Greencastle dominates county meet

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Greencastle senior Ben Wilson fights through the rain Tuesday at South Putnam. Wilson went on to win the Putnam County Meet in a time of 17:17.

It was wet. It was chilly.

But if you're a Greencastle fan, you left Tuesday's Putnam County Cross Country meet with a warm feeling. In both the girls' and boys' races, the Tiger Cubs had five All-County runners and came away with the team title.

In the girls' race, GHS totaled 21 points, followed by North Putnam (66), South Putnam (69) then Cloverdale (76). The Tiger Cubs Kaitlyn Murtagh won the race in 21:46 and was joined in the top seven by teammates Jasmine Dwigans (third), Sara Culler (fourth), Felicia Barger (sixth) and Emily Gill (seventh).

Other All-County runners were North Putnam's Paxton Stephenson in second and South Putnam's Amanda Lund in fifth.

For the boys, Ben Wilson led the way in 17:17, as Greencastle totaled 15 points. South Putnam was second with 40, and Cloverdale was third with 84.

After Wilson, the other GHS All-County runners were Jordan Lewis (second), Kyle Harlan (third), Ryan Gillespie (fifth) and Ryan Stevens (seventh). North Putnam's Kasey McLaughlin was fourth and teammate Kenny Quisenberry was sixth.

After the meet, both Tiger Cub coaches were delighted with their teams' performances.

"We were hoping to run the meet in better weather, but we are going to take what we had. From our side of it, it was very exciting. I think most of all I was pleased with how our team competed amongst themselves," said girls' coach Garry Anderson.

"I'm really excited for them. They ran really well. It's just so satisfying for them. They did great," GHS boys' coach Mike Schimpf said. "I'm so glad that so many of them reached some goals. This is the time when you start to reach those goals you set for yourself. You get the shot at being All-County and Conference is coming."

The Lady Tiger Cubs had come in with some high expectations, hoping to have at least three girls in the top seven. Getting five easily exceeded that expectation.

"So we came home with the team championship trophy, the individual championship trophy and five girls in the top seven. A great day for Greencastle girls' cross country," Anderson said. "With all this said, I felt the team performed as we had hoped with the training they had been doing the last two-and-a-half weeks. We knew each team in the county had one or two tough girls. The outcome and placing would be how hard we raced."

The coach was especially pleased with his team's ability to run in a pack and with the strong performances of a couple of young runners.

Greencastle's Kaitlyn Murtagh closes in on her first-place finish of 21:46.

"Our top five only had 1:15 from the first girl to our fifth. This is good and will hopefully get better as we go along in the tournaments," Anderson said. "I was also pleased with the times and positions of Emily Gill and Felicia Barger. Both ran good tough races."

For the GHS boys, the night was not simply about winning, but continuing to get better at the right time of year.

"We want to still drop our times," Schimpf said. "We had some guys run lifetime bests with Jordan Lewis, Kyle Harlan, Ryan Gillespie, Ryan Stevens, Mike Mahoney, Walter Chiarella. The guys just keep stepping it up. It's great for them that they're able to be successful."

The flip side of this, though, is avoiding feeling too good. The Tiger Cubs will be back on this course twice in the next week for even bigger tournaments.

"They need to not get overconfident, because it's going to be very close, I think. But at the same time, you take this one in stride, and you're happy, and then tomorrow you go work some more and get ready for the next one," Schimpf commented.

For North Putnam, the day was highlighted by the three All-County performers.

"I was super proud of Paxton Stephenson, she got second, and that's just incredible to see her go out and do that," Cougar coach Kevin Lutes said. "Our top two boys' finishers were Kasey McLaughlin and Kenny Quisenberry, who both got All-County. That was tremendous."

After Stephenson, Whitney High finished 10th, and Elsiana Crosby was 15th. Megan Robinson placed 20th, and Hillary Salyers closed out the scoring with a 21st place finish.

"The rest of the girls' squad was passing as many runners as they could. They ran a great race tonight, and they didn't let the weather get into their heads," Lutes said.

The boys' did not field a complete squad, but after the two All-County runners, Jared Preecs placed 27th and Chris Baker was 31st.

"Our kids like running in the rain, so this worked out perfectly," Lutes said.

The Eagles ran in the middle of the pack, as the girls placed third while the boys were second.

After Lund, the next Lady Eagle finisher was Madi Marsteller in 13th. Brittany Fitzpatrick was just behind in 14th, and Mikayla Cherry was 15th. Robbie Urton finished the scoring in 22nd.

Coach Elaine Bye would have liked a better finish, but knows her runners' times are headed in the right direction.

"I can't argue with what they did. Four out of the six girls who finished PR'ed, so they're times are still coming down," Bye said. "I can't be upset with that. They all went out there and ran their best.

