Tiger Cubs, Cougars split in cross country

ROACHDALE -- The middle school cross country teams from Greencastle and North Putnam battled Thursday, with Greencastle winning the girls' race and North Putnam taking the boys' event.

The loss was the first dual meet loss for the boys this season. Most of the usual runners for GMS were out with injuries or resting.

Ichiro Mozawa was fourth overall, with Cameron Lewis placing sixth, and Mitchell Johnson finishing seventh. Peyton Jones was seventh and Yuji Mozawa was 10th.

Head coach Art Dwigans laid the responsibility for the loss at his own feet.

"Unfortunately our boys suffered their first dual meet loss of the season," Dwigans said. "Although they put up a good surge in the latter part of the race, our boys fell too far behind off the start. We had nine of our 14 boys out tonight with injuries and resting tired legs from meets falling so close together. I will take credit for this loss tonight. I felt like I had the kids out there that we needed to run strong and they did in the second half of the race."

For the girls, Libby Brush led the way in first place, followed by Sammy Haynes in second, Lily Spencer in third and Bailey Laussee in fourth. Whitney Weinschenk was seventh on the night.

The GMS teams now will turn its focus on Saturday's state meet, and Dwigans hopes to have everyone back in time.

"I hope to be back to full strength by Saturday for the state meet, with the exception of our number three girl who doesn't look to return from an unknown knee injury," he said.