Sunday, October 17, 2004
MARION - The hopes of area cross country runners at Saturday's IHSAA New Haven Semi-state will be pinned on five individuals.
Taylor senior Christopher Sinnett made a charge in the last 400 meters of the Marion Regional, passing three individuals to take third a second ahead of Eastern's Tony Martin. Joining those two in the state qualifier at IPFW will be Tipton's Sam Compton-Craig, Northwestern's Matt Ullmer and Western's Michael Marley.
Kokomo's sixth-place finish was the best for area teams. Marion won the meet on the Indiana Wesleyan University course, slipping in front of Huntington North, 59-62. Third went to Carroll of Allen County with 92, followed by Oak Hill with 110 and Columbia City at 120. The Kats scored 140.
Western finished eighth, two points in back of Wabash, 172-174, and the Comets were 10th at 227.
Sinnett made the most of his final race on the IWU course. The Titan senior charged through the final 400 meters to take third in a time of 16 minutes, 29 seconds. The Giants' Josh Foss was the winner in 16:09 and Viking Curt Daniels was second at 16:21.
"I didn't even realize I was third until after the race was over," he said.
Sinnett knew he had to put the cold, cloudy and extremely windy conditions out of his mind before the race began.
"The last thing you want is your mind focusing on something other than your race. Beforehand, I thought about running and how I wanted to do,” said the Titan runner, who qualified for his third semistate competition. "Everyone has to face the weather so you shouldn't let it psych you out.
"My main goal was to start a little slower and settle down in the first mile. Everything was feellng good after that."
Running seventh in the final mile, Sinnett knew it was time to make his move.
"In my head, I was saying 'Stay hungry, stay hungry: I started closing gap,- he said.
He passed the first runner with 400 yards to go.
"I felt good passing him. I was focused on beating Alex Wimsatt [of Marion]. He was right ahead of me in the sectional," Sinnett said. "I passed him and saw Martin and I was already at full speed so I kept on going."
Martin accomplished what he needed to do, Eastern coach Brandon Mink said.
"Tony ran a solid race and he's moving on. I look forward to seeing him run at the semistate," Mink said. "He ran well in the second half of the' race, He ran strong, but Sinnett had an amazing kick. Christopher has been coming on strong at the end of the season. Tony ran so hard in the second half that I don't think he had much left to finish with.”
Compton-Craig, who finished eighth overall, cut 14 seconds off of his sectional time here Tuesday and came in at 16:50.
"Tuesday, I was thinking about a soccer game on Thursday. It was a slow day at school with a lot of tests," the Blue Devil senior explained. "And, I run a lot better in Saturday morning races than weekday races. I've been psyched up and looking forward to this since Tuesday.”
Taking 14th in 17:03, Ullmer ran a strong and consistent race, according to his coach.
Matt went out and got where he needed and he was able to stay and maintain where he was," Tiger coach Pete Schroer said of his sophomore. “He got out and hammered out a good hard pace. He's happy and excited about his opportunity.”
Marley was consistently around lfth place after the mile. Still there with 800 meters left, Panther coach Dana Neer encouraged him to go all out.
"I was yelling 'give it all your heart and training'. With one meter to go, he reached deep and surged past the Huntington North runner,” Neer said of Marley, who took the final individual spot in 15th at 17:09. “This is a great accomplishment for Michael.
“He ran his heart out."
Wildkat coach Ricke Stcker said his ruriners weren't happy with sixth.
"They really wanted this and tried hard, but Columbia City was just better. These kids are disappointed and depiessed,' he said. "They want to do whatever takes to get to semistate next year and that's a great attitude to have:
Ryan Perry was the first runner in for the Kats, finishing 22nd at 17:27. An injured Mason Mc'Govern was 12 seconds back in 31st. Tony Robinette was 35th with Devin White 37th. Cameron Cun-ningham finished 40th with Bran-don Sheline following a second later.
Mason hurt himself Tuesday and he's been on the bike all week. We didn't expect him to run as welt," Stucker said. ~Ryan ran ail right and so did our only senior, Daniel Rifle. Tony ran a great race. We know he had the ability, but he's had asthma problems.
"We have to do more than that. Those two Columbia City kids who killed us were right in front of us, The score was closer than it really showed."
Eric Walsh was. the next panther in at 36th while Luke Minor was 39th. David Moser ran 54th and Trevor Mann finished the scoring in 57th.
"I'm proud of the boys team and its level of development over the season. It was very rewarding to watch' so many first-year runners and several JV runners turn into a very strong unit," Neer said. "We thought realistically we could be sixth, seventh or eight and Wewere only two points out of seventh.
"I thought David Moser really picked it up. Four of our top seven were in their first year and several had never run cross country. Running in some of our bigger meets allowed them to compete but it's hard to maintain that level and improve week after week once you get to a certain point.”
The Comets didn't run well Saturday, Mink said.
"We had a couple with breathing problems, but this team performed through the season and that was capped off by the MIC. championship. We have a lot of young guys coming back and I’m excited to see them improving."
Trevor young and Johnathan Fansler finished 51st and 54th respectively for Eastern.
Culver Regional
Peru's Conrad Warder and Cody Siblisk kept their season going by finishing among the top 15 at the Culver Academy Regional. Rochester's Troy Prior was the individual winner in 16:34.
Warder came in ninth in 17:18 while Siblisk was 15th at 17:36 to advance to the New Prairie Semi-state. The Tigers finished eighth while Penn won the team title. Also advancing were Rochester, Mishawaka, Culver Academy and South Bend St. Joseph's.
"As a team, we picked a bad weather day to run our worst race of the year," Peru coach Gary Downing said. They gave everything they had. We're very young with just one senior so we're learning as we go.
"They're upset they didn't advance so that tells me they want to get out and try to get better.”
The Tigers' other runners were J.R. Robison (42nd), Tony Zimmerman (56th). Tim Butte (70th) and Kyle Mullett (74th),
Maconaquah's Jared Holycross came in 46th.