CC PREVIEW: Western girls squad confronts challenges

NW, Eastern hope to unseat local power

Kokomo Tribune - Wednesday, August 16, 2009

By CHRIS GARNER
Tribune sportswriter

It’s much more difficult sometimes to stay on top than it is to reach the top.

That age-old axiom will most certainly be put to the test this season for the No. 1 girls cross country program in the area, Western.

The Panthers already this fall are dealing with the sudden departure of their head coach of two seasons, Heather Yentes; the graduation of two vocal leaders, Jenn Elliott and Lacey Myer, and a season-threatening injury to junior Ashley Gaskins.

Assistant coach Dave Britton, who’s being recommended to replace Yentes at Tuesday’s school-board meeting, has been in charge in her place. He marvels at the team’s resiliency.

“I’m amazed and pleased with how they do handle adversity,” said Britton. “And they’re still not out of it.”

Yentes’ resignation for personal reasons is also pending approval by the board.

“We’re going to miss Heather, the kids are too, but they’re still among familiar faces,” Britton said. “Lyle Miller, [new boys head coach] Gary Jewell and myself have been around for several years and that’s going to ease the transition.”

Western captured both the Mid-Indiana Conference and Logansport Sectional championships in 2008, placed second at the Culver Academies Regional and eventually finishing 14th at the New Prairie Semistate.

And what does the team that ran second to the Panthers at both conference and sectional, Northwestern, think of all the rumblings from south of the Wildcat Creek?

Tigers coach Dave Stevens says it’s nearly impossible, with such modern manifestations as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, to prevent his girls from being at least a bit distracted.

“At this time of the season you hear all kinds of things,” said Stevens, trying to maintain focus on the task at hand.

“I’m hoping to give the best effort we have and just see consistent improvement throughout the season. If everything goes well for us, we want to compete in every meet, and I think we can.”

The following are capsules of the five Howard County teams, in order of their sectional finish.

Western

The Panthers captured their first sectional championship in 2003 under former coach Dana Neer and have won six straight sectional titles with six semistate appearances.

Britton hopes to make it seven in a row.

“[The streak] does say a lot about the girls and the effort and hard work they put in to make that happen,” said Britton. “We’re real proud of them.

“I think things are going well,” he added. “We’re excited about getting the season started.”

The injury to Ashley Gaskins is a major concern. She led Western throughout much of last season, placing fourth at sectional and third at regional.

But Gaskins missed the spring track season and summer conditioning with the same hip stress fracture that has her sidelined now.

Her return is uncertain, as she’s just been released to begin physical therapy, according to Britton.

When she returns she’ll join classmates Kayla Gaskins, her twin sister; Corianne Myer and Bre Nicholas, as well as senior Kelsey Durr and sophomore Krissy Durr as runners with 2008 varsity experience.

Myer, most notably, was third in the MIC and 10th at sectional and regional.

Two more seniors, newcomers Sarah Marley and Casey Herr, are candidates to fill spots, along with sophomores Cara Love, Erin Weber, Gina Jakubowicz and Molly McCann and freshmen Jessica Love, Olivia Nixon and Tori Berger.

Northwestern

The Tigers return four semistate participants from last season, led by junior Hannah Ault, who was third at the Logansport Sectional and eighth at the Culver Academies Regional.

With the addition of freshman standout Heidi Freeman and an infusion of new runners, coach Stevens is counting on another solid campaign.

“We’ve got a lot of girls out from different sports,” he said. “Many of these girls have so much athletic talent, it’s just going to take awhile for me to see what happens when they get into shape.

“If I do a good job of coaching and keep them healthy, we can challenge several folks and be successful.”

Returning as seniors are Allie Combs and Lauren Dewhurst, who ran No. 4 last season, along with juniors Gretchen Catron and Ault and sophomore Laura Wiley.

Stevens said he expects Ault, Freeman, Catron and Dewhurst to be among the top four, with a healthy competition among sophomores Kadi Miller, Emily Walls, Brittney Jocius, Elise Cobb, Jenna Jordan and Shanique Clawson, as well as Combs and Wiley for the final three slots.

“It’s so great when you have such a group competing,” said Stevens. “They all want to do well and they’re all looking forward. It’s good for the team.”

“That top four are working hard. They like those patches on their jackets and know what it takes to get them. They set a really good example.”

Kokomo

The Wildkats failed to advance beyond the Logansport Sectional, finishing seventh, but did send Annika Taber all the way to the New Prairie Semistate.

Taber, now a sophomore, was second at sectional, seventh at regional and wound up 80th at New Prairie.

She and senior Kellie Miles have been the leaders thus far for coach Ricke Stucker.

“We hope she improves in that area,” Stucker said in reference to Taber’s mental approach as a freshman.

“Kellie really had the best summer of all the girls,” he added. “She really worked hard. She trained a little bit with Waverly Neer this summer and has a better attitude.”

The “question marks,” as Stucker puts it, begin there for the rest of the seven-member team, including seniors Maddie Cassidy, who may start the season injured, and Kelsey Griffin.

“And then we just have some young kids with question marks that we’ve just never seen before, but if they stay in the program they’ll be decent,” said Stucker, noting that freshman Morgan Kemper “shows potential.”

“Our girls, we have to improve,” Stucker said. “We had about a five-minute gap between [Nos.] 1 through 5, and you’re not going to beat anybody with a gap like that. We’re hoping to run a little closer together and see where that gets us.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Eastern

Four returning athletes and three promising ninth-graders have the Comets enthusiastic about improving on last season, when they failed to field a complete team.

Seniors Lindsey Reprogle and Alyssa Summers are joined by junior Emily Wilcox and sophomore Sarah Willis as those with experience, with Wilcox coming off a regional-qualifying track season in the 800-meter run.

Add to that mix three freshmen from last season’s city/county championship team, twins Bethany and Brittany Neeley and Sarah Wagner, and Eastern will be a force to be reckoned with.

“We have a lot more focus this year and just having the complete team makes a big difference,” said coach Brandon Mink. “We’re seeing a real synergy right now with the influx of the girls from the ninth grade and it’s balanced well.”

The Neeleys, who earlier this summer finished second and fourth, respectively, among all females in the four-mile Haynes-Apperson Run, are running 1-2 for Mink, with Wilcox, Wagner and Reprogle in the 3-4-5 range.

“We’re not sure how it’s all going to shake out,” Mink said. “As small as we are everybody is going to have to pitch in.

“We have lofty goals for them, even having a shot at going to the semistate for the first time ever if all the chips fall together. These are doable things and the girls have a hunger this year.”

Taylor

Just when the boys program is getting their feet back under them, the Titans are down to just one girl on the team, senior Mary Troyer.

“That’s it,” lamented second-year coach Matt Carlile. “She’s going to be a solo artist. She’s been working out with [the boys] and she’s doing her thing.”