Local CC squads run in Mac Invitational

Twin sisters Bethany and Brittany Neeley finished 1-2 individually to lead Eastern's girls cross country squad to a fourth-place finish in the Maconaquah Invitational on Saturday.

Bethany Neeley covered the course in 19:40 and Brittany had a time of 19:55.

"Bethany ran a good race and she tied her personal-best time," Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. "Brittany did an outstanding job as well. She was right there, not too far behind Bethany!"

Warren Central recorded a score of 45 to win the meet. Northwestern (83) grabbed a third-place finish, Eastern (115) followed in fourth, Western (148) was sixth and Peru was eighth.

Northwestern had a nice pack. Gretchen Catron led the way with a l0th-place finish in 21:34. Other Tiger runners included: Hannah Ault (21:48, 12th place); Heidi Freeman (21:54, 14th); Britanny Jocius (22:06,18th) and Karly Sprouse (22:38,33rd).

"It was a tremendous job by the girls," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "It was a very tight pack, and they ran within in a minute of each other. Our runners either had personal bests, course bests or season bests. I was very happy with their performance. Wr also not good support by our sixth runner [Taryn Thor] beating oilier team's fourth and fifth runners!"

Eastern's other top runners were Emily Wilcox (22:27, 28th place), Ari Renaldo (23:02,43rd) and Bailey Pressey (23:23,49th).

"As a team, we [placed] about where we [as coaches] thought we would," Mink added. " We are looking pretty good all together, ane we are closing up gaps within our team"

Western's runners were: Corianne Myer (21:02, ninth place); Krissy Durr (22:15, 22nd); Erin Weber (22:19, 24th); Bre Nicholas (22:34,32nd); and Tori Berger (25:35,70th).

Peru's top five runners were: Keyia McConahay (16th place); Taylour Kintner (29th); Emilie Hobbs (45th); Gena Fisher (47th); and Kyia Haidaczuk (72nd).

Boys race

Noblesville recorded a score of 60 in winning the 15-team meet. Maconaquah (111) and Western (122) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, Eastern (235) took eighth place, Kokomo was 10th, Peru was 11th and Northwestern (332) was 12th.

Western's top five runners were: Chris Love (16:56,11th place); MattGrider(17:13,15th); Braxton Bagwell (17:51, 27th); Kyle Starich (17:55, 30th); and Christopher Nunan (18:15, 39th).

"We have 17 guys on our team and we had 12 guys who ran personal-bests. I am pretty enthused about that," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "Some of our guys had big [time drops], some of them had small [time drops]. I think some of the guys are disappointed they're not [dropping time faster], but they will get there."

Jewell noted Grider led all freshmen in the meet.

Eastern's top five runners were: Ryan Horner (16:42, ninth place); Sam Clark (18:42, 46th); Lewis Duke (19:00, 51st); Quinn Connolly (19:31, 60th) and Luke Kimmel (19:55, 70th).

"Horner did a fantastic job of pacing," Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. "He ran with Maconaquah's Jacob Bingham for most of the race, and that pushed him. As a team, we had our fourth and fifth and even our third runners run in a pack. Also, four of our five runners had perpersonal bests."

Adrian Glover led Kokomo with a seventh-place finish. He covered the course in 16:25. The Kats' other top runners were: Brent Noll (18:42, 47th); Matt Scharenbroch (18:58,50th); Waylon Coulter (19:54, 69th); and Minh Pham (20:01, 72nd).

Peru's top five runners were: Jordan Garretson (31st place); Clint Hazlett (62nd); Tyler Kintner (63rd); Ryan Carter (73rd); and Isiaih Stevens (74th).

Northwestern's top runners were Sam Freeman (18:36, 44th); Charlie Neher (19:21, 60th); Nolan Cockrell (19:41, 65th); Logan Redman (20:22, 79th) and Zach Duranto (20:54, 86th).

"This group of boys is constantly improving every day," NW skipper Dave Stevens said. "We had 12 boys run with six setting personal bests and all the others had either course- or season-best times. They also ran three minutes faster then last year's squad."