And then there was one.

Eastern sophomore Bethany Neeley was the lone Howard County athlete to survive Saturday’s IHSAA New Prairie Semistate, and one of only three area runners, including Maconaquah’s Jacob Bingham and Carroll’s Blake Mills.

Bingham was 10th and Mills 15th in the boys event.

The top six teams as well as the top 15 finishers in both races advance to the state finals next Saturday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.

Neeley crossed the finish line at New Prairie in 12th place with a time of 19 minutes, 4.4 seconds.

Former Western Middle School runner Waverly Neer, a Culver Academies senior, captured the individual title in 17:53.9, a New Prairie Semistate 5K record for girls.

“The girls are excited for Bethany,” coach Brandon Mink said of Neeley, who became the first Lady Comet to qualify for state and just the second ever from Eastern after Tony Martin in 2004.

“I was a little bit nervous,” added Mink. “[The race pace] went out really fast and she was right at 15th somewhere after the [first] mile. Jenna Norris from Oak Hill [who was 16th] deserves a lot of praise. She ran outstanding and was with Bethany for most of the race.

“[Bethany] always has a strong kick at the end and the last quarter mile was able to move up from where she was.”

The Comets placed eighth as a team Saturday, well above their 19th place a year ago while competing in their first-ever semistate.

Sophomore Brittany Neeley was 26th overall in 19:37.2 with classmate Sarah Wagner (20:32.9) 53rd, senior Emily Wilcox (21:17.2) 93rd and freshman Ari Rinaldo (22:25.9) 123rd.

“We’re still trying to crack that top six,” Mink said. “We weren’t too far off our normal times, but it was very competitive. We still need a little more experience with big races like this so that hopefully we can get over that hurdle next year.

“These girls have high goals. They make me a believer. ... They are so positive in what goals they have and they work hard to get there.”

Northwestern junior Britanny Jocius finished 92nd in 21:13.0 and senior Hannah Ault was 102nd in 21:39.7.

“I have no problem with those times,” said Tigers coach Dave Stevens. “Those are close to course-bests for them.

“I was proud of their performance [Saturday]. We told them it was going to be fast and it was.”

Ault and classmate Gretchen Catron, who was injured helping the team finish third at the Logansport Sectional, led Northwestern to four straight regional appearances during their careers and two semistates in 2008 and 2009.

“Hannah’s and Gretchen’s leadership will last for years,” Stevens said. “Those girls gave me four years of a coach’s dream. For the young girls that were watching them [Saturday], it’s hard for a coach to create that.”

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Boys race

Western’s boys, after finishing third in the Culver Academies Regional, were 13th Saturday at New Prairie.

“I actually thought we ran pretty well,” Panthers coach Gary Jewell said. “We did better than what we were expected to do. We were only eight points out of 11th, and our cumulative time was better than the two teams ahead of us.

“We accomplished everything that we set out to accomplish. I’m pleased with how we did.”

Senior Chris Love was 38th overall for Western in 16:49.1, followed by freshmen Matt Grider (17:10.7) 57th and Austin Elliott (17:34.4) 85th.

“Austin is an interesting case study,” said Jewell. “Three years ago he was this round, little kid — I can’t think of a better way to put it — and he just didn’t look like a runner. Then he went on a growth spurt and decided, you know, I’m going to be a runner.

“Since we ran at the New Prairie Invitational back on Sept. 18 he dropped 52 seconds. That’s a really fast time for a freshman.”

Also for Western, senior Christopher Nunan (17:41.6) was 95th and sophomore Braxton Bagwell (17:43.9) was 99th.

Kokomo senior Adrian Glover was poised for a chance at the top 15 but dropped to 66th place and found himself on the way to a South Bend emergency ward.

“He was up to 16th and, then all of a sudden, his legs went to jelly and he went down,” Kats coach Ricke Stucker said of Glover, who finished in 17:18.9. “I’ve never seen anything quite like that before.

“He was 19th at the 3,200 [marker] and moved up to 16th with about an 800 to go, then he doesn’t remember what happened. He just [blanked] out.”

Classmate Dylan Walker was 26th in 16:39.7. Mills’ cutoff time for 15th place was 16:07.6.

Logansport senior Kyle Overway cruised to victory in 15:30.6.

“Dylan Walker ran well for us,” said Stucker. “We were happy for him. Those two should have pretty good track seasons, so we’ll figure out what happened [to Glover] and try to correct that.”

Eastern senior Ryan Horner capped his cross country career with a 39th-place finish in 16:49.1.