CROSS COUNTRY: Teams ready for sectional
Saturday, Ocotober 10, 2015
By BRYAN GASKINS Kokomo Tribune
It's sectional day for cross country with local teams heading to Logansport. The girls race is at 10:30 a.m. and the boys race follows at 11:15 a.m.
Logansport offers the Berry Patch course, which is behind the high school in a forested area.
"Traditionally, it's fast,"Western boys coach Gary Jewell said. "I'd expect [today] not to be any different. It's supposed to be near-perfect conditions — about 50 degrees with no wind."
Northwestern boys and girls coach Dave Stevens said he likes the Berry Patch.
"It's a good cross country course,"he said. "A lot of times, we go places and it's just flat and you run around. [The Berry Patch] gives them a challenge. It helps the kids also be ready for other places where they go, where they might have to run through a woods."
The sectional features 12 teams — Carroll, Eastern, Kokomo, Lewis Cass, Logansport, Maconaquah, Northwestern, Peru, Pioneer, Taylor, Western and Winamac. In each race, the top five teams advance to the Culver Academies Regional next week. The top 10 individuals from non-advancing teams also move on.
BOYS RACE
"Defending champion Winamac looms large in the boys race.
"Winamac should win easily,"Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. "The battle will be for second place among Logansport, Western and Kokomo. Lewis Cass will be in the mix for the last qualifying spot. ... Our squad is not 100 percent. We have not put all the pieces to the puzzle together, yet."
Western's Jewell also sees Winamac as the heavy favorite.
"It starts with [the Warriors]. They're the defending champion and they have everybody back. They have Kyle Collins and Zen Zupin at the top of their lineup. They were both state finalists a year ago," Jewell said.
"No. 2 is probably Kokomo with Logansport probably No. 3 and us maybe 3B. And then the fifth team probably is going to be Pioneer, but Lewis Cass could sneak in there,"he added.
In last year's sectional, Winamac edged Western by six points, 43-49, for the title with Kokomo, Logansport and Peru taking the other advancing spots. Individually, Collins took first in 16:33.30 and Zupin was second in 16:43.37.
Also back from last year are the other top-five finishers — Logansport's Jacob Graf, Kokomo's Ethan Sharp and Western's Josh Everetts.
"Kyle Collins and Jake Graf should duel it out for the individual title,"Stucker said.
Howard County's top times this year belong to Everetts (16:33), Sharp (16:39), Kokomo's Max White (17:20), Kokomo's Coy Brandon (17:40) and Western's Josh Scott (17:45).
Jewell heads into the sectional with the regional in mind. He sees Western as a possible contender for a top-five finish at next week's regional — and a trip to the New Prairie Semistate.
"We want to run as well as we can [today]. We think we're closing our gap. But we're looking not this week, we're looking at next week," he said. "I think it's going to be a dogfight for that last spot next week."
GIRLS RACE
Maconaquah is the defending champion on the girls side and the Braves are strong again this year. They are led by Olivia Winegardner (No. 4 in sectional last year), Madison Winegardner (No. 5) and Haley Wimmer (No. 12).
Western took second place last year and Northwestern was fifth. They are among the teams hoping to challenge Maconaquah for the top spot this year.
"I think there's four teams right there at the top of the list, that should have a shot at going,"Stevens said of Maconaquah, Western, Logansport and his Tigers. "I think that fifth spot is kind of open. A lot of us are pretty close together. If the girls have the ability to do their best, any of those teams could come out on top."
Winamac might have the individual favorite in Claire Collins. She was the sectional runner-up last season with a time of 19:45.43.
Howard County's top times this season belong to Taylor's Cami Hansen (19:55), Eastern's Carly Jones (20:03), Northwestern's Casey Lechner (20:50) and Kokomo's Cinnamon Andrews (20:58).
"I think the individual race is going to be close for a lot of the girls. A lot of them are pretty evenly matched,"Stevens said. "It should be a great day to run — it looks like the weather is going to help us out."