Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, October 26, 2008

NEW CARLISLE — The Western boys cross country team came up agonizingly short of its goal Saturday in the New Prairie Semistate.

Needing to finish in the top six to qualify for the state meet, Western came in seventh place with 208 points — a mere 10 points behind Frankfort and 11 behind West Lafayette.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed just missing it by one place and 10 points, but we told the kids afterward not to kick themselves over what could have happened because I believe everybody ran as well as they could [Saturday]. We just didn’t have enough to get it done,” Western coach Joe Orr said.

The boys race featured 20 teams and a total of 152 individuals. McCutcheon won the team title with an outstanding score of 48. Maconaquah grabbed 16th place and Kokomo was 20th.

In the girls race, Western took 14th place, Carroll was 17th and Northwestern was 18th.

Corey Scott provided a silver lining for Western’s boys team. Scott covered the course in 16 minutes, 12.9 seconds to finish in seventh place — good for an individual ticket to Saturday’s state meet in Terre Haute. The top 15 individuals advanced.

“Corey didn’t get to celebrate much because he took the team loss pretty hard himself. He’ll get a chance to reflect [on his success] the next couple days and he’ll get going again. We’re going to shoot for a top-20 finish at state,” Orr said.

“Somebody pointed out to me that a writer from the Indianarunner.com Web site had previewed the semistate and he called Corey probably the most improved runner in the semistate. He went from about 60th place finish last year to seventh — that’s quite an improvement,” Orr added.

Orr also noted the improvement of other Western runners, including Austin Young and Ben Bradshaw.

“We’ve had a lot of runners step up and improve so much,” he said. “We were a much better team than we were last year when we finished 18th [at semistate]. We won our conference and the sectional and regional and I feel bad we didn’t celebrate much. We just took those victories in stride and were pointing toward this race. But we had a great season.”

Jacob Bingham led Maconaquah with a 33rd-place finish. Ian Holtson led Kokomo with a 66th-place run.

Competing individually, Northwestern’s Kory Kennedy took 51st place and Peru’s Aaron Garretson followed in 55th.

“Kory ran a very courageous race,” Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said of Kennedy, who is legally blind. “The conditions were not the best for him. He went down once, maybe twice, and still ran 51st [in 17:17] and was only seven seconds from his personal best on that course. I was really proud of his effort in the conditions.”

Check the scoreboard for a rundown of times and places for all area participants.

Girls race

Lake Central posted a score of 51 in winning the girls race, which featured 20 teams and a total of 157 individuals. Western (421) finished 14th and Carroll (480) and Northwestern (488) followed in 17th and 18th respectively.

Krissy Durr covered the course in 21:09 and finished in 72nd place to lead the Panthers. Ashley Gaskins, who paced the Panthers in their sectional and regional runs, crossed the finish line in 21:22 and finished 87th.

“Krissy ran a very strong race, and so did Ashley. About the last half-mile, Ashley had a hip injury kind of come up on her so she kind of backed off a little bit. But she was running very well,” Western assistant coach Bo Britton said.

“Overall, the girls were a little disappointed in their performance, but they’ve had a great season. I am really proud of them for everything they accomplished this season. It was a successful season, led by Jenn Elliott and Lacey Myer, our two seniors. I sure hate to see them go.”

Northwestern’s Hannah Ault was the top area finisher. She took 58th place in 6:42.

“Hannah Ault, Gretchen Catron and Lauren Dewhurst all ran [personal] course bests,” Stevens said. “This is a very fast semistate and three course bests was a very good thing for our team.”

Ashley Bordner led Carroll with a 69th-place finish. Two area individuals also competed in the race — Kokomo’s Annika Taber (80th place) and Lewis Cass’ Ashley Baber (86th).