Western CC squads shine at New HavenKokomo Tribune - Sunday, September 23, 2007TRIBUNE SPORTS STAFF |
Western's girls cross country team took second with a score of 119 in the New Haven Invitational Saturday. Leo topped the 20-team field of the gold division with a score of 100. Northwestern was sixth with a score of 201 and Eastern was 15th with a score of 327.
Norwell's Kayla Sweet was the individual winner, covering the course in 19:05. Jenn Elliott finished seventh to lead the Panther crew, finishing in 20:42. Corianne Myer was 13th in 21:04, Kayla Gaskins was 23rd in 21:44, Lacey Myer was 24th in 21:46 and Breanne Nicholas was 52nd in 23:04.
"With 20 full teams, finishing second was really good," Western coach Heather Yentes said. "Corianne Myer had a great race finishing 13th for us and then Jenn Elliott getting seventh in a time of 20:42 did a really nice job."
Jennifer Claudio took sixth to lead the. Purple Tigers in 20.23, Hannah Ault was 17th in 21:21, Gretchen Catron was 47th in 22:50. Ruby Sanchez was 58th in 23:18 and Morgan Hullinger was 77th in 23:50.
"I'd like to start out with praising Jennifer Claudio for breaking the school record in the 5K," Stevens said. The for- mer school record dated to the 1980s when girls sometimes ran boys races at the 5K distance. That distance didn't become standard for girls races until this season. "Of my seven varsity runners for the girls, six [ran] personal and season bests - quite an outstanding effort from top to bottom.
"Hannah Ault was very outstanding. I also want to praise Gretchen Catron for getting under 23 minutes for the first time and Ruby Sanchez [took] another 40 seconds off her personal best, and Morgan Hullinger took a minute off her personal best."
Emily Rethlake led Eastern, finishing 26th in 21:47 Danielle Stiner was a spot behind in 27th finishing in 21:57, Emily Wilcox was 75th in 23:44, Lindsey Reprogle. was 94th in 24:40 and Abby Altman was 114th in 26:45.
"We had some really good performances," Eastern coach Brandon Mink said, noting the fast course and good weather conditions. "Five out of our top seven had personal best times and, the two that didn't get those were fairly dose to their best times.
"I was fairly pleased with Emily and Danielle, they ran very dose, just missed being in the top 25 and both of them had personal bests by over 39 seconds.
Danielle Stiner ran very well and had a personal best by 48 seconds and was really tightening the gap there between our first and second girls. We did better than last year and I'm looking forward to seeing how they do in the remaining weeks"
Western took second place in the gold division with a score of 90 points. Norwell won the division with a 67. Eastern was 13th with a score of 344 and Northwestern was 14th with a score of 345 in the 20-team field.
Braden Nelson of Angola was the individual winner with a time of 16:21. Corey Scott led Western by taking fifth in a time of 16:41, Zac Martinez finished 10th in 16:58 followed by Kody Harmon (17:16) in 17th, Chris Love (17:47) in 28th and Austin Young (17:55) in 30th.
"It was a very. good day we had all our top five guys under 18 [minutes], that's the first time we've done that this year and two of those were under 17 and that's the first time we've had two guys Under 17," Western coach Joe Orr said. "They're doing a good job, they're improving each week and things are looking really good right now."
Hansen Martin led Eastern with a 41st-place finish in 18:03. Ryan Horner took 50th in 18:30, Cody Young was 56th in 18:41, Anthony Laughman was 104th in 19:59 and Brett Buckmaster was 112th in 20:16.
"It was the first time we had a complete team this year so it was nice to be able to score," Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. "All together for the boys, all but one had season bests. It was a fast course, good day to run, good competition. Hansen ran real well for us up front and Ryan Horner had a good run for us as well with a [personal best] coming in as a ninth grader. We've got three guys that are up near the 20-minute mark so if we can get them to shave a minute or so we can be decent by the end of the season."
Kory Kennedy led Northwestern in ninth place in a time of 16:54, Sam Freeman was 24th in 17:29, Joe Williams was 81st in 19:23, Steve Vas was 123rd in a time of 21:01 and Bryce Bousum was 127th in 21:53.
"Of my seven runners, I had three personal bests led by Kory Kennedy in a time of 16:54. Kory ran a very outstanding race to come from behind and pass several folks throughout the race," NW coach Dave Stevens said. "Sam Freemen ... to get into the top 25, he had an outstanding race as well. Steve Vas, he ran 21:01, 30 seconds off his personal best and he ran a very good race."