Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, October 15, 2006

MARION — Survive and advance. That’s the strategy at regionals for a team like the Western girls cross country team.

The Panthers had no illusions of upsetting No. 10-ranked Fort Wayne Carroll or No. 19 Huntington North. Those two teams easily did what they do and finished 1-2 in Saturday’s Marion Regional at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Western needed only to stay upright and keep the competition in sight to earn a berth in the New Haven Semistate on Saturday. That the Panthers did, finishing third with 109 points, despite what coach Dana Neer said was not their best race of the season.

“The last five years we’ve run well at the sectional and super at the semistate, [but] we’ve had kind of a mediocre performance [at regional],” Neer said. “I guess if I had to choose one, this would be the one to have a mediocre performance.”

Credit for Western’s showing goes to two upperclassmen, junior Katie Hollingsworth and senior Vanessa Lorenz, according to Neer.

Hollingsworth led the Panthers with an eighth-place finish in 15:45.54, one of the few times this season she hasn’t been behind teammate Jenn Elliott, the Marion Sectional winner.

Elliott was 14th in 15:55.88 as the girls race went off in a brisk fall-morning breeze.

“I felt good [Saturday] and I feel like I tried to run hard and do my best,” Hollingsworth said. “Different people run well in different weather. I layered my clothes a lot and felt pretty good out here. Maybe some people just have trouble breathing in the cold.”

Hollingsworth was injured for most of last season until Neer put her in the 2005 regional race. She failed to score for Western but gained valuable experience.

“It was her first race back and she took off like a flash, trying to get [our] girls to come up with her,” Neer said. “To see the complete turnaround and maturity as a runner she has learned, looking back we made the right call in giving her the experience a year ago.”

Lorenz has been slowed by injury this season but saved her best for Saturday. Having been seventh in most races for Western thus far, Lorenz ran fifth and finished 44th overall with a personal-best time of 17:16.91.

“If I would want one person to be able to excel and contribute [Saturday], it would be Vanessa,” he said. “She came through when some of the other runners weren’t at their best.”

Lacey Myer was 25th for Western and Kelsey Durr was 37th.

The Chargers were clearly the class of the field, defending their regional title with 22 points. The Vikings were runners-up with 55.

Carroll’s Chelsea Blanchard equaled the IWU course record with a time of 14 minutes, 36.14 seconds. Her teammates finished second, fourth, sixth, 11th, 17th and 20th behind her.

Columbia City (119) was fourth and Eastbrook (180) grabbed the fifth and final semistate spot.

Kokomo (182) was just two points shy in sixth, despite Adrienne Shepherd’s fifth-place finish. Nicky Parry was 18th, but only the top 15 individuals advance to the semistate.

“We were glad to Adrienne out, but we had a couple people really score a bunch of points and ... we don’t know why.”

Shepherd, a senior, finished the 4,000 meters in 15:30.83 and looked like a girl on a mission Saturday in the face of less than ideal conditions. She ran in the semistate with the team in 2005 but failed to advance to the state meet.

“The wind was pretty hard, so I only cut off a second, but I felt OK,” she said. “I’m excited and just hope I do as well or better at semistate. I think I’d cry from the excitement [if I made state].”

Stucker said Shepherd is getting stronger as the season winds down.

“She ran two seconds faster than her season’s best and one second faster than a year ago, so she’s getting better,” he said. “She’s getting smarter and she really attacked the second mile.”

Shepherd will be the only area individual running Saturday. Northwestern’s duo of Jennifer Claudio and Nicki Hendricks finished 29th and 43rd, respectively. Tipton’s Megan Harper (24th) and Eroica Stackhouse (26th) also failed in their semistate bids.