CROSS COUNTRY: Western girls win sectional
  • Balanced Panthers edge Maconaquah by single point

    • Sunday, Ocotober 11, 2015

    By BEAU WICKER

    LOGANSPORT — Western unseated Maconaquah as the Logansport girls cross country champion, and the race could not have been any closer.

    The Panthers edged the Braves 63-64 Saturday at the Berry Patch course to win their first sectional title since 2008.

    Northwestern (70), Logansport (117) and Winamac (130) also finished in the top five to advance to next Saturday’s Culver Academies Regional as a team.

    “It was a very awesome race,” Western coach Joni McCracken said. “I think that’s what makes it fun because I think both of us knew it would be very tight. Northwestern was in there too — we knew they would be, which makes it more fun for us.”

    Maconaquah fell just a point shy of repeating. Braves coach Charlie Hubler knew it would be very close.

    “We even said last year we wish we could practice some during the year because we knew we’d be so close together. Both programs work so hard,” he said. “We both say we wish were in the MIC, in the same conference. It just builds strength all the way through.”

    Added McCracken, “I thanked [Hubler], because of their girls our girls are getting better.”

    Natalie Nicholson led the champion Panthers with an eighth-place finished in 20:47, followed by Erin Knepley (13th, 21:13), Allison McMinn (14th, 21:17), Reagan Ritchie (15th, 21:18) and Emma Marley (18th, 21:27).

    The Braves’ scorers were Madison Winegardner (4th, 20:18), Olivia Winegardner (5th, 20:20), Haley Wimmer (6th, 20:34), Bailey Hays (25th, 21:49) and Rebekah Shinn (29th, 21:57).

    Northwestern was led by its top five of Casey Lechner (10th, 20:52), Jensen Freeman (11th, 21:08), Sophia Yager-Motl (12th, 21:10), Nicole Crocker (20th, 21:30) and Kate Bilkey (22nd, 21:35).

    Cass freshman Miah Martin dazzled in winning the sectional title in 19:28 in her tournament debut, breaking her own 5K school record by four seconds.

    “It’s pretty exciting,” she said. “It was tough competition. There’s a lot of really good runners.”

    “She ran the perfect race,” Cass coach Denise Rush added. “We knew even watching her run last year that she had this potential. We believed it from the very beginning.

    “She’s been so coachable. She’s getting stronger every meet.”

    Winamac junior Claire Collins was runner-up in 19:39 and Taylor senior Cami Hansen was third in 20:00.

    “I’m excited that I got another week,” Hansen said, “but I was kind of disappointed because I sprained my ankle Tuesday on a walnut. I didn’t know how I was going to compete [Saturday]. I wanted to win it real bad. I’ve been looking at this race since sophomore year when I ran here. I didn’t want a freshman to win but I’m happy for her. She’s a good runner. Claire Collins from Winamac, she’s a really good runner. Me and the Lewis Cass girl went back and forth this year and she got me [Saturday], but she’s a good runner. I’m looking forward to regionals.”

    Hansen hopes to break her own school record time of 19:44 this postseason. She reached the semistate as a sophomore but was injured last season and did not make it back.

    “I’m hoping to make it to state my last year,” she said.

    Other individuals from the KT area advancing to the regional include Eastern’s Carly Jones (17th, 21:21), Kokomo’s Cinnamon Andrews (28th, 21:56), Peru’s Anna Boyer (31st, 22:19) and Jaelin Richardson (36th, 22:50) and Cass’ Alexis Jackson (32nd, 22:21) and Morgan Mundy (35th, 22:46).
    PANTHER: Western junior Josh Everetts was the top local finisher in the boys race. He was fourth in 16:33.

    BOYS RACE

    Winamac won the sectional title in convincing fashion with 33 points, followed by a top five of Logan (78), Kokomo (92), Western (98) and Pioneer (120).

    Western junior Joshua Everetts helped set the pace and finished in fourth place with a time of 16:33.

    “I wanted to attack at the beginning, just a new strategy to try out to see what I could do. And I did pretty well, I liked it,” Everetts said. “It was a great race. The top pack went out really fast.”

    Everetts followed a trio of seniors. Winamac’s Zen Zupin won in 16:03, followed by Logan’s Jacob Graf (16:12) and Winamac’s Kyle Collins (16:19).

    “The training shows what we did. It’s an honor to run with these guys,” said Everetts, who tied his PR on the day. “I want to shoot for state. If I can stay with the Winamac boys and if I can stay with Graf from Logansport, I know that good things will happen.”

    Ethan Sharp paced the Wildkats with a sixth-place finish in 17:05, followed by Max White (15th, 18:03), Corey Dea (21st, 18:22), Maxwell McHaney (24th, 18:26) and Austin Cordell Brandon (26th, 18:30).

    Everetts was followed by Western teammates Joshua Scott (12th, 17:52), Alex Taylor (16th, 18:04), Tyler Lechner (31st, 18:39) and Andrew Granfield (35th, 18:52).

    Cass junior Cail Brown finished fifth overall with a time of 17:02. He and teammates Lucas Bowman (25th, (18:30), Ryan Waters (32nd, 18:40) and Hayden Vest (39th, 19:17) also advanced to the regional as individuals, along Maconaquah’s Adam Rood (8th, 17:46) and Tyler Dietzel (11th, 17:52), Peru’s Nate Cole (17th, 18:06), Zach Hollis (27th, 18:32) and Chris Estrada (29th, 18:37) and Northwestern’s Spencer Hutchins (34th, 18:49).