Kyle Walsh was content to wait out the first half of the Marion Regional Saturday until the wind was at his back before pulling away from Dustin Rose of Oak Hill and Matt Ingalls of Columbia City to win the individual title in 15:48.

"I didn't want to go out real fast to lead and have the wind all on me," said Walsh, even though the trio went through the first mile in 5-flat.

"I took it back a little bit and waited and made the last mile-and-a-half as fast as I could, just going in hard."

"I didn't doubt myself the whole race," he said. "I knew if I ran my very best and do all that I could, I would probably win."

Rose and Ingalls were unable to match Walsh's surge.

"I wanted to make a move to where I knew they couldn't match it," said Walsh. "I wanted to go really hard and not give them any hope, get away and hang on for the rest of the race."

Although Huntington's Trevor Hughes took the early lead, Ingalls, Rose and Walsh opened a gap on Hughes and teammate Nick Johnson by the first mile mark.

"I didn't want to take the lead but it was like everybody was waiting," said Ingalls. "I knew if I wasn't the one who initiated the move that I wasn't going to be part of the move, so I just went. I was gonna pull whoever came with me, with me."

Ingalls went into the second mile determined to stay with the leaders but despite his determination, he couldn't go with Walsh.

"He got a lead on Rose and me and he was pretty much gone by then," said Ingalls.

"He's a machine," said Rose about Walsh. "He did the same thing that he did last week. He just coasts with the leaders, then takes off out of nowhere for about 20 seconds."

Rose said he was ready for Walsh's move this time and wanted to go with him.

"I did for like five steps and thought 'Oh my God'," said Rose.

Rose managed to hold off a kick by Ingalls over the final 100 meters to finish second in 16:09. Ingalls came through in a personal record of 16:11. Hughes, the Carroll sectional champion, placed fourth in 16:22 and Johnson was fifth in 16:27.

Huntington put their first five runners in the top 13 teamwise and all seven in the top 22 to easily win with 38 points. Marion was second with 92, edging Oak Hill, minus Neno Bellinoti, by two points. Columbia City was fourth with 107 and Western fifth with 125.

Huntington coach Don Cotton was not surprised by how easily his team won.

"They're capable of doing that, so they had a good race" he said. "Trevor Hughes is now on top of his game. He has run behind Nick Johnson all season long and now he's running like Trevor Hughes. He had some injuries to start with and some issues we had to deal with, but he's just running the way he is capable of now."

So just how good is Huntington and how well will they do at semi-state?

"We hope we can give Northrop a battle," said Cotton. "That's the goal. We're gonna try, give it a shot."