Local squads run in Mac meet

Noblesville's cross country team won the boys side of the 16-team Maconaquah Invitational with a score of 60 Saturday. The Millers edged Warren Central (63) and Indianapolis Cathedral (65) for the top spot Logansport (130) was fourth, Western (168) was fifth and Kokomo (172) was sixth.

Also from the area, Tipton was ninth (283), Northwestern was 10th (284), Peru llth (314), Maconaquah 12th (320), Eastern 13th (322) and Taylor 15th (378).

Western's top five runners were: Matt Grider (fifth place, 17:02); Jacob Bradshaw (34th, 18:16); Austin Elliott (37th, 18:23); Braxton Bagwell (38th, 18:26); and Abel Barrera (54th, 19:14).

"We had a meet on Tuesday so we moved our big workout to Thursday which meant we ran on tired legs [Saturday], but everyone runs on tired legs at this point in the season. Still, our times were very close to what we ran on Tuesday at Oak Hill under favorable conditions," Western coach Gary Jewell said.

"The guy I'm most impressed with [Saturday] is Jake Bradshaw. He is buying into the program, putting forth a lot of effort in practice and as a result he dropped his time from Tuesday by 14 seconds and that's despite running with a severe case of shin splints."

Charlie Neher led Northwestern in 15th (17:44), followed by Zach Duranto 49th (19:05), Shad Jake 62nd (1954), Bradley Jakes in 70th (20:08) and Jacob Heredos in 88th (22:22).

"Charlie Neher [posted] his first time under 18 minutes and he ran a very, very good race," NW coach Dave Stevens said. "I was glad to see him run against the caliber of people that were there. It helps Charlie a lot and he was able to drop his time.

"Andrew Fackler, he placed eighth in the JV race with a personal best time of 18:35. It was Andrew's best race of the year and I was really proud to see him get in the 18s."

For the Comets, Adam Schaaf was 13th in 17:36, Lewis Duke was 43rd in 18:40, Damon Byers was 79th in 21:12, Kevin Zhang was 85th in 21:58 and Jason Taylor was 102nd in 23:30.

"Adam Schaaf did an outstanding job, dropped his time down a bit and got a PR for us," Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. 'And we had three other personal bests for the boys as well."

GIRLS RACE

Noblesville won the 11-team girls event with a score of 45. Eastern was third with 75, Northwestern was fourth (158), Maconaquah sixth (172), Peru eighth (207) and Western 10th (224).

Eastern's Bethany Neeley took first in 19:13. Brittany Neeley was third in 19:55, Avery Ewing was seventh in 20:52, Sarah Wagner was eighth in 20:56, and Camery Martin was 67th in 26:10.

"I thought we did an outstanding job," Mink said. "We had our top four in the top eight overall so that was outstanding for us as a team.

"We had some excellent finishes in particular. Bethany really opened up a huge gap. She actually put 27 seconds on the second-place girl in the last half mile. She looked very strong in that Avery Ewing did an outstanding job as a freshman coming in. Ari Rinaldo. though she was running JV she would have been in the top 15 had she ben running varsity."

Taryn Thor led Northwestern in 13th place (21:40), followed by Heidi Freeman in 24th (22:59), Karly Sprouse in 34th (23:31), Olivia Price in 44th (24:13) and Rachel Johns in 55th (25:05).

"We had a good day," Stevens said. "Four of the eight girls who ran for us set personal bests. To finish fourth against the teams that we were running against was a very good accomplishment.

"I was really happy to have Taryn back. Her 13th-place finish overall was a good thing for her, and she also set a personal best with her time."