Local teams, individuals fare well in XC regional

Kokomo Tribune - October 20, 2013

CULVER — Howard County was well represented in the Culver Academies Cross Country Regional on Saturday. In the girls race, Eastern finished second in the team standings and Northwestern's Taryn Thor was the runner-up individual. And in the boys race, Western and Kokomo finished 2-3 in the team standings and Eastern's Lewis Duke was the runner-up individual.

The top five girls and boys teams advance to next Saturday's New Prairie Semistate, as do the top 10 individuals not on a qualifying team.

In the girls race, Warsaw won the team title with a score of 57 with Eastern (74), Rochester (94), Western (111) and Winamac (127) taking the other advancing spots. Maconaquah was eighth with a score of 170 and Northwestern ninth at 199.

Rochester's Anna Bearss was the winner in 18:46. Northwestern's Thor was second in a time of 19:02.

"[Thor] ran a very good race," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "I'm very proud of Taryn and all her dedication for this season. It showed [Saturday] when she went up there and ran. The weather conditions changed on us really quickly from what we've been running all season and she adapted very well. We're looking forward to her going up to Semistate and seeing if she can advance to state."

Carly Jones paced Eastern in a time of 19:30, taking third overall. Avery Ewing was fourth in 19:40 and Jessica Sprinkles was sixth in 19:54. Kaylie Forgrave (28th, 21:13) and Elyssa DeAngulo (44th, 21:51) completed the Comets' top five.

"I thought they did an excellent job. Everything that I asked for them to do, they came through," Eastern coach Brandon Mink. "Four out of our six girls who ran had personal bests. Even the ones who didn't get personal bests were close to their personal bests so we were on our A game. They did a great job of moving up through the race and holding those positions.

"It was the best race we've had all season and it's the right time to be doing it."

Nicole Hampshire led Western with a 12th-place finish in 20:20. Erin Knepley was 19th in 20:48, Samantha Luginbuhl was 23rd in 20:55, Emma Nixon was 24th in 21:04, and Jama Claxton was 53rd in 22:10.

"This was the first time we had our top four girls running together," Western coach Joni McCracken said. "I lost Erin at the beginning of the season, she was our No. 1 runner at the time. At sectional we had to go without Nicole. I'm sure that we were probably the underdogs going into it I don't think anyone expected us to move on to the semistate and the girl: stepped up to the challenge.

"Erin's only been running for 10 days. For Erin to be able to turn out a PR [Saturday], that was a testament to her being able to run with guts and heart. It certainly wasn't training."

In addititon to Thor, four other KT-area runners earned individual tickets to the semistate – Taylor's Cami Hansen (17th place, 20:39), Maconaquah teammates Olivia Winegardner (20th, 20:49) and Vanessa Frazier (29th, 21:15) and Cass' Gabi Carney (22nd, 20:54).

Kokomo's Cinnamon Andrews was 40th individually, finishing in 21:45.

I was very pleased. It hink she's had a great freshman year," Kokomo coach Dave Barnes said. "She's been outstanding, she's been consistent the whole year. She ran probably the smartest race of the season this whole year in my opinion."

In the boys race, Warsaw won the team title with a score of 20. Wester (78) adn Kokomo (96) finished 2-3 adn Rochester (114) and Winamac (139) took the other advancing sports. Northwestern (215) was 10th.

Warsaw's Ellis Coon won the race in 16:17. Eastern's Duke was second in 16:22 and Western's Matt Grider was third in 16:27.

"Ellis Coon is definitely a formidable foe. The main thing was . . . [Duke] punched his ticket to the next round," Eastern skipper Mink said. We're looking forward to the the next step and see if he can go all the way [to state]. He was very strong overall. Hew win in good position the whole way. He did a good job to nail down that second spot."

Grider led Western, which was coming off winning the Logansport Sectional earlier in the week. The Panthers' other top runners were Riley Carter (14th place), 17:09); Jacob Bradshaw (21st, 17:24); Josh Everetts (26th, 17:40); Auston Davenport (27th, 17:40).

"We didn't run as well as we did at sectional," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "I thought at times in the race, especially early in the race, we didn't run very intelligently. the guys outside of grider went out a little too quickly. We like to finish fast, bue we didn't (Saturday) beecause we kind of burend that up in the first or second K of the race.

"That didn't alter the outcome [Saturday] , but any individual being off by 10 seconds next week will be worth as much as 10 points. We look back to our 2008 team where they missed the state meet by 10 points. It's huge."

Jewell noted Grider ran well, and he pointed to Everetts' run as another highlight. The Panther freshman ran a personal-best time, dropping 41 seconds off his previous best.

"He stepped up huge for us and I think he can go faster," Jewell said.

Kokom's top five runners were: Jeremy Breedlove (eigth place, 16:50); Jordan Fivecoate (15th, 17:11); Ethan Sharp (16th, 17:12); Max McHaney (36th, 17:53) and Colton Pearce (41st, 18:03).

We were pretty happy, " Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. "We had a season best gap time of 1:13, which was 19 seconds better than before, so that was probably the highlight of the day. No one on our team ran a personl best, but had four out of seven who ran perty well . If we would have had seven our ot seven, it probably wouldn't have made a difference because Western ran pretty well.

"We'll hope the [weather and course] conditions are better next week so we can run faster times."