Boys Meet

The Western boys and girls cross country teams earned runner-up finishes Tuesday in the Logansport Invitational.

In the boys race, No. 11-ranked Huntington North (47) edged No. 22 Western (51) for the top spot in the 16-team field. Maconaquah (142), Kokomo (153) and Carroll (162) finished fourth through sixth, Peru (177) took eighth, Northwestern (284) and Cass (306) were 10th and 11th and Tipton (348) was 13th.

Corey Scott turned in an outstanding run to lead Western. He covered the 5,000-meter course in a personal-best 15 minutes, 59 seconds and finished first.

“I was very pleased with Corey Scott breaking 16 [minutes] and beating two good Huntington boys,” Western coach Joe Orr said. “After running a really good race Saturday [in the New Haven Invitational], he established another personal best. He had quite an effort at the finish line.”

Also for the Panthers, Zac Martinez (16:45) and Austin Young (16:47) finished fifth and sixth, respectively and Chris Love (17:36), Kody Harmon (17:37) and John Capps (17:37) finished 19th through 21st. Ben Bradshaw (51st place, 18:47) rounded out the Western contingent.

“Zac Martinez had a personal best,” Orr noted.

Peru’s top runners were: Aaron Garretson (eighth place, 16:53); Shannon Garretson (15th, 17:28); Jordan Garretson (33rd, 18:13); Sonny Ornelas (62nd, 19:07) and Nick Lipari (73rd, 19:40).

“I thought we ran a good race,” Peru coach Gary Downing said. “Sonny ran an excellent race for him and Shannon Garretson ran well too. Aaron is not happy with the way he is running right now, but we’re a week away from the [Mid-Indiana Conference meet] and he wants to be a contender for the conference so he’s going to work at it.”

Northwestern’s top runners were: Kory Kennedy (seventh place, 16:50); Sam Freeman (35th, 18:18); Kyle Condon (95th, 20:56); Bryce Bousum (96th, 20:57) and Hayden Jarvis (101st, 21:26).

“Another superb job by Kory. He ran up to the front group and stayed with them the whole race. I was proud of his effort,” Purple Tigers coach Dave Stevens said. “Kyle Condon, Bryce Bousum and Alex Fruth [115th place, 23:32] all set personal bests and overall, seven of my eight boys set course personal bests on our sectional course.”

Girls race

No. 11-ranked Huntington North (61) and Western (69) finished first and second in the 15-team field. Northwestern (187) and Kokomo (234) came in fifth and 11th, respectively.

Western packed its runners together. Corianne Myer covered the course in 21:04 and finished in ninth place to lead the way. Krissy Durr (10th place, 21:07), Jenn Elliott (13th, 21:16), Kayla Gaskins (17th, 21:32) and Ashley Gaskins (20th, 21:36) completed the Panthers’ team score and Bre Nicholas (24th, 21:47) and Kelsey Durr (37th, 22:29) also ran for the Panthers.

Western assistant coach Bo Britton noted Huntington North competed without some of its regular runners, but he was still pleased with his team’s runner-up finish.

“From top to bottom, the girls all ran strong races,” he said. “I was pleased with the cooler weather. We’ve had some asthma problems up until this point and the girls who’ve been having problems just ran really strong. We still have that strong pack running. If someone is a little off, someone else is right there to step up which is really nice.”

Northwestern’s top runners were: Hannah Ault (fourth place, 20:34); Gretchen Catron (21st, 21:40); Nicki Hendricks (45th, 22:42); Lauren Dewhurst (56th, 23:04) and Ruby Sanchez (64th, 23:34).

“Nine out of my 10 girls ran course personal bests, which was quite outstanding. This is our sectional course so I am very happy with their efforts,” Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said.