Sunday, October 17, 2004
MARION -- Carroll's girls cross country team entered Saturday's IHSAA Marion Regional ranked ninth in the state.
The Chargers of Allen County proved they were deserving of the ranking. They took the first three places and their top five runners were in when Samantha Simonson finished eighth to put up a score of 17.
That left two teams -- Western and Huntington North -- battling for second while three teams -- Columbia City, Kokomo and Marion -- were trying to grab the remaining two semi state spots.
The Panthers ended up finishing runners-up for the second straight year, just six points ahead of the Vikings, 83-89. The Wildkats surprised even themselves by coming in fourth at 128.
The Giants won the final New Haven Semistate spot on the sixth-runner tiebreaker as they tied Columbia City with 150. Northwestern came home eighth with 180, just seven points behind Northfield.
Joining the Panthers and Kats at the IPFW campus Saturday will be Tri-Central's Addie Rayl and Taylor's Danielle Glick, who qualified as individuals.
Immediately following the race, KHS coach Ricke Stucker felt the best his team could finish was fifth.
"I wasn't even watching Marion. I thought we had a shot at them if we ran well, but we were keying on Columbia City the entire time," he said.
When the scores were announced, a shout came up out of the Kokomo crowd when it was announced that there was a tie for fifth and when it was broken, Columbia City was sixth.
"That was a shock. We thought we had tied and if it went to sixth, I thought, 'oh no.' Both our six and seven girls were sick," Stucker said.
An even louder cheer erupted from the Kokomo crowd when the hosts were announced in fifth.
"Somebody was looking over us. We only had three healthy girls -- Nicky Parry, Tiffany Williams and Summer Hickey -- and we ran within a second of our best team time of the year," he said. "Adrienne Shepherd was limping in warmups and Sarah Lee had a bad foot. Sarah McDonald and Katie Cole both had respiratory infections.
"That's saying something about their characters."
Parry once again led Kokomo, taking 18th in 16 minutes, 19 seconds. Williams and Shepherd were next in 28th and 29th with Lee coming in 34th. Hickey, the team's lone senior was 42nd.
The Panthers ran as close to their plan as they could have, coach Dana Neer said. Anna Hurlock and Annina Gruber came in just seconds apart in sixth and seventh and Megan Clearwaters was 13th.
"We wanted to run a very good race and yet have our greatest race next week at semistate. I think it worked out great," he said. "We planned on Annina, Anna and Megan finishing in the top 15 and Cassie Myer possibly being at that level. We wanted Jessie Muehr, Becky Elliott and Vanessa Lorenz all involved and competing in the middle of the race. I thought they were superb in their roles as 5-6 7 runners."
The Chargers' Chelsea Blanchard -- one of four freshmen among their top five -- set a course record with her time of 14:37. Second went to the only scoring senior for Carroll, Amy Kempf.
Hurlock covered the course in 15:37 for sixth and Gruber's time was 15:40 for seventh. Clearwaters was in at 16:01 and Myer was 27th.
"Megan was 40th at 800 meters and had moved up to 16th by the two-mile mark," Neer said. "She made a huge move in the final 400. Just watching her run and seeing her desire to place well makes her very deserving of all-regional recognition. None of the girls other than Megan had their best time of the year.
"Anna and Annina ran 40 seconds faster than last year in much more adverse conditions. They're going to run faster times next week. The whole team knows what we need to do."
Muehr was 45th with Lorenz 51st and Elliott came in 53rd.
Before they ever got to Marion, the Tigers were dealing with adversity. Senior Laura Bauson was injured in an accident on her way to the school.
"It was an emotional morning. We had to find out how she was before we could ever leave," said Coach Pete Schroer. He said that she was hospitalized Saturday night in good condition.
Lauren Sewell missed qualifying for the semistate, finishing 16th just two seconds away from 15th.
"She thinks she went out too fast, but she was really emotional twice. That sapped the tank of a lot [of energy] that wouldn't be there at the end," Schroer said. "She raced really well and the other girls ran hard."
Jennifer Claudio came in 31st and Katie Tryling was 44th.
Rayl, a Trojan junior, finished up 10th in 15:56 to earn her first semistate trip.
"It wasn't my best day, but I don't really like the cold," she said. "I tried to hang in there and keep track of where I was and where I needed to be. I lost a couple of people [Blanchard and Kempf] at times. I didn't think I was that far up and then I'd find them again way up ahead."
Glick, still recovering from a leg injury, will head back to IPFW after coming in 12th in 16:00.
"I just wanted to get out. That was the goal. I didn't care what spot I finished," the Titan junior said. "This gives me a week to get rested so I can go out and have the race of my life at semistate."
Eastern freshman Emily Rethlake finished 48th in 17:40.
"Coming in, we wanted her to get this experience as a freshman," Comet coach Brandon Mink said. "That's a big step and we want to build on that. I'm proud of her as she's had a great year."