MARION -- Western and Kokomo kept their seasons going another week by finishing in the top five of the IHSAA Marion Girls Cross Country Regional here Saturday, and three local individuals also earned tickets to next Saturday's New Haven Semistate.
Carroll's Chargers ran away with the regional team title as the Allen County school finished with 27 points by placing all seven of their runners among the top 15 places. Western's Panthers, backing off a bit, were solidly in second at 89 while the Wildkats may have surprised quite a few people by claiming third with 130. Columbia City (141) and Huntington North (148) followed in fourth and fifth and also will advance to the semistate.
Running with their eye on next week's prize -- a team trip to the state championship -- Western's Panthers continued to work hard in practice through the week.
"We kept up our training all week. Out of the three races, the sectional, regional and semistate, if there was one we could back off, this was the one," Western coach Dana Neer said. "We wanted to run well and we ran decent. We knew we had room to maneuver in this one."
Freshman Jenn Elliott was the only Western runner who earned an individual semistate berth by taking 11th in 15:41.0.
"Jenn has a competitive heart. At the end of last week, we told her she could be under 15:30 at the sectional," Neer said. "At first she was alarmed, but she bought into it. She was a little slower with the wind, but it was still a good time."
Anna Hurlock followed in 18th (16:00.1), Lacey Myer in 20th (16:05.1), Annina Gruber in 23rd (16:15.5) and Cassie Myer in 32nd (16:36.9). Katie Hollingsworth and Vanessa Lorenz took 37th and 39th.
After battling several injuries, Hurlock's performance had her coach smiling.
"Anna has put together two good races back-to-back in one week," he said. "The times she's putting together are only two seconds slower than she was this time last season."
"It's unbelievable," Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. "There is no way we should have got third."
Coming in sixth was Northwestern at 167 while Taylor, running in its first girls regional, was ninth at 188. Both schools will be represented in the semistate meet at IPFW in Fort Wayne as the Titans' Danielle Glick was second and the Tigers' Jennifer Claudio was 12th. Tri-Central's Addie Rayl took fourth to qualify.
Adrienne Shepherd led the Wildkats' finish by claiming ninth in 15:31.7. Nicky Parry was 16th in 15:49.3. Sarah Lee was 33rd, Sarah McDonald was 43rd and Tiffany WIlliams took 48th.
"Nicky didn't run [Friday]. We didn't know if we would have her [Saturday], and, if we did, if she would finish," Stucker said of his sophomore, who has a leg injury. "She was the key for us.
"I think we have an attitude of running as hard as we can as a team. The girls keyed on Huntington North and it worked. We hadn't beat them all year. We'd run against them four times and we hadn't been close until the conference."
It's a good thing Glick's day got better as it went. The Titan senior forgot her jersey and her watch.
"I left my jersey at home and one of my teammates kindly gave me hers to wear," she said, laughing. "I was pretty much a wreck this morning. I guess I was a little nervous about the race."
You couldn't tell that watching her run the 4,000-meter course. She led up until the final 300 meters when defending champion Chelsea Blanchard of Carroll passed her in a hard sprint to win in 15:04.4. Glick was second at 15:08.3.
"She's a really good runner. I thought I had the race won," the Taylor runner said. "I was starting to kick and she came out of nowhere. By the time she passed me, she was going so fast I couldn't do anything about it."
Courtney Dunlap came through in 30th for the Titans with Morgan McWhorter (49th), Jamie Dunlap (63rd) and Anisha Gohil (64th) following.
The Trojans' Rayl earned her second semistate berth with a time of 15:11.9.
"I didn't feel my greatest. This was not a breakout day, but I guess that was expected since I ran hard Tuesday," she said. "Next week is the big one and I have to get a new focus."
Claudio's 12th-place finish in 15:41.8 got her through while teammate Lauren Sewell finished her career in 17th in 15:58.2.
"Jennifer is on a roll right now. I think it helped her when she shattered everything in the sectional," Northwestern coach Pete Schroer said. "She bettered her best time by 45 seconds. There was a little more pressure today, but she wasn't far off where she was Tuesday. Everything is starting to come together for her and it's great to see.
"Lauren has worked so hard at it, put so much time and heart and effort in it that she deserves better. It would have been nice if she could have worked in there."
Nichole Hendrickson was 36th, Jackie Combs took 50th and Oliva Pohl was 71st. ©2005 The Kokomo Tribune