Western takes third; Eastern girls earn runner-up finish

Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, October 17, 2010

CULVER — The Maconaquah boys cross country team captured its first regional championship since 1991 at Culver Academies Saturday, thanks in part to a little bulletin-board material — a la “The Social Network.”

Evidently after Tuesday’s Logansport Sectional, where the Braves were the defending champions but finished a disappointing third behind Western and Logansport, there may have been a bit of trash-talking via .

Needless to say, with a few days of well-deserved rest and lots of inspiration, Maconaquah came ready to run and shaded the host Eagles 78-82, with the Panthers a point behind with 83.

Logansport was fourth with 104 and Northfield fifth with 117. Those five teams and the top 15 individuals advance to the New Prairie Semistate next Saturday.

“We had a lot of motivation this week from some different sources,” said Braves coach Melanie Bingham. Her son Jacob finished second in the race to Logan’s Kyle Overway.

“[Our guys] were just really motivated to come in here and run hard. … I can’t name a guy on our team that didn’t run well.”

A dense, chilly morning fog gave way to ideal running conditions. The times were fast and the competition stiff.

In the girls race Culver Academies edged Eastern by a mere point, 52-53, as Western Middle School product Waverly Neer snapped the regional record for the Eagles, just half a second off the course record in 17:53.9.

Overway, like Neer a senior running the course for the final time, crossed the finish in 15:45.5, a couple seconds off the regional record.

The Braves got a big boost from Bryce Comp, who finished 18th after he was 39th at sectional.

“We stuck with the plan,” coach Jeff Bingham said. “The big difference is we backed some kids off just to get them healthier than they have been for sectional. That obviously paid off for us. They came and ran healthy and ran well, especially Bryce Comp.”

Also for Maconaquah, Austin Wise was 14th, Zac Butts 21st and Chad Gregory 34th.

“I am very good with Maconaquah winning this,” said Panthers coach Gary Jewell, who also said he cautions his team about what they post on the Internet. “They are a very capable team that has just suffered through some injuries.”

Western’s fate was been sealed when front-running senior Chris Love injured himself midway through the race, crossing the 1-mile marker in fifth but finishing the 5K race in 13th place, 11th in the team standings.

The Panthers were led by freshman Matt Grider in ninth, with Braxton Bagwell 20th, Austin Elliott 25th and Christopher Nunan 26th.

“That’s six points in a five-point game,” Jewell said of Love’s finish. “I know how badly he feels about that right now but that’s happened before. It does prove that [sectional] win Tuesday was no fluke.

“If you had looked at the teams coming in here, coming back from last year, and said Western is going to win a sectional and go after a regional championship, I don’t think anyone would have said that.”

Kokomo seniors Adrian Glover and Dylan Walker placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in 16:40.2 and 16:41.6. They advance to semistate without the Kats, who were eighth with 172 points.

“Dylan really ran well,” Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. “Adrian didn’t run really very well at all but he’s strong enough to make it through anyway. He’ll have to run better next week if he wants to have a shot to get out.”

Eastern senior Ryan Horner earned another semistate trip with a seventh-place finish in 16:54.2. He’s been on the mend of late.

“I was really worried after sectional because I only finished ninth,” said Horner. “So finishing seventh here was really great.

“I had to take some time off earlier in the season and the last time I was under 17 [minutes] was right here, so I was happy to finally get back up there.”

Girls

Still a very young team with just one senior, the Comets will have all year to contemplate what would have been their first-ever regional crown.

“The girls are disappointed, obviously, missing by one point, but I’m not disappointed at all in their performance,” Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. “They really ran well.”

Sophomore twins Bethany and Brittany Neeley placed second and third for the Comets in 19:08.4 and 19:37.9, respectively.

Not far behind was classmate Sarah Wagner in ninth place, followed by senior Emily Wilcox 19th and freshman Ari Rinaldo 26th.

“Ari and Emily both ran PRs and a couple others were really close,” said Mink. “They did about everything they could and hats off to Culver Academy. One place here or there makes a huge difference.

“We’re looking forward to seeing how the whole team does next week. We should at least be in the conversation [of the top six teams that to state].”

Although their Tigers finished seventh as a team with 154 points, Northwestern senior Hannah Ault and sophomore Britanny Jocius both advanced to semistate with their 13th- and 14th-place finishes, respectively.

For Ault, who struggled to finish 22nd in 22:23 at the Mid-Indiana Conference meet on Oct. 5, her time Saturday of 20:36.4 earned her a third straight semistate berth.

“In Hannah’s case [the improvement] is a couple things,” explained coach Dave Stevens. “One is sheer will. She’s willed herself to do this. I congratulated her at [a recent] meet about how much she had helped the team and she said she was sick of [running] 22s.

“The second thing is I think we came across a situation where we could help her between races and after workouts, maybe we weren’t doing as well with cool-downs and some therapy. I think it’s helped her a ton. Maybe we’ve uncovered something that’s going to help her go even faster at semistate.”

Western’s girls ended their season with an eighth-place finish with 181 points. Junior Krissy Durr just missed qualifying for semistate, finishing 16th in 20:54.1.

“We were kind of split in half,” said Panthers coach Joni McCracken. “We had some PRs and then had some girls who were disappointed with how they performed.

“We wanted to be higher as a team but we ended the season a lot better than had we ended it [Tuesday at sectional]. I’m happy with where they are.”