Western's Hampshire to run at state

Kokomo Tribune - Sunday, October 26, 2014

Western runner Nicole Hampshire qualified for the state meet and was named to the New Prairie Girls Cross Country Semistate's all-semistate squad Saturday with a 20th-place finish. She covered the tough NP course in 19:52.6 and emerged as the sole local survivor following the boys and girls races.

The top six squads and 10 individuals not on a qualifying team advanced to next Saturday's state final meet in Terre Haute. The girls final is at 1 p.m. Hampshire was the fifth-fastest individual not on a qualifying team, and with the 20th spot overall she took the last place on the all-semistate team.

"She's worked so hard to meet this goal and she knew it could happen, and that was the key," Western coach Joni McCracken said. "She was confident going into it but she knew she had to execute. She had researched where she thought she needed to be to make it to state. Being in the top 25 was where she needed to be to move on.

"[Hampshire] was running anywhere between 16-20 that whole race. For her to be able to actually hang in there and bring back the 20th position was awesome. Not only going to state, but getting that all-semistate position was more than she could ask for."

Hampshire had the energy to extend herself when needed.

"She ran her race very well," McCracken said. "She stayed calm, but she definitely had to power through a lot of places to stay in position and fight for the position she was in."

Western took 19th as a team out of 20 squads. McCracken hopes the Panthers will use that disappointment to fuel them until the next campaign.

"Looking at the positive things ... three of our top five girls had never ran in a semistate," McCracken said. "Really it was a great learning experience for them. They expected the race to be fast, but until you're actually in it, you're just not ready for it.

"We had three of our runners, the first K they were too far back and once you get yourself out of the race, there is no race back there. You have to be in the thick of it."

For Western, Taylor Walden was 140th (22:20.6), Logan Buck 142nd (22:20.8), Allison McMinn 157th (23:04.3), Taylor Nunan 162nd (23:38.2), Samantha Luginbuhl 166th (24:08.9) and Jama Claxton 237th (25:05.4).

Maconaquah enjoyed a solid race as a team, taking 12th and topping two squads that had edged the Braves at the regional.

Kate White led Maconaquah with a 58th-place finish (20:47.5.) Madison Winegardner was 63rd (20:50.8), Olivia Winegardner was 80th (21:13.1), Haley Wimmer was 91st (21:24), Vanessa Frazier was 147th (22:32.2), Bekah Shinn was 152nd (22:49.8) and Amanda Shinn 160th (23:23.2).

"This has been a great summer for this team and we accomplished many of the goals we had set for ourselves in the summer," Mac coach Charlie Hubler said. "We had several girls step up throughout the season and we had that [Saturday] at the semistate against some very good competition."

Peru's Jessica Zvers was 97th (21:27.7) and Cass' Haley Johnson was 134th (22:15.1).

West Lafayette won the team race and had the top two runners: Lauren Johnson (18:24.2) and Kristen Johnson (18:41.4).

BOYS RACE

Kokomo's Ethan Sharp placed 44th in 17:07.7 to lead all Tribune-area boys. Cass' Cail Brown was 60th (17:15.1) and Kokomo's Colten Pearce was 143rd (18:30.7). Western's team took 19th out of 20 squads. No local male runner advanced to state.

"[Sharp] was not quite assertive enough in the first mile and could never catch up," Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. "He was 80th at the mile, 70th at the second mile, and 52nd at the third mile. He finished his race strong."

Riley Carter led Western in 58th place (17:14.6) followed by Joshua Everetts (91st, 17:40.9), Auston Davenport (126th, 18:10.3), Caleb Maddox (150th, 18:35), Cooper O'Neal (159th, 19:01.7), Alex Taylor (160th, 19:06.4), and Josh Scott (170th, 19:24.4).

"I thought Riley ran exceptionally well," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "That was a good time for him and he bounced back exceptionally well from the regional."

Jewell said that on paper, Western entered 20th, so he was glad to get off the bottom spot and hoped the low finish would serve to motivate the Panthers in the offseason. He noted that Lafayette Jeff, which finished behind Western last season, moved up to take the sixth and last qualifying spot for state this year.

"You see guys make a lot of improvement in that nine-month time frame," Jewell said of the time from the end of one season and the beginning of the next.

"Nothing will motivate you more than a poor performance in a race where you expect to do well."

West Lafayette was the top team at the semistate, and Red Devil leader Cooper Williams was the fastest individual, finishing in 15:51.1.