XC REGIONAL PROVES TOUGH

Kokomo Tribune Oct. 15, 2017

Maconaquah and Western's girls cross country squads, as well as two individuals each from Cass and Northwestern, booked tickets to next week's New Prairie Semistate with strong outings Saturday in the Culver Academies Regional's girls race.

Warsaw placed first with a score of 55, followed by Rochester (81), Maconaquah (99), Western (106) and Culver Academies (135). The top five teams and top 10 individuals not on an advancing team qualified for the semistate. Cass was sixth (154) and Northwestern eighth (162).

Maconaquah's Madison Winegardner raced to a second-place finish to pace the Braves, finishing in 19:38 behind Warsaw's Mya Beckham, who took the top individual spot in 19:04. Cass' Miah Martin was third in 19:53 and teammate Alexis Jackson crossed sixth in 20:15.

Rounding out Maconaquah's score were Karli Miller in 14th (20:57), Haley Wimmer in 30th (22:02), Haley Salinas 33rd (22:14), and Bailey Hays 36th (22:21).

Olivia Lushin led Western in 10th place (20:41), followed by Hannah Lushin in 18th (21:12), Natalie Nicholson in 22nd (21:30), Emma Marley 29th (21:59), and Alivia Ford in 45th (22:39). Both Lushins were named to the all-regional team, composed of the top 20 runners.

"We were a little closer to Maconaquah than we were at sectional," Western coach Joni Neer said. "Emma Marley did a real nice job, our No. 4 runner. I think she made a difference this time. My top four ran a little bit closer to each other than they had. They're starting to come around again — Emma and Natalie. We need to close the gap with our fifth person.

"Overall we were pleased. Obviously, we'd like to be in second, but they did run a much better race compared to sectional and they ran a better regional race this year than they did last year. We're excited to get to semistate."

Lauren Longshore and Casey Lechner had strong days for Northwestern in advancing to New Prairie. Longshore placed ninth in 20:31 and Lechner was 20th in 21:16.

"It's probably been quite a while since we got a top-10 finish at regional," Northwestern coach Dave Stevens said. "Great race for Lauren, and Casey in 20th was a good time too. They've been looking forward to this opportunity all year long. They got to go last year, and I'm glad to see them accomplish their goal to get back."

Cass' Martin and Jackson advanced individually. Also advancing individually from the area was Peru's Jaelin Richardson, taking the final individual spot with a 25th-place time of 21:42.

BOYS RACE

Cass' Bailey Scott ran to the best area time in 17:25 to finish 11th overall and advance individually in the boys race.

Warsaw took the top team spot with 32 points. Culver was second (82), Plymouth third (87), Caston fourth (121) and Manchester fifth (145). Caston's Mitchell Rans was the individual winner in 16:19.5.

Western was seventh as a team at 179 and Kokomo followed in eighth at 188 as neither squad was able to advance, though each had individual performances good enough to move on to New Prairie.

"I think we were a little flat at the outset. We gave up too many spots early, which made it difficult to get back into the race," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "We needed to be about 20 seconds faster per man to get in the top five in the team count. There were guys from other schools that we beat [in the sectional] that beat us significantly [Saturday] and it could be we missed our peak by a week. If that's the case, that's my fault as a coach.

Western's Tyler Lechner took 31st place in 18:26.1 to claim the final individual spot.

"It was great having Tyler qualify," Jewell said. "Nine months ago, he could barely walk because of a couple knee injuries he sustained during wrestling. The fact that's he running in a semistate next week is tremendous."

Kokomo coach Ricke Stucker came away pleased.

"We beat two teams that beat us last week in the sectional so we are happy about that," Stucker said. "We were keying on Winamac and Lewis Cass. Corey Dea placed 18th and Julian Wallace was 23rd to qualify for next week's semistate. They both ran well and work hard in practice."

Dea finished in 17:58.6 and Wallace followed in 18:06.9.