Kokomo Tribune - Wednesday, October 14, 2009

LOGANSPORT — After their outstanding performance in winning the team’s first Mid-Indiana Conference championship eight days ago, about the only thing standing in the way of the Eastern girls duplicating that feat and capturing a first-ever sectional title was how would they deal with the pressure.

Well, led by three very impressive freshmen, the Comets passed the test Tuesday at the Logansport Sectional with flying colors.

With freshman Bethany Neeley winning the race in 19 minutes, 58.8 seconds, her twin sister, Brittany, finishing in fifth place in 20:38.8 and classmate Sarah Wagner eighth in 21:01.6, Eastern claimed a 69-81 victory over runner-up Northwestern.

Oak Hill (88) was third with Lewis Cass (91) fourth and defending champion Western (99) fifth. Those five teams and the top 15 individuals all advance to the Culver Academies Regional on Saturday.

“I’m just pleased as can be with the girls,” said an overwhelmed Comets coach Brandon Mink, whose boys also will make the trip northward as a team. For the girls, it’s their first regional berth since 2002.

“We had those three freshmen coming up, and with no experience on this course ever, and coming out and never having been on this big a stage, they handled the pressure very well.”

Bethany Neeley ran nearly identical to her winning conference time of 19:57, knocking off defending champ Jenna Norris of Oak Hill by almost 19 seconds.

“It feels great — awesome. I’m so happy,” Bethany Neeley said. “I was just going to try and stay the same pace. I didn’t want to feel like at MIC when I felt really bad. I just felt great. I was striding out and didn’t look back.

“I was just thinking about [winning a sectional championship] all day and I feel great now. We’ve been working all season. This is all we worked for.”

Eastern’s critical fourth and fifth markers were senior Lindsey Reprogle (22:27.6) in 28th place and junior Emily Wilcox (22:27.9) in 29th.

“The last mile for several of our girls was just outstanding,” Mink said. “Our [Nos.] 4-5 were key for us, Lindsey Reprogle and Emily Wilcox. They were right at that point [of the finish] where there were a lot of girls and a lot of points, and they hung in there.”

The Purple Tigers acquitted themselves after a sub-par conference showing of fourth place. They received a shot in the arm by the return of Gretchen Catron from a stress fracture. And while she finished only 44th overall and sixth for Northwestern, she helped Elise Cobb (23:15.1) finish 41st.

Freshman Heidi Freeman again led the Purple Tigers. She was fourth in 20:27.8. Junior Hannah Ault (21:01.8) was ninth after running third for the first half of the race; Brittany Jocius (21:22.2) was 13th and Lauren Dewhurst (21:57.0) 18th.

“Top to bottom [all seven girls] came out and proved a point,” Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. “After conference the girls were a little disappointed with their efforts and I was disappointed with my effort. We weren’t ready to run, but they came out [Tuesday] ready to run and run well.

“Hannah ran a wonderful race. I think it’s better for Hannah to run from the front. She’s a strong athlete and that’s where she needs to be. She’s been looking forward all year to having a race like this.”

The Panthers saw their streak of six straight sectional titles come to an end, but nevertheless saw their season extended until Saturday.

Corianne Myer (21:37.3) was Western’s top finisher in 15th place, followed by Krissy Durr (21:57.7) 19th, Kayla Gaskins (21:59.8) 21st, Erin Weber (22:11.6) 24th and Bre Nicholas (22:12.7) 25th.

“We stayed together close enough. It was a good pack, but I would have liked to have seen a couple more up higher. We’ll work on that for Saturday,” said Western coach Bo Britton. “Our top four have been real consistent all year.”

The Kings were paced by Ashley Baber, who was seventh in 20:45.0. Jenna Yeakley (21:29.0) was 14th, Sharaya Woodmansee (21:59.5) 20th, Hannah Johnson (22:06.3) 23rd and Breanne Robertson (22:35.2) 31st.

Area teams falling below the cut included Maconaquah (105) in sixth place, Kokomo (191) eighth and Peru (203) ninth.

Locally, the Wildkats’ Kellie Miles finished 12th in 21:09.7 to punch her ticket to Saturday’s regional and Maconaquah’s Kim Lane was third in 20:24.5.

“I felt pretty good about my race,” Miles said. “I wish I would had paced it better to take some more time off. I improved by two seconds from my best time, so I’m happy with it and still looking to improve more at regional.”