Sophomore-laden Western leads county pack

Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, August 15, 2010

— Six Howard County runners finished in the top 10 of the 2010 Logansport boys cross country sectional. Five of the six were seniors.

Needless to say, the local teams are all rebuilding.

Defending sectional champion Western is simply rebuilding faster than the others.

“We graduated eight seniors, but we ran three freshmen and a sophomore at sectional. So, those guys are all back,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. “And, this class of sophomores is highly talented, highly competitive and highly committed. They’re kind of buying into that ‘one team, one goal’ [idea]. They have some very high goals that they want to meet over the next three years. I’m doing my best to get them where they want to go.”

Elsewhere in the county, Northwestern also has a big sophomore class, Kokomo and Eastern are dealing with major graduation losses and Taylor is back in the game after missing last year.

The following are capsule looks at the five squads.

Western

The Panthers’ 10-member sophomore class is led by Matt Grider, who took sixth place in the 2010 sectional with a time of 17:14.2.

“He was our No. 2 guy a year ago and our top distance runner [in track]. Right now, he is about 50 seconds faster than he was at his peak a year ago. He is a year older and a year stronger. He is highly driven,” Jewell said.

Junior Braxton Bagwell, sophomore Austin Elliott and sophomore Jake Bradshaw also ran in the sectional last year.

Sophomores Abel Barrera and Cesar Terron and freshman Auston Davenport are early front-runners for spots in the Panthers’ top seven. Senior Zach Huffman is the squad’s vocal leader and the roster also shows sophomores Mark Boss, Grant Harbaugh, Adam Lyons, Asa Sheffer and Christian Workman and freshmen Riley Carter and Kaelan Moore.

“At any given time, we could have 10 guys competing for varsity spots,” Jewell said.

Jewell expects his squad will be in the mix for Mid-Indiana Conference, sectional and regional titles. The Panthers are the defending champs in the MIC as well as the sectional.

Western opens Thursday with the Northwestern Combination meet.

Kokomo

Veteran coach Ricke Stucker has to replace a pair of key cogs in his lineup.

“We graduated two of the best we’ve ever had at Kokomo High School in Adrian Glover and Dylan Walker,” Stucker said. “They were first team all-county — Adrian was No. 1 in the county — and they got third and fourth in the regional last year, and then there was a huge drop off [to the next Kokomo runner].

“We’re going to have to run in a pack this year and hope that we can get our team time down around 18:15 by sectional and if we do that, we might grab that fifth spot [the top five teams advance to regional]. But right now, we don’t have a prayer on qualifying for the regional or even getting in the top six in [the eight-team North Central Conference]. We just don’t have anyone up front.”

The Kats return four lettermen — senior Matt Scharenbroch, juniors Brent Noll and Waylon Coulter and sophomore Jeremy Breedlove. New to the team are sophomores Jordan Fivecoate and Josh Revils.

“They’re working hard,” Stucker said of his six runners. “They’re great kids and good students and we have a good time, but I don’t think we can beat anybody right now.”

Kokomo opens Saturday in the Huntington North Invitational.

“We dropped all of our dual meets. All we have are invitationals and tournament meets so we have an extra day during the week to train and we’re sure going to need it this year,” Stucker said.

Eastern

The Comets have just three runners in camp right now. Junior Adam Schaaf and sophomore Lewis Duke return from last year’s squad and senior Jason Taylor is a newcomer. Taylor splits his time between the soccer and XC teams.

“I think we can be successful if we can get a few more guys out. Certainly, it’s going to be a challenge to be where we want to be [with just three runners],” coach Brandon Mink said.

Mink noted Schaaf and Duke are ready to improve on their 2010 showings.

“They’ve been putting in a lot of mileage this summer,” he said.

The Comets open Tuesday with Oak Hill’s Hokem Karem.

Taylor

The Titans are returning to competition this year, and they have the necessary five runners needed to score in meets.

Seniors Julian Nieto and Stefon Wallace anchor the Titans’ lineup. Wallace is an XC rookie who previously played football.

“Julian has been running cross country since middle school. He is definitely running out front,” coach Matt Carlile said. “Stefon is not far behind him. He had a strong showing in track in the spring.”

Taylor’s other runners are junior Drake Yeider and freshmen Jordan Nieto and Stephen Sholte.

“The junior and the two freshmen are all pretty close, which is nice. They’re running together and they’re really fighting each other in practice, almost like a race,” Carlile said.

“[All five runners are] looking great. They’re all hard workers. They know what they need to do to get better and they’re doing it.”

Taylor opens Thursday with the Northwestern Combo.

Northwestern

Like Western, Northwestern will rely on a strong sophomore class to anchor its lineup.

“It’s one of the youngest teams I’ve had on the boys side,” coach Dave Stevens noted. “It’s funny, when we come to practice in the morning and I look across the parking lot, there are just a couple cars, yet there go a bunch of kids starting practice.

“There shouldn’t be any surprises for [the sophomores] because a lot of them have been through this once, they know what it’s like and they know how hard you have to work. And I’m seeing it — they’re working hard in practice.”

The sophomore class is led by Charlie Neher, Zach Duranto and Shad Jakes. Neher likely will run No. 1 and Duranto and Jakes project in the top five.

The sophomore class also includes Logan Redman, Andrew Fackler and Josh Garner. Redman ran in the sectional last year. Fackler is a transfer whose eligibility may be limited to just the JV team this year, but Stevens noted he is a strong runner who is pushing Neher in practice.

The roster also shows seniors Kyle Condon, Jacob Heredos and Tyler Barnes, juniors Bradley Jakes and Jamie McLane and freshman Tyler Hudson. Condon and Heredos ran in the sectional year. Barnes is a newcomer to the sport.

Condon and Bradley Jakes are early candidates for spots in the Tigers’ top five.

Northwestern kicks off its season Thursday with its annual Combination meet.