Cross country runners ready for regionals

Kokomo Tribune, October 14, 2016

Only the fittest will get through Saturday.

With advancing teams and runners from two sectionals converging in the Culver Academies Regional, the proving ground at the Marshal County school will determine which half of the field moves on to the New Prairie Semistate the following week.

The local contingent advanced from last week’s Logansport Sectional while the other half of the field advanced via the Culver Academies Sectional.

The girls race is at 10:30 a.m., featuring local squads Western, Maconaquah, Northwestern and Cass, as well as individual runners Jaelin Richardson (Peru), Molly Hapner (Eastern) and Carly Watkins (Carroll).

The boys race follows at 11:10 a.m. and includes the Western, Cass and Kokomo teams as well as Peru’s Adam Garner and Isaiah Hollis, Carroll’s Alex Smith, Maconaquah’s Adam Rood, Tyler Dietzel and Fletcher Williams, Northwestern’s Spencer Hutchins, and Eastern’s Josh Reprogle.

The top five teams from each race and top 10 runners who are not on an advancing team qualify to run in the semistate.

Below are previews of both races.

GIRLS RACE

Western won the Logan Sectional. Panther coach Joni McCracken put the regional competition into perspective.

“I think everyone will agree that Warsaw is slotted for the No. 1 position,” McCracken said of the CA Sectional winner. “We’re shooting for the top five. Last year we got third and we’d like to at least repeat that this year. But it’s going to be a hard fight like it was for the sectional.”

McCracken pointed to Manchester, Rochester, Maconaquah, Northwestern and Culver Academies as the teams in the mix to advance.

Natalie Nicholson led Western’s effort at the sectional with a sixth-place finish, followed by Olivia Lushin (seventh), Emma Marley (12th), Hannah Lushin (13th) and Allison McMinn (16th). McCracken said the Panthers are fresh at the right time. To meet their goals, each Panther has her assignment.

“The big thing is they are going to know position-wise where they have to be to be able to be competing at the level that we want to,” McCracken said. “They are definitely going to know who they need to compete with and what their job is individually to be able to come out like we’d like to.”

Northwestern also expects to be in the thick of the tussle to advance.

“We’re excited to go, the girls are looking forward to it,” NW coach Dave Stevens said. “Ever since we finished up last year, literally on the bus ride home ... they started talking about this year. They’ve been focused and I think they’re ready to go.”

Casey Lechner led NW at the sectional with an 11th-place finish as the Purple Tigers took third. Lauren Longshore was 15th, Kate Bilkey 17th, Nicole Crocker 20th and Adri Freeman 27th. Lechner, Bilkey and Crocker are holdovers from last year’s team.

“They just need to go out there and race the next girl in front of them,” Stevens said. “You go out at your start and your pace and you keep pressing the next girl and press the next girl and press the next girl. And then when you get to the end, whatever you have in the tank you empty it out. Whatever you have in that last 400 [meters] you give what you have.”

Maconaquah, which was second at the sectional, is led by Madison Winegardner (fifth at the sectional), Kathryn White (eighth) and Haley Wimmer (ninth). Cass was fourth in the sectional and scored the top two runners as Miah Martin and Alexis Jackson went 1-2.

BOYS RACE

Western coach Gary Jewell feels his team has a narrow opening to advance, but there’s not much room for error. The Panthers were second at the Logan Sectional behind the host Berries and ahead of Cass in third and Kokomo in fifth.

He thinks Warsaw, Rochester, Culver Academies and Plymouth are likely to advance, leaving one spot left.

“It’s all about place and it’s going to be between us and Logansport,” Jewell said. “I think it’s going to be a lot closer this time around than it was [last] Saturday.

“We took kind of a gamble. We’d like to have won the sectional but we said I want this team to be able to run in the semistate, not just Josh [Everetts].”

Everetts took first in the sectional and is expected to move on with or without the Panthers. The better he runs at Culver, the stronger Western’s chance of advancing. Also for Western, Alex Taylor was 11th at the sectional, Andrew Granfield 17th, Tyler Lechner 18th and Hunter Purtee 35th.

“Obviously we have to run better than we did Saturday, position-wise,” Jewell said. “Logansport had one or two kids who ran out of their heads a little bit but you can’t bank on them not running better, you have to run better. So I said across the board we have to improve our placing relative to them.”

Kokomo’s contingent is led by Max White (ninth in the sectional), followed by Corey Dea (22nd), Alexander Ward (24th), Bryce Hagen (33rd), and Justin Taflinger (37th).

“We’re looking to run faster [than at the sectional] and we’re keying on several individuals,” Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker said. “I’m trying to see how many kids we can get out as individuals if our team doesn’t make it. We have a chance team-wise. We have three guys who might be able to get into the top 30 and that might be good enough to get out as an individual.

“They have to be healthy and have to be mentally focused. They have to take care of the little mistakes and little physical things that have caused them not to improve.”

Stucker thinks the individual race for the top spot will be exciting, noting Everetts and Cass’ Cail Brown (second at the Logan sectional) as having a shot at finishing first along with several strong runners from the Culver Academies Sectional.