Cross country: Powerful Panthers lead local squads

Kokomo Tribune - Tuesday, August 14, 2012

— Western is ready to set the pace in Howard County boys cross country. The Panthers return semistate qualifier Matt Grider and a strong supporting cast.

Northwestern and Eastern have reasons for optimism, too. The Tigers feature a strong junior class and the Comets return a pair of semistate qualifiers in Adam Schaaf and Lewis Duke.

Kokomo and Taylor, meanwhile, are rebuilding following the graduations of key runners.

The following are capsule looks at the five teams, in order of their 2011 sectional finishes.

Western

Excitement is running high in the Panthers’ camp, which shows 24 runners — up from 15 last year. There are a dozen new runners in camp.

“We have a lot of kids,” coach Gary Jewell said.

Now a junior, Grider will lead the Panthers. Last year, he won the Logansport Sectional in a time of 16:51.49. He went on to finish third in the Culver Academies Regional and 24th in the New Prairie Semistate.

“Everybody knows all about Matt,” Jewell said, noting Grider reached the state track finals in the 3,200 and then had a strong summer. “I think he’s going to be one of the top guys in our semistate.”

Jewell is looking at senior Riley Worl for his No. 2 spot. Worl played soccer for three years before switching sports this year.

“He’s actually been training with us since last October,” Jewell said. “He is a tremendous asset to our team. I love his work ethic.”

Juniors Jake Bradshaw and Austin Elliott round out the Panthers’ top four.

“Our top four is looking pretty solid,” Jewell said. “Right now, our biggest question mark is who’s going to be fifth man.”

Panther leader: Western’s Matt Grider is one of the area’s top runners heading into the boy’s cross country season. The junior was a semistate qualifier last year and also reached state in track. He sets the pace for a Panther squad that hopes to make a deep run in the state tournament.

The candidates for the Nos. 5, 6 and 7 spots include senior Braxton Bagwell, juniors Mark Boss and Cesar Terron and sophomores Riley Carter, Auston Davenport and Caleb Maddox.

Last year, Western finished third in the sectional and sixth in the regional. This year, Western hopes to challenge for the sectional title and a top-five finish at the regional. The top five teams advance to the semistate.

“I think we have a reasonably good shot to win the sectional,” Jewell said. “With the re-configuration of the state tournament, we should be in the semistate.”

Oak Hill and Madison-Grant are out of the Logansport Sectional, replaced by Carroll and Winamac. Oak Hill was the 2011 runner-up. Jewell noted the Culver Academies Regional is toughened by the addition of 2011 state finalist Warsaw.

Western opens Thursday at the Northwestern Combo.

Northwestern

The Purple Tigers return a nice core of runners from a squad that finished fourth in the sectional and eighth in the regional last year.

“We have 10 guys in camp this year. We were hoping for a little bigger team … but these are kids who want to run, they like to run, and they’re looking forward to it. And, they as a team have already started talking about what they want to do,” coach Dave Stevens said.

“Going to regional last year was exciting for them. We hadn’t been for a long time. Now. they want to take that trip up north to New Prairie [for semistate].”

Stevens’ squad is led by three juniors — Charlie Neher, Andrew Fackler and Zach Duranto. Neher had an 11th-place finish in the sectional last year.

“Any given practice, one of those three guys leads,” Stevens said. “They change places depending on what style of practice. They perform well in every practice, but one will lead one day, the next day a different one will lead and the third day, sure enough, here comes the third guy. That is tremendous. They are really pushing each other.”

Senior Bradley Jakes, juniors Shad Jakes and Logan Redman and sophomore Taylor McLane likely will fill the Nos. 4-7 spots with juniors Josh Garner and Sean Witter and freshman Owen Munson pushing for spots, too.

The Tigers kick off their season Thursday, hosting their 50th annual Combo races.

Kokomo

The Wildkats finished fifth in the 2011 sectional, taking the last regional qualifying spot. Veteran coach Ricke Stucker notes his squad will need to work hard to reach the regional again this year.

“We have 11 kids out right now and five lettermen back, but none of them ran miles or meets this summer and Western, Logansport and Northwestern all did,” he said. “It’s going to take us a while. If we stay healthy, we might compete for the fifth spot in the sectional.”

The Kats are led by seniors Waylon Coulter and Brent Noll and juniors Jeremy Breedlove, Jordan Fivecoate and Josh Revils. Breedlove likely will run No. 1.

Senior Jake McMain is running cross country for the first time. The roster also shows junior Ryan Tragesser and freshmen Logan Hawk, Ethan Sharp and Conner Wood.

“It’s going to take us a while to get into shape, although we had our time trial on Saturday and ran a little better than I thought we would,” Stucker said.

Kokomo opens Saturday at the Huntington North Invitational.

Eastern

The Comets are hoping to move up at least one spot in the sectional following a sixth-place finish in 2011. The top five teams advance to the regional.

“As a team, if everyone is healthy as we’re building up, I really do think we have the potential to do pretty well in our sectional,” coach Brandon Mink said. “I think we can advance to the regional if we perform up to what I think we’re capable of. Hopefully once again, we’ll get at least a couple guys if not more onto the semistate.

“I think we’ll be a little bit better than last year. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”

The Comets are led by Schaaf, who is a senior, and Duke, who is a junior.

Last year, Schaaf was fifth in the sectional, 12th in the regional and 68th in the semistate. Duke was ninth in the sectional, 14th in the regional and 107th in the semistate.

“They’ve been running really strong this summer and putting in a lot of miles. They’ve upped what they’ve done in the past,” Mink said.

The Comets have one other returning runner, sophomore Kevin Zhang. Mink noted he showed good improvement during the spring track season.

The other runners in camp are senior Sam Higdon and freshman Trevor Buchanon.

Higdon is a move-in from Mount Vernon.

“He has had some good success in the past,” Mink said, noting Higdon ran for a good program. “He has good potential, we just need to get some mileage on him. He’ll probably be our No. 3 and hopefully he’ll be closing the gap on Adam and Lewis by the end of the season and get close to where they’re at. He has that type of potential.”

Eastern opened Tuesday at Oak Hill.

Taylor

The Titans have to replace their top two runners from last year.

“We have a young team, only two of them with race experience, so the other guys are just learning,” coach Matt Carlile said. “It’s looking like it’s going to be a nice core group that will be back next year. We’ve been a little low on numbers the last few years so we’d like to build the program.”

Sophomores Stephen Sholty and Jordan Nieto are the runners back from last year. Carlile noted Sholty is the likely the No. 1 runner.

The newcomers are senior Daulton Arvin, junior Alex Guy, sophomore Nick Denman and freshman Jade Barr.

“The two with race experience, they have goals for what they want to see happen this year. The other kids don’t know what to expect yet, but once they get a couple races, we’ll get some goals down for them,” Carlile said.

Taylor opens Thursday at the Northwestern Combo.