3 girls squads advance from Culver Academies CC Regional

Kokomo Tribune, October 16, 2016

CULVER — Three area girls cross country squads are moving on to the New Prairie Semistate after taking top-five finishes in Saturday's Culver Academies Regional.

Maconaquah finished third overall as a team with a score of 112 behind first place Warsaw (30) and second-place Manchester (101). Western followed in fourth place with 117 and Lewis Cass, which featured a pair of top-four individual finishes, rounded out the top-five with a score of 136.

Also advancing locally as individuals were Northwestern's Casey Lechner and Lauren Longshore as the top ten individuals not on one of the five qualifying teams also advanced.

Cass' Miah Martin was second overall in 19:02 while Alexis Jackson was fourth in 19:09. Warsaw's Mia Beckham posted the top individual finish in 18:47.

Maconaquah's Madison Winegardner ran to a 10th-place overall finish in 20:22 to pace the Braves. Kate White followed in 24th (21:05), Haley Wimmer was 25th (21:08), Rebekah Shinn 34th (21:45) and Bailey Hays 39th (21:56).

"The girls are running strong right now and that's good to see," Mac coach Charlie Hubler said. "They set a goal at the beginning of the season to run at semistate as a team, [and we are] excited for them to see that goal met."

Natalie Nicholson logged Western's top time with a 20:28 14th-place finish. Following her for the Panthers were Olivia Lushin (20th, 20:55), Hannah Lushin (32nd, 21:41), Emma Marley (35th, 21:46) and Allison McMinn (38th, 21:51).

Following Martin and Jackson for Cass were Emily Tigler (27th, 21:26), Hannah Young (70th, 23:17) and Marisol Karmel (73rd, 23:34).

Lechner, a sophomore, was 22nd with a 21:04 for Northwestern while Longshore, a freshman, finished 26th in 21:09.

"I'm excited for both of them," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "It will be Casey's second trip, she went last year with the team. I'm glad to see them both get it. I think all seven of my girls gave everything they could and that's all I could ask for."

Rounding out Northwestern's top five were Kate Bilkey (50th, 22:22), Madison McGriff (52nd, 22:27) and Nicole Crocker (53rd, 22:27).

Peru's Jaelin Richardson ran to a 37th-place finish individually in 21:48, and Eastern's Molly Hapner took 41st in 22:05.

BOYS RACE

Western fell just shy of advancing as a team, finishing a point behind fifth-place Logansport with a score of 154.

A pair of Panthers, Josh Everetts and Alex Taylor, advanced individually to next Saturday's New Prairie Semistate.

"Josh had a pretty good week of practice and might have come in a little tired," Panther coach Gary Jewell said. "I definitely want him to be fresh for next week. That's the race he's got to run well. Alex ran pretty well. He had a good race."

Everetts finished fourth overall in 16:39, while Taylor was 28th in 18:21.

Cass' Cail Brown advanced individually, finishing seventh in 17:00.

Caston's Mitchell Rans had the top individual finish with a 16:04. Warsaw was first as a team with a score of 39.

Rounding out Western's scores were Andrew Granfield (42nd, 18:36), Tyler Lechner (46th, 18:46) and Hunter Purtee (66th, 19:36).

"Team-wise, we improved a lot over last week," Jewell said. "We ran better, we just missed by a little bit."

Kokomo finished ninth as a team with a 195. Justin Taflinger was the top Kat, crossing 35th in 18:31. Max White was 43rd (18:40) and Alexander Ward 45th (18:41). Corey Dea took 47th (18:47) and Bryce Hagen was 67th (19:38).

Other area individual finishes included Maconaquah's Adam Rood (34th, 18:30), Fletcher Williams (57th, 19:12), and Caleb Winegardner (70th, 19:44), Peru's Adam Garner (36th, 18:31) and Isaiah Hollis (62nd, 19:24), Northwestern's Spencer Hutchins (55th, 19:05), and Eastern's Josh Reprogle (64th, 19:34).