Full strength GHS squad rebounds at WCC meet

Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Greencastle won the 2012 WCC cross country meet Saturday at South Putnam. Members of the winning GHS squad are (front) Ichiro Mozawa, (second, from left) Justin Painter, Cory Lyons, Levi Lewis, Taylor Secrest, Alex Dozier, (back) Peyton Jones, Matthew White, Nathan Grzseik, Jacob Lewis, Tyler Hudson and Elijah Brattain.

Being a man down cost Greencastle on Tuesday as the South Putnam's boys' cross country squad won the Putnam County meet.

But the Tiger Cubs, at full strength on Saturday, continued their stranglehold on the WCC top spot.

Four runners in the top 10 catapulted Greencastle to first over the Eagles by a margin of 34 to 51, followed closely in third by Cascade with 56.

Monrovia was fourth with a score of 122, five points better than North Putnam's 127, with Cloverdale rounding out the field with a team score of 138.

Cadet senior Levi Musson blistered through the course, winning the race in 16:20. South Putnam's Hunter Barr, the winner in Tuesday's race, finished second with Greencastle's Tyler Hudson and Elijah Brattain finishing third and fourth.

North Putnam's Dalton Spear powered into fifth place ahead of Greencastle's Taylor Secrest, followed by Hunter Fox of Cascade in seventh place.

Berndt Freeman finished eighth for South Putnam, followed by Greencastle's Jacob Lewis and Cascade's Courtney Bryant to finish out the all-WCC runners.

Levi Lewis came across in 12th place to finish the scoring for Greencastle, who made up for a disappointing Tuesday performance to handily win the WCC meet.

Cloverdale was paced by Nick Blundell, who came in 19th place overall.

Greencastle boys' head coach Art Dwigans said the squad was motivated for Saturday's race.

"There was a night and day difference between Tuesday and today. We kept our top three up at the front for most of the race. They were in third, fourth and fifth for most of the race," Dwigans said.

"What really sealed it for us was our fourth and fifth runners moving up into those top positions. They kept a South Putnam team that beat us Tuesday behind them. That's what we talked about at the beginning of the race.

"We wanted our top three in front of their second finisher and our next three in front of their third. They really raced and put their heart and pride out there. I'm very proud of them."

Dwigans added the squad would need to use Saturday's run as a springboard for Tuesday's sectional.

"Hopefully the course will dry out a little bit between now and Tuesday. We've run nine races on it over the last four days with a lot of rain during that time," Dwigans said.

"We'll run our third real race on it Tuesday. Brownsburg, Avon and Plainfield will be the top three and then Danville, Decatur Central, South Putnam and ourselves will fight for the next four positions.

"It's going to be a very tight race for those last two team spots. The top three will distance themselves a little bit, but the competition between the next four may cut that distance down and we're going to try to be in the thick of it."

South Putnam head coach Brandon Welti knew that repeating Tuesday's feat was going to be difficult.

"The guys did not race as well as we had hoped. We knew that, based on Tuesday, when Greencastle came in full strength they were going to be way more difficult to beat," Welti said.

"They showed that today and we didn't do our best. We know we still have Tuesday coming up so we need to start changing our focus to next week.

"We know the Hendricks county schools are going to be on top. We've got a shot on the boys' side of that fifth spot. It's going to be tough," Welti added.

Welti said Tuesday will need to be an entire team effort.

"I think that if everyone does what they are supposed to, with the time improving and everyone getting to where they need to be. On the guys' side, Danville's pack is incredibly strong and they're probably the fifth place team," Welti said.

"It's going to be tough but if everything goes smoothly, who knows. One good race from everybody on the same race is all it takes."

North Putnam head coach Kevin Lutes said his squad performed well and was pleased with the effort from Dalton Spear.

"I thought Dalton ran a great race and really finished hard. He really wanted to be in the top five and to do that and PR was great for him to accomplish," Lutes said.

"I'd like to see the guys run a little faster Tuesday. The weather was better today and hopefully it will be even better on Tuesday and the guys can come out and run a strong race and keep building off of today's run."

Cloverdale head coach Kyle Walter said that Tuesday's race was the primary concern for his squad.

"They boys all ran fast times today. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into next season. I want them to run fast and try to PR Tuesday," Walter said.

In the middle school race, Greencastle was pushed hard by Cascade, but held on to win the race with 27 points, followed by the Cadet's 43.

South Putnam finished third with 63 points, followed by Cloverdale with a score of 110. Monrovia and North Putnam did not record team scores.

Ben Gellman won the race for Greencastle and led a group of five all-WCC Tiger Cub runners, including second place Clayton Wilson, fifth place Jacob Crawley and ninth and tenth place Jackson Kendall and Jake Featherson.

Cascade placed four in the top ten, led by Ben Shepard and David Durham in third and fourth, with Blake Collier in sixth and Sean Fox in eighth.

South Putnam's Blake Clearwater was the final member in the top ten, placing seventh. Cloverdale was led by Andrew Monnett's 22nd place finish, while Kaiden Kimble paced North Putnam in 25th place.

Nathan Grzesiek won the junior varsity race for Greencastle, followed by Cody Evans and Jacob Schroer of South Putnam.

At South Putnam

WCC Cross Country Meet

Boys' Results

1. Greencastle 34, 2. South Putnam 51, 3. Cascade 56, 4. Monrovia 122, 5. North Putnam 127, Cloverdale 138

1. Musson (C) 16:20; 2. Barr (SP) 17:08; 3. Hudson (G) 17:35; 4. Brattain (G) 17:49; 5. Spear (NP) 18:14; 6. Secrest (G) 18:17; 7. Fox (C) 18:19; 8. Freeman (SP) 18:22; 9. Lewis (G) 18:23; 10. Courtney (C) 18:33

JV Race

1. Grzesiek (G) 19:52; 2. Evans (SP) 19:56; 3. Schroer (SP) 20:55; 4. Hughes (C) 21:03; 5. Mozawa (G) 21:39; 6. Fruits (C) 21:45; 7. Dozier (G) 22:41; 8. Painter (G) 22:44; 9. Travner (C) 24:49; 10. Albers (SP) 27:27

Middle School Results

1. Greencastle 27, 2. Cascade 43, 3. South Putnam 63, 4. Cloverdale 110, Monrovia INC, North Putnam INC

1. Gellman (G) 11:58; 2. Wilson (G) 12:03; 3. Shepard (C) 12:06; 4. Durham (C) 12:14; 5. Crawley (G) 12:27; 6. Collier (C) 12:51; 7. Clearwaters (SP) 12:59; 8. Fox (C) 13:01; 9. Kendall (G) 13:07.08; 10. Featherson (G) 13:07.54