Panthers are hungry

Grider-led Western shooting for memorable season

Kokomo Tribune - Monday, August 19, 2013

—Western’s boys cross country team won Mid-Indiana Conference and Logansport Sectional championships last year.

The Panthers are hungry for more hardware this year.

“We’re looking pretty good,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. “We have 21 guys on the roster right now, 11 of which are seniors. That’s always a good thing.

“Our team starts with Matt Grider. When you have an elite runner of his caliber, you have high expectations of what the season can bring. He proved that last spring at the state [track] meet when he ran 9:16 [in the 3,200], a new school record and seventh overall in the state meet. With 1,000 meters to go, he was leading. If he wasn’t on anyone’s radar then, he ought to be now.”

Grider is one of the Panthers’ seniors. In the 2012 cross country season, he finished second individually in the Logansport Sectional, fifth in the Culver Academies Regional and 24th in the New Prairie Semistate.

Grider leads a deep Panther squad.

“We have 11 guys who could be running in our top seven by the time we get to sectional,” Jewell said.

The Panthers also return seniors Jacob Bradshaw and Austin Elliott and juniors Auston Davenport and Caleb Maddox from their postseason lineup.

Senior Mark Boss, junior Riley Carter, sophomore Josh Scott and freshman Josh Everetts are among the runners pushing for varsity spots.

“The ones right now who are showing the most improvement from a year ago are Riley Carter and Auston Davenport,” Jewell said. “Riley broke 17:00 in a road race this summer — that’s almost 1:30 faster than what he ran last year as a previous personal best.”

Jewell noted he had several runners increase their offseason training in anticipation of a big season after the team reached the semistate level in 2012. The Panthers finished 16th.The Panthers are shooting for a top-six spot at the semistate this year. The top six teams advance to the state meet.

“There are two numbers to remember: 84 minutes and 200 points [at semistate]. That’s basically what it takes to get to the state meet,” Jewell said.

The following are looks at Howard County’s other boys cross country teams ahead of this week’s opening meets.

KOKOMO

Longtime Wildkats coach Ricke Stucker likes what he has seen from his runners so far.

“They are in better shape than a year ago,” said Stucker, who is in his 45th season as Kokomo’s coach.

Last year, Kokomo was fourth in the Logansport Sectional and seventh in the Culver Academies Regional.

Seniors Jeremy Breedlove and Jordan Fivecoate will anchor the Kats’ lineup. Breedlove was sixth in the sectional, 13th in the regional and 89th in the New Prairie Semistate where he represented Kokomo as an individual. Fivecoate had finishes of 18th in the sectional and 32nd in the regional.

“Jeremy is our captain and ran over 600 miles this summer. Jordan ran 450,” Stucker said.

Sophomores Logan Hawk, Ethan Sharp and Conner Wood also are back for the Kats. Stucker noted Sharp is coming off a good summer.

Kokomo’s nine-runner roster also shows junior Jadyn Whitehead, sophomore Colten Pearce and freshmen Max McHaney and Chris Robinson in the mix.

“We hope to place in the top 5 in the [North Central Conference] and sectional,” Stucker said, adding that he hopes to recruit some more runners.

Stucker recently was selected by the Indiana Track and Cross Country Coaches Association to serve on the Indiana all-star cross country team’s coaching staff this fall.

The top 12 senior boys and top 12 senior girls at the state finals on Nov. 2 will qualify to represent Indiana in the Mid-East Meet of Champions on Nov. 16 at Kettering, Ohio. Illinois, Michigan and Ohio also will have teams.

Stucker will join Portage’s Jay White, Brown County’s Rob Abraham, Marion’s Terry Lakes and Crown Point’s Keith Iddings on Indiana’s coaching staff.

Stucker has been an all-star coach six times — five times in cross country and once in girls track.

ONE TO WATCH: Western standout Matt Grider is shown in the Maconaquah Invitational last season. Grider leads a veteran Western squad, which is shooting for big goals this fall.

NORTHWESTERN

The Tigers have 15 runners in camp. “That’s the most I’ve ever had out for the boys team,” coach Dave Stevens said. “We have a lot of veterans back including some guys who have been with the program for four years. We have a good mix of young guys who are coming out. All in all, our first couple weeks went really well.”

Last year, the Tigers took fifth place in the Logansport Sectional, grabbing the final team ticket to the regional round. They finished eighth at Culver Academies.

“We’re looking to improve on what we’ve done in the last couple of seasons,” Stevens said. “We’ve done well as far as getting to regional. Now we want to take the next step and reach semistate so these guys can see what it’s like to be up there.

“We have some pretty high hopes and goals for this season.”

The Tigers return five runners from their postseason lineup — seniors Zach Durato, Charlie Neher, Shad Jakes and Logan Redman and junior Zachary McLain.

Durato and Neher led the squad last season. Durato was ninth in the sectional and 29th in the regional while Neher was 20th in the sectional and 46th in the regional.

Sophomore Owen Munson is a promising runner. Also in the mix are seniors Josh Garner and Sean Witter and junior Josh Perry.

EASTERN

The Comets return senior Lewis Duke, who was tops in the Howard County, Mid-Indiana Conference and Logansport Sectional meets last year. He went on to take sixth in the Culver Academies Regional and 31st in the New Prairie Semistate.

“He is our leader,” Eastern coach Brandon Mink said. “He was very successful last year. He’s been putting in lots of mileage and been doing a great job. He has a good, hard work ethic. The last two years, he has made it to semistate. This year, he’s hungry to hopefully punch his ticket to state. That is our goal for him.”

After Duke, the Comets feature little experience. Junior Matt Kerner is in his second season, sophomore Trevor Buchanon has shown some potential and sophomores Brenton Cherry and Evan Hursh are new. Junior Kevin Zheng will join the team later in the season.

“We definitely know what we want to do with Lewis. Other than that, we’re just trying to bring along the new ones,” Mink said. “We really don’t know where we’re going to be yet, especially with new guys who haven’t run at all yet. They show good promise, but they’re so green right now, we don’t know where they’ll be at the end of the year. We’ll just take it week by week and hopefully surprise some people at the end. But early on, we’re going to take our lumps because we’re so new.”

TAYLOR

The Titans’ runners include a pair of letterwinners, junior Stephan Sholty and senior Nick Denman. Last year, Shotly was 64th and Denman 72nd in the Logansport Sectional.

Taylor also has senior Kaleil Rucker in camp. He has run track, but is new to cross country.

“Nick and Stephan are looking a lot stronger than last year, which is promising, and Kaleil hangs right with them so it will be interesting to see what they do this season,” Taylor coach Matt Carlile said.

Carlile hopes to add some more runners this week.