Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, October 21, 2007

New Prairie Semistate marks end of their state tourney run

NEW CARLISLE — There was no joy in K-ville after the New Prairie Cross Country Semistate, which hosted three teams and a handful of individuals from the Kokomo area Saturday.

None of the 26 athletes who toed the line at the venerable New Prairie course achieved what would have been the ultimate goal, a top-six team or a top-15 individual finish. That would have earned them a spot in next Saturdays IHSAA State Finals in Terre Haute.

"Things just didn't go very well," Western boys coach Joe Orr said. "It was a disappointing day but we had a good season. I told the kids not to remember the season by their last meet."

The Panthers went to New Prairie as the Culver Academies Regional runners-up but found the going far too tough. They finished 18th with 444 points among the 20 teams there.

As expected, No. 2-ranked LaPorte and No. 3 McCutcheon staged a duel at the top, with the Slicers (74 points) holding their ground over the Mavericks (78). Oak Hill, which had easily won both the Logansport Sectional and Culver Regional, was ninth with 235 points. Kokomo was 15th with 379.

No. 2-ranked Lake Central cruised to the girls title with a mere 32 points. No. 10 West Lafayette (99) was second and No. 13 Valparaiso (106) was third.

The Western girls team, also runner-up at Culver, finished 14th with 318 points.

Coach Heather Yentes said her squad, including four freshmen, was probably not aggressive enough at the start of the race, which narrows quickly before making a left-hand turn.

"We just didn't get a good start and got squeezed to the back a little bit," Yentes said. "This is a tough one to chalk it up to [inexperience] because we've had a lot of big meets, but the competition was so tight up there and not what [the girls] were used to."

Senior Katie Hollingsworth had the top individual effort of any area runner. She was 34th overall with a time of 20 minutes, 28.5 seconds.

Culver Academy's Alex Banfich won the race in 18:21.1. Freshman Ashley Gaskins came next for the Panthers in 69th place. Sister Kayla Gaskins was 81st, classmate Corianne Myer was 95th and junior Jenn Elliott literally fell to a disappointing 110th.

"Jenn said she was actually pushed down on one part of the course," said Yentes, the team's first-year coach. "And on that narrow of a course, trying to get back up, you've got 50 people passing you before you can get back to where you were. She just didn't have a good race."

Western was without both Hollingsworth and Ashley Gaskins for a good portion of the season but still managed to win conference and sectional titles, something for which Yentes gave the girls credit.

"It was great that we were able to be as successful as we were, everything considered," she said. 'Tm very happy with the way this. team was able to pull through and stay together".

Northwestern senior Jennifer Claudio finished 44th with a time of 20:45.7, about one minute slower than coach Dave Stevens predicted would be needed to finish in the top 15.

Claudio ran a school-record 20:00.6 last week at Culver.

"Jen was 45 seconds slower but I don't think her effort was any less," Stevens said. "It was just one of those things with a huge pack of girls taking off and you just get caught up in the crowd.

"When you get to this level its not that easy to just run to the front like the coach tells you. Its a lot easier for me to say than to do when there's 157 girls taking off."

Stevens praised Claudio for her leadership of a young Tigers team this season that finished third at sectional.

"I'm very proud of Jennifer," said Stevens. "She's done everything a leader needs to do, and at the same time trying to maintain her own opportunity. Not for one second, did Jen forget her teammates."

Cass freshman Ashley Baber was 43rd in 20:43.9. Kokomo senior Nicky Parry was 55th in 21:00.5.

Kats coach Ricke Stucker was about the only one pleased with his team's performance.

Ian Holtson led Kokomo with a 62nd-place finish in 17:29.5. Hewas followed by Brandon Sheline 67th, Devin White 78th, Jordan Lee 102nd and Mason McGovern 117th.

LaPorte's Michael Fout won the race in a meet-record time of 15:179.

"Six out of our seven ran well, [Saturday]," Stucker said. " We had a 42-second gap and that's pretty good for us. We had three people that just really ran well - Mason McGovern, Matt Wyss and Jordan Lee."

Stucker noted that his Kokomo team finally got around Western.

"I was afraid we weren't going to beat anybody after last Saturday [at Culver]," he said. "We've keyed on Western all year because we know them and we run them several times. We finally got them."

Corey Scott again led the Panthers. He was 66th with a time of 17:32.8. Zac Martinez was 91st, freshman Chris Love 95th, Kody Harmon 106th and senior Michael Ladd 135th.

"It's a good learning experience because we hadn't run in a meet like that before where there were so many runners of equal ability. They weren't able to respond as well as I think they are capable of," said Orr, who returned to coach the boys this season after being away from the sport for more than 10 years.

"I've enjoyed the whole season. Its been fun watching them improve. Its been a good year."

Peru's Aaron Garretson finished 47th in 17:12.5. Maconaquah's Bryce Comp was 83rd in 17:47.1.