Western girls, boys top local teams

Western's boys and girls cross country teams had the top showings among area schools in the Maconaquah Invitational Saturday, each placing fourth. There were 17 teams in the boys race and a dozen in the girls race.

Noblesville won the girls meet with a sizzling score of 18, followed by Warren Central (65), Indianapolis Cathedral (84), Western (148), Eastern (149), Northwestern (151) and Maconaquah in seventh (160). Kokomo (245) was ninth, Peru (235) was llth and Tipton (255) was 12th.

The Panthers were tightly bunched in placing fourth. Cori-anne Myer was 24th (21:55), Krissy Durr was 25th (22:00), Kayla Gaskins was 27th (22:05), Erin Weber was 41st (22:58) and Bre Nicholas was 47th (23:16).

"I thought they did a really nice job," Western coach Bo Britton said. The race had "a lot of good competition there and just about every one of them ran season bests. [I was] especially glad to see Kayla running a strong race, coming back from her injury."

Eastern was just a point behind, led by the purposeful running of twin freshmen Bethany and Brittany Neeley. Bethany took fifth (19:42) and Brittany was seventh (20:14).

'We had a strong 1-2 punch again with the Neeley twins," Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. "I thought Bethany especially did a super job of closing. She was moving faster than anybody, within 10 seconds of the winner and closing hard. I think if she'd had another quarter mile she'd have been able to take it all.

"Five out of our six girls had personal bests for the season and Lindsey Reprogle [who was 43rd], came on strong for us. She passed a whole pack of .girls in the last 800 meters that really helped us."

Heidi Freeman led Northwestern, taking 17th (21:11), and Lauren Dewhurst was 21st (21:46). "We raced very well," NW coach Dave Stevens said. "Out of the girls that ran, we had six personal bests and a season best. I was very pleased with that/"

Kimmy Lane took 18th (21:15) to lead Maconaquah. Kellie Miles took 28th (22:09) to lead Kokomo.

"We're hurt and we're sick -we're lucky to have five girls finish," Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. "We're trying to get healthy by tournament time."

Noblesville's Rachel Kacer set a course record, finishing first in 19:32.

BOYS RACE

Noblesville won the toys race as well, posting an unassailable score of 21. Warren Central was second (58), followed by Cathedral (114), Western (135), Maconaquah (143) and Kokomo in sixth (168). Eastern was ninth(290), Peru 12th (316), Tipton 13th (369), Northwestern 14th (371), Tri-Central 15th (388) and Taylor 16th (402).

Western's Austin Young was the top finisher among locals, taking 10th (16:51). Also for Western, Chris Love was 20th (17:26), John Capps was 28th (17:46), Kody Harmon was 38th (18:00) and Christopher Nunan was 39th in the same time (18:00).

"I think some of my guys were a little disappointed in how they ran, but I'm not," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "We're probably running on tired legs. We've had two meets in five days and we had a hard workout on Thursday, but I still think we ran about where we should have been.

"I tell my guys, rankings don't mean a whole lot. The important thing is what happens in the first week of October when we have conference, then sectional and regional. We've got a long way to go, but we're starting to take steps in reaching our goals."

The Braves were led by Jacob Bingham, who was 16th (17:15), followed by Austin Wise (26th, 17:41) and Bryce Comp (27th, 17:44).

Dylan Walker placed 15th to lead Kokomo (17:13), while teammate Adrian Glover was 24th (17:35). "Our guys are slowly improving," Kat skipper Stucker said. "We're kind of on schedule, trying to get a little bit closer to Maconaquah and Western for tournament time."

Ryan Homer led Eastern, taking 17th in 17:17.

"I thought Ryan did an excellent job up front there," Eastern's Mink said. "We got him right where he wanted to be. He really had a strong finish. He had a personal best, actually all five of our guys had personal bests for the season. We just had a very strong finish and I am impressed with that." Peru was led by Shannon Garretson in 44th (18:25).

"I don't think we ran to dur potential," Peru coach Gary Downing said. "We could be better. It was also a preview for the MIC conference meet. Western, Maconaquah, Hamilton Heights and Eastern were ahead of us. We have to work harder to try be right there in the conference."

Northwestern was led by Sam Freeman in 40th (18:02).

"I was pleased with the races for the boys," Northwestern's Stevens said. "We had two personal bests and two season bests so once again the boys are showing steady improvement each meet." And Taylor was led by Julian Nieto in 55th (19:03).

"It was [Kris] Workman's first eligible meet," Carlile said of his runner who took 70th. "I was quite impressed with his time being 20 minutes for his first meet. We are focused on the end of the year, because we want to be good in the MIC and sectional. We need to peak at the right time."

Logansport's Kyle Overway blitzed the-field in a course-record time of 16:08 to take first individually.