BOYS AND GIRLS XC: Eastern's Greene, NW's Moore and Adams, Cass' Griffin reach state
Oct. 23—Northwestern's Hannah Moore and Courtney Adams, and Lewis Cass' Aftin Griffin raced their way to the IHSAA Girls Cross Country State Finals, and Eastern's Obi Greene booked his place in the Boys Cross Country State Finals after they each took individual advancing spots at Saturday's Brownsburg Regional.
Moore, a senior, has made state all four years of her high school career. Adams, a junior, is making it for the second straight season. Griffin and Greene will run state for the first time.
The state meet is Saturday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at Indiana State in Terre Haute. The boys race kicks off the day at noon, and the girls race follows at 2:30 p.m.
GIRLS RACE
In the girls race, North Central was first with a score of 70. Taking the rest of the five advancing team spots for state were Carmel (with a score of 88), Zionsville (143), Brownsburg (147) and Harrison (167).
Among local schools, Maconaquah was 13th (376), Western 14th (385), Northwestern 15th (426), Cass 20th (507) and Carroll 23rd (617). There were 25 teams.
Moore took fourth overall in 18:18.6. Less than four seconds separated second from fourth. Adams was 31st in 19:35. Hannah Troyer was 172nd (23:08.1), Bella Winrotte 179th (23:17.4), and Emma Baker 190th (23:29.7). There were 246 runners in the field.
"We capped off a great season as a team," NW coach Josh Perry said. "We improved a lot from the beginning and met almost all of our goals. Unfortunately, the team's season is over, but it's great to have two runners heading to the state championship meet again.
"Hannah Moore is looking primed and ready to earn another medal at state. She was 19th last year. Courtney Adams has had a tough season, battling through some aches and pains. I'm glad to see that all her work has paid off and she is returning to Terre Haute next week."
Bishop Chatard's Julia Score was the race winner by nearly 40 seconds, clocking a 17:37.8.
Zoie Laber led Maconaquah, taking 48th in 20:19.8. Lucy Loshnowski was 64th (20:52.7), Chloe Jordan 98th (21:36.1), Abby Jordan 115th (21:48.1) and Kaylee Futrell 127th (21:58.3).
Kendall DePoy set the pace for Western, taking 57th in 20:41.5. Hattie Harlow was 65th (20:53), Lauren Bradley 69th (21:00.5), Avery Shock 122nd (21:53.6) and Madelyn Shoaff 145th (22:26.1).
Griffin, a sophomore, took 21st for Cass, finishing in 19:13.6 to book her first trip to state. AnnaLeigh Hedrick was 128th (21:58.6), Grace Spicer 140th (22:14.2), Kylie Logan 169th (23:03.7) and Mia Hall 221st (24:44.7).
Racing as an individual, Kokomo's Gretchen Riggle was 239th in 26:30.1.
BOYS RACE
Carmel was first out of 25 teams with a score of 34. Taking the rest of the five team spots were Brownsburg (99), Zionsville (113), Indianapolis North Central (137), and Avon (184).
Western led the local schools, taking 13th with a score of 357. Cass was 16th (425) and Maconaquah 18th (459).
Greene was the top local individual, finishing 25th in 16:08.6. It's the Comet junior's first trip to state. Carmel's Tony Provenzano led the field of 246, taking first in 15:12, beating the second-place finisher by :05.7.
"Obi ran an outstanding race," Eastern coach Ben Cox said. "He was focused and determined, knew what to do when, and how to execute it. At the 1K [mark], Obi was about 30th and when I saw him again at about 3,400 meters, he was 31st. He passed six guys the last mile to finish 25th.
"I'm really happy for him. He's worked hard and it showed in his race."
Aden Yeary led Western and was one spot away from the last individual advancing spot, missing out by less than a second. He took 35th in 16:20.4. Pioneer's Leighton Dodt took the last spot, taking 34th in 16:19.7. Also for Western, Camden Raab was 43rd (16:33), Miles Rudy 72nd (16:56.9), Maddox Carver 116th (17:35.2) and Lincoln McKillip 183rd (18:24.1).
"Even though not everyone ran their best race, this was our best team performance of the season, which is how you want to end," Western coach Gary Jewell said. "Our cumulative time of 1:25:49 was our best since the 2020 New Prairie Semistate."
Jewell said Yeary and Raab "really came through for us" and was happy about how the Panthers placed.
"After stumbling a bit at sectional last week, we wanted to have a 'statement' performance at regional and I think we did just that," Jewell said. "Heading into the tournament, we were only ranked No. 16 at the regional level, but on Saturday we knocked off a couple teams ranked ahead of us [Ben Davis and Lafayette Jeff]."
Kale Skiles led Cass in 57th (16:45.9). Ben Jay was 61st (16:48.4), Kaiden Hughes 111th (17:30.4), Colton Copeland 117th (17:38.8) and Dominick Sebastian 187th (18:29).
Isaiah Wittenberg was 81st to lead Maconaquah (17:05.2). Kaden Miller was 83rd (17:08.8), Daylen Schrock 129th (17:47.1), Isaiah Moore 132nd (17:48.3) and Kaden Hanson 133rd (17:48.5).
Northwestern had three runners competing as individuals. Mason Broeker was 120th (17:40.1), Isaac Everson 142nd (17:51.8) and Jacob Bumgardner 178th (18:20.2).
"I'm proud of the boys for making it this far," Perry said. "Senior Jacob Bumgardner went for the gold and came out faster than he had ever gone in the first mile. It didn't end up paying off, but I was happy to see him give it what he had.
"Freshmen Mason Broeker and Isaac Everson both had a great day. They both ran personal bests on a crammed course. I am very happy with their first seasons."
Also competing as individuals, Kokomo's Cage Cooper was 52nd (16:40.3) and Carroll's Bryce Salgat was 143rd (17:52.2) and Regan Wolf 162nd (18:05.8).
SHELBYVILLE REGIONAL
Tipton's Noah Walker closed his season at the boys regional after advancing as an individual. He took 197th in 18:49.2.