"I would like to have come in first or second, but we have two more meets to go out there and do better," she added.

Similarly, the boys' race was slightly disappointing for the Eagles. Although the team stayed nicely in their pack, they were too far back in the field to compete with the Tiger Cubs.

"I think it was a great race for Greencastle; their kids ran well," South coach Brian Gardner said. "We were in our pack; our pack's just gotta be moved up. When their two and three go, our one through five go. We have to get to that point. The great thing about it is, we get to go run Saturday in conference and have a chance in that as well."

Andrew Northrup led the Eagle effort in eighth, and was followed by teammates in the next five spots. Paul Rubino was ninth, Josh Olczak was 10th and Tanner Barr, Tyler Heavin and Jorge Cavell were 11th through 13th

"Our kids ran close to the same times they ran all year, and at this point in the year, you want times to lower. That was one of the big things for us going in was trying to get our times down. That just didn't happen tonight," Gardner concluded.

Cloverdale coach Katie McLaughlin was pleased with the efforts of her team, although she knew some of the runners might have been disappointed. For the girls, Nikki Routh and Jenna Lewis were the first two runners out of All-County, placing eighth and ninth.

"I'm proud of them. I know they're disappointed in themselves for not making All-County, but I'm not disappointed in one of them," McLaughlin said. "I'm so proud of each and every one of these kids. It takes so much to come out and 3.1 miles in front of a bunch of people. It takes guts."

Next for the girls were Kayla Hegna and Megan Schwomeyer in 18th and 19th. Sam Monnett finished the Clover effort in 26th.

Kyle Chambers led the Clover boys, placing 16th. Brian Stout and Chuck Strunk came next in 24th and 25th. James Murphy placed 30th and Joe Fidler was 32nd.

"These conditions were just horrible. The wet course didn't help at all. They weren't prepared for the slickness of some of the hills. The traction really caused a lot of problems. I think they did as well as they could," McLaughlin said.

All four schools will return to South Putnam at 10 a.m. Saturday for the WCC Meet.

At South Putnam

Putnam County Meet

Girls' Results

Greencastle 21, North Putnam 66, South Putnam 69, Cloverdale 76

Individual results (Top 7 make All-County) -- 1. Murtagh (G) 21:46, 2. Stephenson (N) 22:13, 3. Dwigans (G) 22:20, 4. Culler (G) 22:34, 5. Lund (S) 22:43, 6. Barger (G) 23:01, 7. Gill (G) 23:02, 8. Routh (C) 23:15, 9. Lewis (C) 24:03, 10. High (N) 24:30, 11. Humphreys (G) 24:49, 12. Martinez (G) 24:54, 13. Marsteller (S) 24:56, 14. Fitzpatrick (S) 25:21, 15. Crosby (N) 25:48, 16. Cherry 25:52, 17. Johnson (G) 26:56, 18. Hegna (C) 27:04, 19. Schwomeyer (C) 27:05, 20. Robinson (N) 27:49, 21. Salyers (N) 27:51, 22. Urton (S) 28:10, 23. Parent (N) 28:18, 24. Query (G) 28:52, 25. Cox (S) 28:54, 26. Monnett (C) 30:20, 27. Preecs (N) 36:05.

Boys' Results

Greencastle 15, South Putnam 40, Cloverdale 84, North Putnam INC

Individual results (Top 7 make All-County) -- 1. Wilson (G) 17:17, 2. Lewis (G) 17:57, 3. Harlan (G) 18:18, 4. McLaughlin (N) 18:22, 5. Gillespie (G) 18:30, 6. Quinsenberry (N) 18:41, 7. Stevens (G) 18:53, 8. Northrup (S) 19:01, 9. Rubino (S) 19:03, 10. Olczak (S) 19:05, 11. Barr (S) 19:20, 12. Heavin (S) 19:26, 13. Cavel (S) 19:31, 14. Mahoney (G) 19:32, 15. Eubank (G) 19:49, 16. Chambers (C) 19:57, 17. Parker (S) 20:00, 18. Kelly (S) 20:34, 19. Bowen (S) 20:39, 20. Hayes (S) 20:46, 21. Arnold (S) 20:52, 22. Ruldolf (S) 20:53, 23. Toland (S) 21:40, 24. Stout (C) 22:16, 25. Strunk (C) 22:26, 26. Chiarella (G) 22:41, 27. Preecs (N) 22:43, 28. Kelly (S) 22:51, 29. Norman (S) 23:34, 30. Murphy (C) 23:49, 31. Baker (N) 24:00, 32. Fidler (C) 24:24, 33. Albright (S) 24:30.

Next meet -- All four Putnam County teams return to South Putnam for the WCC Meet at 10 a.m. Saturday.

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