Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Annina Gruber and Anna Hurlock led the way, and their teammates turned in solid supporting roles as the Western girls cross country team took top honors Tuesday in the Logansport Invitational.
The Panthers finished with 70 points to edge Huntington North (73) and Rensselaer (82) for the team title. Maconaquah (105) and Kokomo (167) rounded out the top five, Northwestern (196) and Cass (202) finished 7-8 and Carroll (226) was llth in the 16-team field.
Rensselaer runners claimed the top two spots, Gruber (15:27) and Hurlock (15:28) followed in third and fourth and Huntington runners finished 5-6. But the Panthers received strong efforts from Megan Clearwaters (16:25) and Cassie Myer (16:37) to take the edge. They finished llth and 14th, respectively.
"We knew going into the meet that it would be extremely close between us, Huntington North and Rensselaer, and we knew Maconaquah would be in the mix too," Western coach Dana Neer said. "There were a lot of red uniforms in there which made it kind of tough to see where our runners were late in the meet. We knew we had done well, and we would have been happy wherever we finished, but it was nice to win the meet again this year.
"Annina and Anna ran extremely strong races. They were up front for the entire race," he added. "Megan and Cassie provide such a strong punch in the 5-4 spots. They race very strong and very aggressive."
Nicky Parry led the Kokomo contingent with a 20th-place finish and Sarah Lee followed in 22nd.
Three of our top six rurnnrs are out and our No. 2 got hurt today, so we ran pretty well considering we were hurt," Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said.
Kristi Romine led Maconaquah with a ninth-plalce finish. Lauren Sewell paced Northwesetern with a 12th-place showing.
On the boys side, Carroll runner Bryan Hazel covered the course in 16:47 to take top honors and lead the Cougars to the team title. Carroll totaled 65 points to edge Huntington North (70) for top honors in the 16-team field.
Kokomo finished in third place. The Kats featured a nice pack as Mason McGovern (17:42), Brandon Sheline (17:45) and Ryan Perry (17:44) finished 16-i7-18 and Cameron Cunningham (18:06) and Devin White (18:09) took 24th and 25th, respectively.
"We had a really nice pack, and it was three freshmen and two sophomores," Stucker said. "It was our best gap time of the season"
Western finished in fourth place. Michael Marley led the Panther contingent. He covered the course ih 16:57, which was good for third place. Luke Minor turned in a personal-best time of 17:35 to take 14th place.
"As a team, we're very pleased to come away with a strong fourth. That was without Trevor Mann, who is our No. 4 runner. But we're deep in the 5-10 spots in our lineup. We have a lot of depth," Neer said.
Peru came in fifth place after receiving strong efforts from Cody Siblisk (17:00) and Conrad Warder (17:26). Siblisk took fourth place and Warder came in ninth. Tony Zimmerman (18:01) grabbed 21st place.
"We're working hard to improve our times," Peru coach Gary Downing said of his team. "The times are coming down, and we're gearing up for the conference and sectional."
Matt Ullmer led Northwestern with a seventh-place showing. He covered the course in 17:22.