Kokomo Tribune - Friday, October 17, 2008

WHS girls team to run against a former teammate

When the Western girls cross country team lines up as a favorite for the Culver Academies Regional championship Saturday, the Panthers will have to contend with a familiar face.

A very familiar face.

Waverly Neer, who was classmate and teammate to four Western runners until their freshman year, now runs for Culver Girls Academy and will lead the Eagles against Western.

While it may not be quite the scenario they envisioned growing up together in and around Russiaville, sophomores Ashley and Kayla Gaskins, Corianne Myer and Bre Nicholas all agreed after capturing Tuesday’s Logansport Sectional that Saturday’s first competition with Neer since she left is one they are looking forward to.

Saturday’s regional begins with the girls race at 10:30 a.m., with the boys to start around 11. The top five teams and top 15 individuals advance to the New Prairie Semistate on Oct. 25.

Neer won the Culver Academies Sectional with a time of 19:12.3 and will be the odds-on favorite for Saturday’s individual title.

“I think it will be fun because we’re all still friends with her,” said Ashley Gaskins. “It’s going to be kind of different racing [against] her, but I think it will be fun to see how well she can do.”

Also participating will be girls teams from Northwestern and Maconaquah. Running as individuals are Kokomo’s Annika Taber, Peru’s Jessica Parkman and Cass’ Ashley Baber and Hannah Johnson.

On the boys side, Western seeks its third regional title in school history and is joined by teams from Kokomo and Maconaquah, as well as Kory Kennedy of Northwestern and Aaron Garretson of Peru.

After leaving Western, Waverly Neer spent her freshman season at Westfield, where she won a state title with the Shamrocks. Then the opportunity to enroll at CGA presented itself when her father and coach, Dana, became a counselor at the prestigious academy.

Dana Neer, Western’s coach for several seasons prior to 2007, is an assistant coach for both the boys and girls teams. He predicted Saturday’s reunion with his former runners to be a mostly pleasant one.

“It [won’t be] as odd as if I hadn’t seen them run a couple times this year, but it probably will once it’s all said and done and they’re up here,” Neer said. “We still have a very good relationship and I think a lot of them.”

As for the team competition, Western will counter Waverly Neer with its tight pack of runners. In finishing anywhere from fourth to 11th at Logansport, the Panthers’ top five girls were fewer than 21 seconds apart.

“We’re in a good place to be able to win a regional this year,” said senior Jenn Elliott. “We’re hitting times we need to get. They need to get a little lower, but if we can get to where everybody is capable of getting, then we’ll win regional Saturday.”

Northwestern’s girls went to Culver last year with a chance to advance but finished a disappointing seventh. Coach Dave Stevens is confident the results Saturday will be much better.

“They’re all planning for it,” Stevens said of a top-five finish Saturday. “They’ve all cleared their schedules and that’s the goal. We’re looking forward to an opportunity to redeem ourselves and move on to the semistate.”

Hannah Ault leads the Tigers. She finished third at the Logansport Sectional with a time of 20:28.1.

Taber, a freshman, was second at Logansport in 20:17.9, while Baber was ninth, Parkman 13th and Johnson 15th.

The Western boys, ranked 19th in the state, seem to be on cruise control and a regional championship would be one more stepping stone en route to the ultimate goal — a berth in the Nov. 1 state finals in Terre Haute.

The Panthers were second at regional a year ago but struggled to finish 18th at New Prairie.

“I was a little intimidated last year at semistate, definitely,” senior Corey Scott said after winning the Logansport Sectional race Tuesday in 15:59.4. “But this year I feel as confident as ever that we can get it done.”

Western last won regional titles in 1979 and 1980. No team, boys or girls, has made it as far as the state meet.

The Wildkats also advanced to semistate a year ago, where they finished 15th. Kokomo was third at Culver in 2007.

Ian Holtson, with his 12th-place finish, helped the Kats finish third Tuesday. Coach Ricke Stucker said his team will have “a tough time” getting out this year.

“If we can stay ahead of Maconaquah and knock off Rochester and Plymouth [from the Culver Sectional], we might sneak into fifth,” said Stucker. “But we’re going to have to run better than at sectional. We didn’t run well there.”

Kennedy, a senior, was sixth at Logansport, clocked in 16:51.0. A year ago at Culver he missed running at semistate by one spot and looks to change that this year.

“The heartache of last year is still etched deeply in my brain,” said Stevens. “It’ll be a tough field that’s pretty fast, but we’ll run him to the front and we’ll count 15 runners and make sure he’s one of those 15.”

Garretson, a senior who was member of Peru’s semistate-qualifying team in 2006, was third at Logan on Tuesday in 16:31.9.