CROSS COUNTRY: Kings sweep titles at county meet

Aug. 29—Lewis Cass swept the team titles at the Cass County cross country meet Saturday at Logansport High School.

Cass sophomore Aftin Griffin repeated as the girls champion, while Pioneer senior Carson Meyer won his first county title.

The race began at 8 a.m. Saturday morning in foggy conditions with a 71-degree heat index in 97% humidity.

The Lewis Cass girls won their eighth consecutive county championship. They won with 20 points, followed by Pioneer (59), Logansport (63) and Caston (76).

Griffin won with a time of 20:53.

"I thought it was good. I thought the weather was perfect," Griffin said. "We trained through this week so my calves were a little sore towards the end so that kind of stopped me from pushing myself. I don't really like my time that much today but a win is a win and I can't be mad about that.

"My goal was to run under 20s every race but this is a tough course, I think. Hopefully in the middle meets I can focus on that. I want to PR this year and my times are already better than what I was running last year. I'm really looking forward to the next races."

Cass had five finishers in the top seven. Griffin was followed by AnnaLeigh Hedrick (3rd, 23:03), Kylie Logan (4th, 23:32), Grace Spicer (5th, 23:45), Brystalin Gillem (7th, 24:40), Hannah Zamora (14th, 26:36) and Mia Hall (16th, 26:49).

"We're looking a lot better than last year," Griffin said. "The top five are freshmen and sophomores so we're a young team."

Cass coach Denise Rush said it was a good day for her team.

"Thanks to Logansport for putting on a great meet for the second week in a row. Our girls ran well in the humidity as we had some girls improve times from last week," Rush said. "Aftin ran another strong race and credit goes to senior Violet Montgomery on her second-place finish. Violet has great sportsmanship and is so good to Aftin and my runners as she sets a great example.

"AnnaLeigh Hedrick continues to be our strong second runner with Kylie Logan and Grace Spicer improving their times from last week and having grit. Brystalin moved up in the Berry Patch to earn her seventh-place medal, which made for a strong team finish. We also had four runners earn ribbons: Hannah Zamora, Mia Hall, Bianca Panmei and Sophie Holmquist. We had two more runners run their first 5K race: seniors Faith Helvie and Laura Nebrera."

Violet Montgomery led runner-up Pioneer with a second-place finish in 21:19. She was followed by Ellie Hines (9th, 25:47), Kylie Jamerson (13th, 26:25), Avery Haselby (23rd, 27:25) and Laylynn Malchow (26th, 27:54).

Jacqueline Hernandez-Flores placed sixth in 24:04 to lead Logansport, followed by Claire Bundy (12th, 26:13), Kate Maxson (15th, 26:48), Ashley Murillo (17th, 26:43), Audrey Graham (20th, 27:09), Lily Newell (24th, 27:40) and Nathalia Hernandez (28th, 28:41).

"The experience of even one meet has helped our team," Logan coach Kailin Bauman said. "Seven our 11 racing this week were able to drop their times, some by as much as a minute. Those who didn't drop time ran consistent with last week. This week's times are starting to reflect the fitness on our team and show their ability to learn what racing means.

"This group is finding their stride on their home course, running much smarter races this week. The weather leading into the weekend was wild, throwing a wrench into our training plans but ultimately the girls all worked hard and were able to perform well at the county meet."

Myli Rude placed eighth in 25:39 to lead Caston, followed by Camila Hernandez-Rios (10th, 25:49), Alexa Lowe (11th, 26:04), Jaded Aguilar (29th, 28:54) and Breana Amezquita (37th, 34:03).

"I think the heat of this week had them pretty sapped coming into today and the humidity this morning didn't help either," Caston coach Blair Zimmerman said. "Still, they finished on empty and that's all I can ever ask."

In the boys race, Cass (29) edged out Pioneer (31) to win the title, followed by Logansport (73) and Caston (92).

It was Cass' first county team championship in boys cross country since 2005.

Cass coach Don Bonsett, who is in his 54th year of coaching, said the Kings won with a young team.

"Mostly all sophomores, a lot of young kids. They've worked hard during the summer, they're working hard now and they run close together. They work hard in practice," he said, adding it's one of his best teams as the Kings are coming off a semi-state appearance as a team last year.

"One of the best. I've had a lot of good ones but this group is real good. They had good leadership last year with seniors that graduated and they're kind of picking up where they left off last year."

Kale Skiles placed second overall in 17:42 to lead the Kings, followed by Ben Jay (5th, 18:04), Kaiden Hughes (6th, 18:07), Gavin Griffin (7th, 18:32), Colton Copeland (9th, 18:44), Dominic Sebastian (15th, 20:16) and Curtis Henry (18th, 20:33).

Pioneer's Meyer was the overall champion with a time of 17:22.

"It's the best feeling, I've never won a county race," he said. "I knew going into it this was my best shot to win it.

"It was even better to do good this race because last weekend I didn't do as well as I wanted to so I'm very happy with how I did today."

Earlier in the week Meyer won the two-mile Northwestern Combo.

"That was a big confidence booster since that was my first high school win," he said.

He added of the foggy running conditions: "It was a little hard to breathe but it was great weather, not too hot, not too wet, it wasn't rainy. So overall I thought it was a good day to race. And I'm glad that we got out to run first so that we don't have to run in the heat or anything."

Meyer was followed by Jackson Baker (3rd, 17:50), Leighton Dodt (4th, 17:56), Dane Bowditch (10th, 18:57), Jack Nance (13th, 19:58), Elliott Cooper (26th, 21:52) and Kevin Gluth (27th, 22:04).

"It's very exciting because these past few years we've had a great team," Meyer said. "It's the best feeling because in past years we haven't been good since like the '80s. It's even better that we've got three upperclassmen that can coach the underclassmen and hopefully they can carry on what we've built on this team."

Anthony Gallardo placed 11th in 19:07 to lead Logansport, followed by Miguel Zarate (12th, 19:57), Micah Rogers (14th, 20:08), Ronald Sevilla (16th, 20:23), Carson Dubes (20th, 20:45), Grady Alexander (21st, 21:01) and Eli Shurter (23rd, 21:32).

Edison Byrum placed eighth in 18:40 to lead Caston, followed by Reed Sommers (17th, 20:28), Kane Finke (19th, 20:35), Max Sommers (22nd, 21:20), Jace Rentschler (35th, 24:39), Braden Rush (36th, 24:51) and Josiah Helt (37th, 28:10).

"Atmospheric and surface conditions absolutely played a part in the performances today," Zimmerman said. "While a couple of the guys managed faster miles than last week on this course, by the second mile everyone had given up time compared to the previous race. They all finished on empty and that's all I can ask of them."