Western girls reign

Lady Panthers win 5th straight sectional

Kokomo Tribune - Wednesday, October 10, 2007

By CHRIS GARNER
Tribune sportswriter

The Panthers, running in the new-for-them Logansport Sectional, won their fifth title in as many years by putting their top five girls among the first 17 finishers for 53 points. They were led by junior Jenn Elliott, who was a member of her third sectional-winning team.

The first four titles came at the Marion Sectional and under former coach Dana Neer. First-year mentor Heather Yentes, an assistant the past two years, knew full well what was on the line.

"The pressure was on [me] knowing we were going for five in a row but it’s great to be able to have a strong program for that many years," Yentes said.

The top five teams and 15 individuals advance to the Culver Academies Regional on Saturday. Pioneer (84) ran second to Western with Northwestern (104) third, Cass (115) fourth and Kokomo (139) holding on for the fifth and final regional spot.

Yentes acknowledged the fact that only Elliott and classmate Lacey Myer are holdovers from 2006. Three of those top-five runners are freshmen, including Corianne Myer (7th), Kayla Gaskins (9th) and Bre Nicholas (17th).

"We started back in June and run together all the way through October," said Elliott, who finished fifth in 21 minutes, 41.32 seconds. "We’ve become part of a team and a family."

Yentes said, "The girls all ran a great race. Corianne Myer and Kayla Gaskins had a really nice race [Tuesday]. That was nice to see that."

Wildkat senior Nicky Parry ran away from a pack of lead runners to capture her first individual sectional title. She hauled in top honors with a time of 20 minutes, 49.45 seconds.

"I was so excited," Parry said. "I’ve wanted to do this for the past four years and finally did it."

Parry ran alongside Ashley Baber of Cass, Jennifer Claudio of Northwestern and Elliott before breaking free. Baber was second, more than four seconds behind.

"I kind of let them take the lead first," said Parry. "I was just running how I felt, and I felt like I could do it [Tuesday]. I was like — I want it, I want it and I went for it."

Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker was happy not only for Parry and teammate Hailey Butchart, who finished 11th, but for the entire team, which began the season with only four runners. Additions were made along the way, including one soccer player, Katie Klein. She finished fourth for Kokomo in 44th place.

  

PANTHER POWER: Western’s Jenn Elliott motors around the course at the Logansport Girls Cross Country Sectional Tuesday. Elliott took fifth overall and led the Panther girls to the sectional title. KT photo

"If we didn’t have Katie Klein — we thank [soccer coach] Myles Geary for that," said an elated Stucker. "He came to us and I couldn’t believe that. She really helped us. And Hailey was the salvation [Tuesday] for us.

"We had some girls who didn’t have a clue what cross country was all about. They have a bigger clue now."

Claudio followed up her runner-up finish at the Mid-Indiana Conference meet a week ago Tuesday with another strong run. She finished third in 21:00.83 after the first start of the race was called back due to Claudio taking a spill.

"One of [Claudio’s] teammates collided with her and she went down," coach Dave Stevens said. "We did our scouting report a little better [Tuesday]. The girl from Cass surprised us, but overall I think she’s excited. [Monday] night at the team dinner I don’t think she was ready for the season to be over and she showed that."

Freshman Hannah Ault (8th) had a top 10 finish for the Tigers, who conquered their goal of a return to regional after missing last season during Stevens’ first year as coach. He felt as though he had personally let them down.

"I worked a little harder this year to make sure I never let them down again," said Stevens. "This group of kids did what I asked them to do every day. For teenagers that’s asking a lot. The girls bought in and we’re going to be running regional."