Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, October 25, 2009

There’s another week remaining until the IHSAA cross country tournament culminates with the state finals in Terre Haute, but the end of the trail for area runners came with Saturday’s New Prairie Semistate.

All four local teams finished below the required sixth place to advance, and no individuals claimed a top-15 qualifying spot as showers and chilly temperatures made the New Prairie High School course more miserable than usual.

“Cold and wet” was the refrain from more than one coach in response to the greeting, “How’re you doing?”

“We left almost even before the girls race was done,” said Western boys coach Gary Jewell, whose Panthers were 14th with 363 points. Their best finisher was senior Austin Young, who was 42nd in 17:15.4.

Also for Western, Chris Love (17:20.8) was 47th, Kody Harmon (18:11.7) 106th, Braxton Bagwell (18:17.5) 110th and Ben Bradshaw (18:39.9) 124th overall.

“We didn’t run that badly,” Jewell said. “When we got up there it was 39 degrees with a 20-degree wind-chill factor. It was not necessarily a great day to run.

“Some kids revel in it and some kids are like, ‘I’m cold, I’m wet. I want to go home.’ All in all, I’ll take 14th.”

Maconaquah’s boys wound up 10th with 281 points, 99 behind sixth-place Valparaiso, after losing a sixth-man tie-breaker with ninth-place Northfield.

No. 5-ranked Chesterton won the title with just 40 points, led by race winner

David Osborn (15:35.8).

Jacob Bingham led the Braves with a 21st-place finish in 16:53.7. Chad Gregory (17:27.5) was 54th with Zac Butts (17:36.9) 71st, Bryce Comp (17:54.9) 91st and Austin Wise (18:06.4) 102nd.

All five, plus Devin Shaffer (139th), are juniors. Jewell pointed to them as a roadmap for his team in the coming years.

“I’ve got some good quality runners coming out of the junior-high program next year,” he said. “These guys like to run and they like to race.

“We’re going to take some lumps early, but Maconaquah was in that same place two years ago and look at them now. Next year I expect [the Braves] to be at the state meet. They are getting better and better, and that’s what I expect out of my guys.”

Eastern junior Ryan Horner completed his first semistate, placing 45th in 17:18.0.

“Ryan had a really good experience [Saturday],” said coach Brandon Mink. “He was all smiles after the race and said it was the most fun he’d had all year. That’s what we wanted him to do was have a positive experience.”

Another county runner, Kokomo’s Adrian Glover, unfortunately didn’t even make it out of bed Saturday.

Glover, like so many athletes and students this fall, fell victim to whatever flu strain is sweeping through hallways and locker rooms.

“He wanted to go but we decided it would be better for him to stay home and get over this,” Kats coach Ricke Stucker said. “What a season around here with the flu! I’ve never seen illness affect things this bad.”

Girls race

The Eastern girls’ Cinderella season ended Saturday as the Comets (414) finished 19th.

It was their first-ever semistate run after having garnered other firsts in conference and sectional races.

No. 11 Crown Point won the race with 76 points.

“This was all just about having the experience of running in a competition this big,” said Mink. “Everybody enjoyed themselves in spite of the weather.”

Freshman Bethany Neeley once again paced the Comets, although her goal of a top-15 finish went unrealized. She faded to 42nd in 20:43.5.

“She knew that to have any shot at the top 15 she needed to get out and press early, which she did, and at one point was up to 18th place,” Mink said. “But she ran out of gas a little bit.

“With a quarter of a mile left I still had her about 21st. It wasn’t where she wanted to be but she had a great season and we’re excited for the future.”

Twin sister Brittany Neeley (21:29.3) was 79th, classmate Sarah Wagner (21:29.8) a shade behind in 80th, junior Emily Wilcox (23:05.4) 119th and senior Alyssa Summers (26:52.0) 143rd.

Mink said his trio of young guns have a head start, “just knowing what to expect” next season.

“Now they’ve been around the block and know there’s going to be bunches of girls that are of their ability,” said Mink. “There’s not a lot of new things they need to do. It’s just more of the same and the experience of how to race.”

Northwestern finished 20th with 502 points. Freshman Heidi Freeman (21:33.6) led the effort in 85th place.

“It rained on us pretty much the entire time and the course was nice and muddy,” said Tigers coach Dave Stevens. “We ran as hard as we could go for what the conditions were.

“I didn’t see any chance of us setting any [personal-bests] because of the footing. I’m almost afraid to see some of their times.”

Hannah Ault (21:52.4) was 90th, Brittany Jocius (22:32.9) 110th, Gretchen Catron (24:01.6) 132nd and Elise Cobb (25:09.7) 139th.

Maconaquah senior Kim Lane was 49th overall in the girls race with a time of 20:54.7.