Northwestern, Eastern girls, Western, Mac boys compete at New Prairie Saturday

Kokomo Tribune - Friday, October 23, 2009

This hasn’t been quite the season everyone around the Northwestern girls cross country team had hoped for.

With a solid nucleus from 2008’s semistate qualifying team, the first in five years, and the addition of freshman Heidi Freeman, the Tigers believed they might be the team in 2009 to finally end Western’s dominance.

Instead, due to illness that swept throughout county schools and an injury to a key returnee, Northwestern saw upstart Eastern capture coveted conference and sectional championships and steal the limelight.

The Tigers, though, recovered in time to finish second at sectional and fourth at last Saturday’s Culver Academies Regional to earn a spot once again in this Saturday’s New Prairie Semistate.

Races begin at 11:30 a.m. local time. The top six boys and girls teams, as well as the top 15 individuals in each race, advance to the state finals Oct. 31 in Terre Haute.

“It kind of gave us a second season, if you know what I mean,” said coach Dave Stevens, whose Northwestern girls were 18th out of 20 teams a year ago at New Prairie.

“We had set our goals early for another trip to semistate and they fought their way through the season and we’ve accomplished that. We’re looking forward to seeing if we can do better than last year.”

Joining the Tigers Saturday will be the Comets’ girls team, along with the boys teams from Maconaquah and Western. Individually, Kokomo’s Adrian Glover and Eastern’s Ryan Horner will also toe the line, as will Maconaquah’s Kim Lane.

Junior Hannah Ault led Northwestern earlier this season at the New Prairie Invitational while Freeman responded by leading the Tigers with second-, fourth- and sixth-place finishes respectively at conference, sectional and regional.

Junior Gretchen Catron, who was in a cast-like walking boot at the Mid-Indiana Conference meet Oct. 6, has since returned to provide a spark.

“Gretchen’s leg is as good as it’s going to be,” Stevens said. “We don’t have time to train it and get her back to full speed, so she’s just going to have to gut out another race.”

No. 10-ranked Lake Central is the defending semistate champion while No. 8 Valparaiso is the highest of six teams ranked in the top 25 statewide.

Stevens said all seven of his girls are focused on giving their best effort Saturday. “They know the course and what to look for, which is a tremendous advantage,” he said. “We go to several big meets and try to get ourselves in that kind of competition, but it’s still hard to train for when you go up [to semistate] and have all those ranked teams and elite runners.”

The Comets’ rise has been nothing short of meteoric, thanks in large part to the contributions of freshmen twins Bethany and Brittany Neeley and classmate Sarah Wagner.

Bethany Neeley has been the unquestioned leader. She won the individual conference and sectional titles as Eastern won those events for the first time ever.

She finished third at regional last Saturday while Brittany surged to fourth place overall. The Comets were third as a team.

“They are going to be rested and eager to prove themselves against some of the best in the state,” coach Brandon Mink said of the twins, adding that oftentimes the perception of their success is mistaken.

“People sometimes think they’re just very gifted, but they both put in [more than] 400 miles during the summer, and that’s very rare for an incoming freshman,” said Mink. “It’s not just incredible genetics. They work their tails off.” Eastern will be without one of two seniors on the team. Lindsey Reprogle has a prior commitment and won’t run Saturday. “We’re just eager to get up there,” said Mink. “It’s a lot to ask them to step up and make it to the next level as a team. We want to do the best we can and enjoy the experience.”

Boys race

Western senior Austin Young has perhaps the best chance of anybody locally of advancing. He has the experience on the course and he’s rounding into his prime.

A year ago Young’s teammate, then senior Corey Scott, finished seventh at New Prairie to punch his ticket downstate. Young was seventh last week at regional.

“After taking a couple days off [this week] he said, ‘I feel so much better. I’ve got pop in my legs again,’” said Panthers coach Gary Jewell. “If he brings that in on Saturday, he’s got a realistic shot of being in the top 15.

“He wants to leave everything on the course, which is great, just as long as he doesn’t leave everything on the course after the first mile. Then it ends up being a death march those last two miles.”

Young is one of four Western boys with semistate experience, including Chris Love, Kody Harmon and Ben Bradshaw. The Panthers finished seventh a year ago, just 10 points shy of sixth place.

The Braves have six runners returning to New Prairie from the team that was 16th a year ago, and they’re all just juniors this season.

Maconaquah was third at regional after winning both conference and sectional championships.

“That [semistate experience] is a big thing,” coach Jeff Bingham says. “Everyone up there is fast, so it’s kind of an eye-opener when you go up there for the first time. I’m glad we’re through that and we can go up and maybe do better than we did [last Saturday].”