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RUSSIAVILLE — The much-heralded arrival of the Neeley Twins at Eastern High School officially reached seismic proportions Tuesday as the Comets did something at Oakbrook Valley never before accomplished in team history — win a Mid-Indiana Conference girls cross country championship.
Freshman Bethany Neeley cruised to a time of 19 minutes, 57 seconds to claim the individual title, 45 seconds ahead of runner-up Northwestern’s Heidi Freeman (20:42).
Finishing fourth for Eastern was another freshman, Sarah Wagner, in 20:57, followed in fifth by Bethany’s twin sister, Brittany, in 21:03. Senior Lindsey Reprogle (22:17) was 14th and Emily Wilcox (22:46) was 21st.
Not only was it a first-ever MIC title, but the victory also unseated three-time defending champion Western, the area’s benchmark for success in recent years.
“Everybody pulled their weight,” Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. “We’ve been talking all year about the opportunity [the girls] have and it doesn’t come around very often.
“Lindsey Reprogle came on strong right from the start [of the race] and I think that was the attitude of the whole team. Nobody was going to hand it to them. They went for it and just ran their hearts out.”
The Panthers finished third with 81 points behind Eastern (45) and a surprising Lewis Cass (71). Northwestern (82) was fourth, Maconaquah (101) fifth, Hamilton Heights (145) sixth and Peru (154) seventh.
Bethany Neeley led much of the race after having missed the Howard County meet Saturday with a sprained ankle. She said the 5,000-meter Oakbrook course was made even tougher by wind and muddy conditions.
“I’ve worked out here but never ran it besides middle school,” Neeley said. “I tried to stay with my twin sister, Brittany, until the mile and I felt great. After that I just tried to keep on going. It was all mental.
“Oh, it was hard with the weather. I just kept on going because I knew our team had a chance of winning. We have really high goals.”
Mink just smiled for a moment while contemplating the importance of having the two Neeleys and Wagner.
“Those three coming in … we knew they were going to have an instant impact and we’re tickled to have them. They’re all great girls and very coachable. It’s a coach’s dream, really,” he said.
“It makes such a difference, just being in the mix. It makes you so much more aggressive and gives you that desire to push a little bit further, a little bit harder. Those freshmen have just added fuel to the fire and hopefully we can keep it stoked for the rest of the season and beyond.”
Youth certainly was served Tuesday. Besides the Neeleys and Wagner, Freeman is also a freshman, making four of the top five ninth-graders, with only Maconaquah senior Kimmy Lane (20:54) sandwiched between in third place.
“Heidi just runs stronger and stronger every meet and that’s great,” Purple Tigers coach Dave Stevens said. “She keeps improving and has real potential.”
Another freshman, Jenna Yeakley (22:01) of Lewis Cass was 10th and among the top 15 to finish all-conference. She teamed with Ashley Baber (9th), Hannah Johnson (11th), Sharaya Woodmansee (17th) and Megan Sullivan (24th) to represent the Kings’ top five runners.
Baber (21:52), Yeakley and Johnson (22:04) were all within 12 seconds of one another, with Woodmansee and Sullivan less than a minute behind.
“We’ve worked really hard on that and tried to instill in them that is what you need to do — to keep pushing each other all the time and keep running together,” said Cass coach Joyce Bower. “We’re very excited. We’ve had an awesome year so far and we have a great bunch of girls running.”
Western was led by Corianne Myer (21:44) in seventh place with Krissy Durr (21:50) eighth, Kayla Gaskins (22:05) 12th, Erin Weber (23:14) 26th and Kelsey Durr (23:29) 28th.
“I’m pleased with [our finish] and I’ve just been real proud of the girls with all the injuries and illnesses,” Panthers coach Bo Britton said. “Northwestern, if they had been healthy [Tuesday], they probably would have gotten us too.
“I’m real happy for Eastern. They deserve it. They’ve had a long dry spell over there. There’s just so much parity in the county this year and it’s a good thing.”
Hannah Ault (21:11) ran sixth for the Purple Tigers, who are without Gretchen Catron, still sidelined with an acute stress fracture but walking with a boot Tuesday. Brittany Jocius (22:09) was 13th, Lauren Dewhurst (22:56) was 23rd and Allie Combs (26:50) was 38th.
“It’s been a tough week for us, fighting the flu, but they all ran as hard as they could [Tuesday],” said Stevens. “I’m looking forward to having another week to get healthy.
“Our Nos. 3 and 4 runners is where we’ve had the flu a little bit. We’ll be a lot faster when both of them are feeling better. All in all, I’m proud of all the girls who ran [Tuesday].” |
