MARION -- It was a dark and dreary night.
Or so the story begins.
It was anything but, though, for Howard County girls teams at Tuesday's IHSAA Marion Cross Country Sectional. On an overcast and drizzly evening here, no less than four county teams -- led by three-peat champion Western -- finished among the top five to qualify for Saturday's regional on the same Indiana Wesleyan University course.
That list includes the state-ranked No. 20 Panthers, runner-up Kokomo, third-place Northwestern and fifth-place Taylor, a team led by senior Danielle Glick but composed of six first-time runners. Marion placed fourth.
Individually, area girls also fared well. Western senior Annina Gruber defended her title, winning wire-to-wire in 15 minutes, 3.4 seconds. She led four teammates who finished among the top-15 all-sectional runners.
"I love running when it's, like, misting and rainy," Gruber said. "I was hoping to get sub-15 [minutes], but I got 15:03. Saturday, my main goal is definitely to get under 15."
Close behind Gruber was Addie Rayl of Tri-Central. The senior, who admitted she has sometimes been "scared" to run with Gruber, stayed with her as long as possible, finishing with a time of 15:08.5.
"I usually ended up staying with Danielle [Glick] in the past," said Rayl. "I didn't quite get to Annina, but I'm trying to break my mental block towards being afraid of her and know I can run in that same category."
Glick came in third in 15:14.7, followed by Western freshman Jenn Elliott, Kokomo's Adrienne Shepherd, Northwestern's Jennifer Claudio and Western's Anna Hurlock, who ran only two seconds off her runner-up pace of last year.
In fact, area runners grabbed all but three of the top-15 spots. Nicky Parry of Kokomo was ninth, Tipton's Megan Harper was 11th, followed by Northwestern's Lauren Sewell, 12th; Taylor's Courtney Dunlap, 13th, and Western frosh Lacey Myer, 14th.
Just out of the money was sophomore Emily Rethlake of Eastern, a regional qualifier in 2004 who finished one spot below the cut in 16th place. Her time of 16:12.1 was 31 seconds faster than last year and would have finished eighth.
Western, attempting to reach the state meet for the first time, now turns its attention to Saturday's regional, where top contenders from the Carroll (Allen) Sectional will participate, including No. 14 Carroll.
"Earlier in the season we didn't think we'd be anywhere near Carroll, [but] as the season goes along, we think we can compete with them for regional," said Gruber. "Semistate is going to be really close between a lot of teams to get to state. We have confidence that we can do it."
Times were fast Tuesday as several teams reported personal-records for their runners. Northwestern coach Pete Schroer said that Claudio, who usually runs alongside Sewell, was close to a school record with her time of 15:32.
"It's not that Lauren ran poorly," Schroer said. "It's just that Jennifer ran a great middle part of the race. She just broke away."
The Titans may be celebrating the most. After failing to field a complete team last season, Taylor accomplished its goal for 2005.
"It's always nice to get a team goal that you set out for," said an almost speechless coach Jim Grossman. "This is a great group of hard workers, and I don't know what to say. É Obviously, this will be a highlight [for them] for a long time to come."
Saturday's regional race begins at 11 a.m. with the girls race. The boys' gun sounds at 11:30. ©2005 The Kokomo Tribune