CROSS COUNTRY: Western girls repeat as sectional champs

Kokomo Tribune, October 09, 2016

LOGANSPORT — The Western girls cross country team repeated as the Logansport Sectional champion on Saturday, once again edging out Maconaquah in the team standings.

Cass had the top individual showings, as Miah Martin and Lexi Jackson finished 1-2 in the girls race, recording impressive times of 18:44 and 18:52, respectively.

The Western boys finished runner-up to host Logansport at the Berry Patch course, but Western senior Joshua Everetts was able to claim the first individual sectional title of his career with a winning time of 18:09.

Last season the Western girls edged Maconaquah by one point to win the sectional title. This year the Panthers edged the Braves by six, 54-60. Northwestern (88), Cass (88) and Logansport (123) also advanced to next Saturday’s Culver Academy Regional as a team.

The Panthers had their top five runners finish in the top 16 and all seven in the top 23. The top five are the scoring runners.

They were led by Natalie Nicholson’s sixth-place finish in 20:05, followed by Olivia Lushin (7th, 20:17), Emma Marley (12th, 20:48), Hannah Lushin (13th, 20:53), Allison McMinn (16th, 20:57), Logan Buck (22nd, 21:18) and Megan Hampshire (23rd, 21:19).

Western coach Joni McCracken said her team gradually improved throughout the season, which led to winning the eighth sectional title in program history.

“We did have six out of our seven PR. They definitely ran well and that was what it was going to take to win this year,” McCracken said. “We knew it was going to take all seven, not just top five. Our sixth and seventh were going to be just as important as our top five and that was it.

"Another key was our No. 2 girl, Olivia Lushin, who is a freshman, really stepped up and dropped her time by a minute. That made a difference for us as well as the rest of the girls doing well.”

Madison Winegardner led Maconaquah with a fifth-place finish in 19:58. She was followed by Kathryn White (8th, 20:20), Hailey Wimmer (9th, 20:28), Bailey Hays (18th, 21:03) and Rebekah Shinn (21st, 21:17).

Northwestern beat out Cass for third place with the sixth-score tiebreaker. Casey Lechner led the Tigers with an 11th-place finish in 20:38, followed by Lauren Longshore (15th, 20:56), Kate Bilkey (17th, 20:58), Nicole Crocker (20th, 21:11), Adri Freeman (27th, 21:58) and Lauryn Fackler (34th, 22:47).

Martin and Jackson were followed by Kings teammates Emily Tigler (14th, 20:55), Hannah Young (32nd, 22:40) and Morgan Mundy (42nd, 23:09).

Martin, a sophomore, repeated her sectional title and was followed closely behind by her junior teammate Jackson. Both runners PR’d on the difficult Berry Patch course. Cass coach Denise Rush is hoping both can finish in the top five at the New Prairie Semistate but added she doesn’t want to look past next week’s regional.

Martin and Jackson also finished 1-2 at last week’s Hoosier Conference meet.

“I just woke up and had a feeling it was going to be a good day,” Martin said. “We’ve been working hard for this all season and our goal was a team was to make it to regionals and we all had to run our best and we did.”

“Everybody PR’d and as a team we all wanted to make it to regionals and possibly semistate as a team,” Jackson added. “The fact that we’re dropping time still just means a lot because I really want to make it to semistate."

Also advancing to the regional as individuals from the area were Peru’s Jaelin Richardson (19th, 21:07), Eastern’s Molly Hapner (26th, 21:54) and Carroll’s Carly Watkins (29th, 22:18).

BOYS RACE

Logansport topped Western 66-82 to win the team title on the boys side. Cass (106), defending champion Winamac (115) and Kokomo (125) also advanced.

“I thought coming in we had a really good shot at winning this,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. "... Our fifth man Hunter Purtee PR’d by 40 seconds. As a matter of fact our top six all PR’d. We were hoping it was going to be good enough, but I’ve been saying all along that our goal really wasn’t to win [Saturday], because I knew for us to win we were going to have to peak and our goal really is to be running as a team in two weeks at

semistate. So next week we have to be on top of things.”

Everetts was happy to lead the way for the Panthers and claim the sectional title.

“This is really overwhelming,” he said. “First of all I wanted to give it for the team. I really wanted to win it for the team so I just did the best I could. I PR’d, I couldn’t be happier of our performance as a team.”

Everetts won in 18:09 and Cass senior Cail Brown was runner-up in 18:20.

“We’ve been rivals since freshman year, good friends too,” Everetts said.

Brown said Everetts pushed him and that he was "very happy" with his time.

“He’s definitely great competition, always keeps the race interesting. He’s a very good runner, I can’t wait to race him again for regionals,” Brown said.

Everetts was followed by Panthers teammates Alex Taylor (11th, 17:38), Andrew Granfield (17th, 17:58), Tyler Lechner (18th, 18:01) and Hunter Purtee (35th, 18:48).

Brown was followed by Kings teammates Bailey Scott (13th, 17:42), Nolan Sharpless (27th, 18:31), Carl Jay (30th, 18:35) and Hayden Vest (34th, 18:42).

Max White led Kokomo with a ninth-place finish in 17:30. He was followed by Corey Deah (22nd, 18:20), Alexander Ward (24th, 18:26), Bryce Hagen (33rd, 18:40) and Justin Taflinger (37th, 18:52).

Also advancing to the regional as individuals from the area were Peru’s Adam Garner (5th, 17:19) and Isaiah Hollis (23rd, 18:20), Carroll’s Alec Smith (8th, 17:30), Maconaquah’s Adam Rood (16th, 17:50), Tyler Dietzel (21st, 18:10) and Fletcher Williams (28th, 18:32), Northwestern’s Spencer Hutchins (19th, 18:09) and Eastern’s Joshua Reprogle (26th, 18:28).