus of Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne.

Placing all five of their scoring runners among the top 14 positions, the Huntington North Vikings easily won the team title with 38 points. Marion finished second, edging Oak Hill 92-94, while fourth went to Columbia City with 107. The Panthers were fifth at 125.

Sixth went to Wabash (162) and it was followed in order by Carroll of Allen County (164), Churubusco (194), Kokomo (206) and Northwestern (224).

While the Panthers will be the only local team going on, Taylor's Christopher Sinnett and Kokomo's Bryan Phillips earned individual trips to the semistate.

The quick pace didn't bother Walsh and as he headed for the finish line, he cranked his race up another notch and finished in a personal-best time of 15 minutes, 48 seconds.

"With about 300 meters left, a lot of the Western supporters were yelling at me,telling me my time and that I was dose to my best time," said Walsh, a 2002 state meet qualifier. "I gave it everything I had and got my best time. I was pleased because my goal was the 15:40s."

The Panthers had coach Dana Neer a little worried toward the end. With Jim Jackson recovering from a leg iniury, Western was hoping to finish a solid fourth or fifth.

"There was a little bit of a question at the end. I didn't think we were in the places at 3-4-5 that we wanted to be," he said. "Our team score was right where I thought it should be, but our places were a little higher. The guys believe they could do it.

"I didn't think our guys ran to their capabilities. They ran good, but not great."

Part of that is due to lack of experience when Jackson, a senior, is sidelined. Walsh, Andy Snow and Josh Shepherd are seniors, but the latter two are first-year varsity runners. The next runners with varsity experience are junior Michael Marley and sophomore Eric Walsh, who ran some varsity last year. Sophomore Shawn Parkins just ran his first varsity race in the sectional and Luke Minor is a freshman.

"Part of it is going from conference to sectional to regional all in one week. For a couple of guys, that's a bit overwhelming," Neer explained, "especially when you consider that we're running without Jim.

"We have a week to get ready for the semistate. We'll be ready and we'll have Jim back."

Marley was 16th for the Panthers while Snow claimed 34th.

Sinnett qualified for his second consecutive semistate as he led a fight pack of six runners to the finish line. The Titan junior finished sixth overall in 16:44. Phillips, a Wildkat senior, was just behind that pack, grabbing 12th in 16:52.

"Bryan got through and he'll run better next Saturday," Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. "He was fine until there was about 3/4 of a mile to go and he lost his legs. He said they felt like rubber all the way in."

Carleton Smith gave Northwestern its top finish in 29th at 17:39.

"We were coming in and trying to gain experience, trying to find out what the next level of competition was like," Tigers coach Pete Schroer said. "Carleton had a better regional experience than last year. He was still in the 20s and when you're 14 or 15th in the sectional, you have to look at the high 20s. He was in about the same position the whole race. He was disappointed he never was able to move up."

Eastern's Derek Woods and Tipton's' Sam Compton-Craig ran as individuals, Compton-Craig finished 21st while Woods was 25th.