Tiger Cubs sweep top seven, win County

Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The Greencastle boys' team swept the top seven position en route to its County Meet win. Posting finishes in the top seven were (front, left) Taylor Secrest (7th), Nathan Eubank (4th), Elijah Brattain (3rd), (back) Hunter Mitchell (6th), Ryan Stevens (1st), Tyler Hudson (2nd) and Paul Bryan (5th).

Greencastle's boys' cross country squad did a number on the field Tuesday night, accomplishing a rare feat at South Putnam High School.

The Tiger Cubs completed a perfect sweep by taking the top seven positions in a dominating performance at the Putnam County cross country meet.

Ryan Stevens led the charge with a winning time of 17:00. Tyler Hudson placed second, with Elijah Brattain, Nathan Eubank, Paul Bryan, Hunter Mitchell and Taylor Secrest rounding out the top seven spots, claiming all seven all-county running spots.

Secrest fended off North Putnam's Dalton Spear for seventh, with Joe Rumley and Justin Wilson of Cloverdale rounding out the top ten.

Greencastle head coach Craig Callahan was impressed with what his squad accomplished.

"We are very happy with our results here tonight. We came into tonight knowing that we were going to perform pretty well. We were hoping to perform like we just did. We're excited with the results, knew it was going to be close regarding a sweep," Callahan said.

"We didn't want to make a lot of noise about it going into tonight, so we kept it to ourselves. We had been looking at other times in the county and we realized we were going to be close.

"It's exciting to have this feeling right now. They performed. They exceeded my expectations," Callahan added.

"To carry that over to Saturday, we have to keep our focus. We're not going to change anything but continue what we do best: working hard at practice, pushing ourselves as far as we can go, and then see what happens."

South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner felt his squad was hurt a little without the leadership of Hunter Barr on the course.

"When your lead guy isn't out there running it changes some things. For some of our guys, this was their first time running in a bigger meet that means something. Some guys ran personal bests, some guys didn't," Gardner said.

"At this point, the times need to be going down, which is a bit disappointing. What is encouraging is we did have guys running well and competing at the end, passing guys for spots. At the beginning, I thought we would end up in second place and that is what we got."

Cloverdale head coach Rod Mann was impressed with the effort his squad put in.

"This is the best effort that the boys have had all year. I thought they did really good. Their mental attitude was really good. They finished right around where I thought they would be. We got third, but I'm proud of the boys," Mann said.

"Our second through five runners, we challenged them and they took up the challenge with heart. They did what we wanted them to do today. They proved to themselves mentally what they can do, and I'm looking for good things Saturday," Mann added.

North Putnam head coach Kevin Lutes felt that the competition was stiff for his squad.

"They're doing well. We've been hit with injuries, which cost us three runners today. We just weren't a strong team today. Dalton Spear ran a great race and I think he's where he needs to be. Everybody was running hard, but it was difficult to compete out there," Lutes said.

"I do think we'll be running our best times, at least for the most part. There's more competition and they can use that if they're running smart Saturday."

In the middle school race, Greencastle swept the top five spots for a perfect score of 15. Jacob Lewis won the race with a time of 11:58. Lewis was followed by Jacob Kessler, Ben Gellman, Logan Beck and Clayton Wilson for the Tiger Cubs.

Nick Blundell of Cloverdale and Caleb Nordmeyer of North Putnam rounded out the all-county runners.

At South Putnam

Putnam County Boys'

Cross Country Meet

High School

Greencastle 15, South Putnam 69, Cloverdale 74, North Putnam 90

1. Stevens (G) 17:00; 2. Hudson (G) 17:14; 3. Brattain (G) 17:21; 4. Eubank (G) 17:29; 5. Bryan (G) 17:45; 6. Mitchell (G) 17:50; 7. Secrest (G) 17:54; 8. Spear (NP) 17:56; 9. Rumley (CL) 18:22; 10. Smith (CL) 18:55; 11. Potts (SP) 18:58; 12. Franklin (SP) 19:03; 13. Lund (SP) 19:34; 15. Nield (SP) 19:43; 16. Worthington (CL) 19:51; 17. Osborn (NP) 19:53; 18. Hendershot (NP) 19:58; 19. Nees (CL) 20:08; 20. Harris (SP) 20:10; 24.Waycott (CL) 20:35; 29. Mindiola (NP) 21:23; 31. Mason (NP) 21:36

Middle School

Greencastle 15, Cloverdale 69, North Putnam 74, South Putnam 76

1. Lewis (G) 11:58; 2. Kessler (G) 12:22; 3. Gellman (G) 12:28; 4. Beck (G) 12:30; 5. Wilson (G) 12:52; 6. Blundell (CL) 13:11; 7. Nordmeyer (NP) 13:13; 8. Monnett (CL) 13:31; 9. Clearwater (SP) 13:37; 10. Jones (G) 13:41; 12. Webster (NP) 13:45; 14. Mason (NP) 13:58; 17. Bugh (SP) 14:22; 20. Vandermark (SP) 15:32; 21. Pitts (SP) 15:34; 22. R.T. Mann (CL) 15:39; 23. Roberts (CL) 15:58; 25. Brown (NP) 16:16; 26. Nichols (CL) 16:18; 28. Crum (SP) 17:09; 29. Sarr (NP) 17:25