Sunday, October 24, 2004
FORT WAYNE -- The Red and Black of Western High School will be on hand for next week's IHSAA girls cross country state meet in Terre Haute.
Unfortunately, the Panthers will be there to cheer on sophomore Anna Hurlock instead of running as a team. Hurlock qualified for the state meet by finishing 13th in Saturday's New Haven Semistate.
Hurlock became the fourth Western girl to qualify for state in the last five years as she covered the four-kilometer course at IPFW in 15 minutes, 21 seconds.
"Once more, we're sending someone to the state meet and that's something Western is becoming known for," coach Dana Neer said. "One of these days, we want to get the team to state too."
As a team, the Panther girls ran seventh with 255 points. The top five teams - Carroll (Allen), Northridge, Fort Wayne Concordia, Fort Wayne Snider and Homestead earned the team spots for the state meet at Indiana State University.
The top four teams' scores ran from 68 to 132 with Homestead back at 215. Huntington North was sixth at 227. Kokomo came in 17th with 380.
Addle Rayl of Tri-Central finished 29th in her first-semistate appearance while Taylor's Danielle Glick was 52nd.
Hurlock overcame trouble near the beginning of the race.
"There were a lot of girls pushing and a lot of people fell after about 400 meters," the sophomore said. We got boxed in, but Annina [Gruber] and I got out of it. I got in the pack of [runners] 10 to 18 and just tried to stay there.
She stayed there through nearly the entire race until the final 400 meters.
"I wasn't sure I'd make it. I was 17th or 18th, but then I heard my brother Ryan yelling for me and some of the other alumni and Dana," Hurlock said. "I knew I had to go if I wanted to make it.
"I'm happy to be going, but we're sad because the team didn't make it. Sometimes that the way things go."
Neer knew things were going well for Hurlock after about 1200 meters.
"Anna kept running with that pack. She was either in the pack or chasing someone. We never wanted her to run alone and she never did that," the coach said. "She had a little stumble at 200 meters, but she came out of that with a lot of heart and desire and moved up four spots."
Gruber was next in for Western in 43rd at 16:02.2 while Megan Clearwaters was 57th in 16:15.9. Cassie Myer finished 74th with a time of 16:36.8 and Jessie Muehr wrapped up the team in 121st'in 17:25.8. Vanessa Lorenz was 153~d and Becky Elliott came in 156th.
"I thought we ran well as a team. Obviously we're disappointed because finishing fifth was a big goal for us," Neer said. "Whether we come in first or seventh, I feel we represented our community, our pasarents and God in outstanding fashion. I thank God every day for allowing me to coach these girls.
"Our seniors, Becky, Megan and Jessie, are great people and they'll have successful lives. All of them have been outstanding leaders with their work ethic and verbal encouragement They have a great ability at induding everyone in the whole scheme of things."
Rayl's time for the day was 15:453 and she was happy.
"This really was an awesome experience. Now, I know what it's really like to be here and I should be more prepared next year," the Trojan runner said. "I feel good about my race and my finish.
"I got out very well. In the second mile, I had trouble going with people as they passed me. With a mile left, I said, 'this is my part of the race' and went out and finished fine."
Glick's time for the race was 16:11.8. Now, she plans to take some time to find out about her leg problems that limited her at the end of the regular season.
"I felt I was running hard and I pushed my hardest," she said. "I just didn't have anything and that could be from the break."
Freshman Nicky Parry was the first girl in for the Wildkats as she finished 71st with a time of 16:34.5. The group of Tiffany Williams (16:51.9), Sarah Lee (16:53.9) and Adrienne Shepherd (16:54.5) finished 92nd, 94th and 95th respectively. Kokomo's only senior, Summer Hickey (16:59.8), followed shortly behind in 102nd.
The Kats' gap time was just 25 seconds and that led to their best team time this season. Hickey broke her personal best by eight seconds.
"Our top five were under 17 minutes. Now, they've seen what they have to do if they want to gec to the next level," coach Ricke Stucker said. "And they did all of this injured.
"We've been warming everyone up and seeing who could go. A lot of girls wouldn't even run injured. With those injuries, we've been taking nine or 10 girls so when someone is sick or hurt, we can move another girl up."
Sarah McDonald was 143rd and Katie Cole finished 152nd.
Concordia's Adele Mitchell won the individual title by 15 seconds with her time of 14:11.7.