Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, October 03, 2010

Western’s boys cross country team had a strong showing at the Howard County Meet on Saturday at Oakbrook Valley, posting a perfect score of 15 and snagging the first six spots. Northwestern followed with 49. Eastern was incomplete. Taylor does not have a squad.

Chris Love took first in 17:20 to lead the Western sweep of the first five scoring positions. Christopher Nunan was second (17:51), followed by Matt Grider (18:00), Braxton Bagwell (18:05) and Jacob Bradshaw (18:11). For good measure, Joe Whitmore took sixth for the Panthers (18:11) though his placing wasn’t needed for the team score.

“Fifteen points doesn’t happen very often, especially in our county meet,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. “I’m very proud of the way that our guys ran the race. I’m especially pleased with Joe Whitmore, my sixth man. In the last week, he’s taken more than a minute off his personal best. Jacob Bradshaw is also running very well as a freshman. He seems to be coming into his own late in the season.

“It would have been nice to have four teams there.”

Sam Freeman was seventh to lead the Purple Tigers (18:17), followed by Charlie Neher (10th, 18:48), Nolan Cockrell (12th, 19:23), Zach Duranto (13th, 19:51) and Logan Redman (14th, 20:08).

“We had several personal bests and course bests even though they ran in the last race and it got a little slippery in some spots,” NW coach Dave Stevens said.

Sam Clark led Eastern in ninth (18:36), followed by Lewis Duke (11th, 19:02), and John Lee (17th, 30:38).

Eastern wins girls meet

Eastern’s girls took three of the top four spots to race to the girls county title.

The Comets finished with a score of 29. Western was second at 41 and Northwestern was third at 50.

Eastern’s Brittany Neeley was first in 20:34 followed closely by sister Bethany Neeley in second in 20:36. Sarah Wagner was fourth in 20:57, Emily Wilcox was seventh in 21:54 and Cambry Martin was 15th in 24:22.

“We knew if we were strong through our first three especially, and through our four, that we would be pretty solid,” Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. “Brittany and Bethany kind of stayed at the front of the pack and stayed there until the final kick. They kind of bided their time till the very end there. They’re strong finishers and that’s the way they approached the race. They used their kicking ability at the very end.

PACESETTER:Western senior Chris Love, shown running in a meet last month at Oakbrook Valley, won the Howard County boys meet on Saturday on the same course. He covered the course in 17 minutes, 20 seconds. KT photo

“Sarah Wagner had her season best and did an excellent job, wasn’t too far off from the Western girl, Corianne Myer. And Cambry Martin, she’s a ninth grader and she was our fifth girl. She did a great job of nailing down that fifth spot. We had the places we wanted to get before the meet and everybody made their goals, so we were happy with the way things worked out.”

Britanny Jocius led Northwestern in fifth place (21:39). Heidi Freeman followed in eighth (21:59) with Karly Sprouse (11th, 22:30), Hannah Ault (12th, 22:54) and Olivia Price (14th, 24:07) rounding out the Northwestern scoring five.

“They ran well for the conditions,” Stevens said, noting a personal best time from Price. “We were a little shorthanded. We had one of our runners that couldn’t go and a couple others that were under the weather but all the girls that ran for me ran well and I had many course bests and personal bests.”