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Tiger Cubs win big XC meet with tiebreaker
BRAZIL -- Twenty-ninth place in a cross country meet rarely garners as much attention as it did Tuesday at the Northview Invitational.
Greencastle and the hosts tied at 53-53 but GHS took the invitational title with Cameron Lewis's 29th-place finish the difference as a tie-breaker score.
The Tiger Cub girls' squad did not have to worry like the boys' squad did after taking five of the top eight spots to finish on 26 points, more than 50 ahead of second place South Putnam.
Elijah Brattain, Clayton Wilson and Taylor Secrest finished second, third and fourth to lead the early charge for the Tiger Cubs. Levi Lewis finished 17th and Braden Pershing finished 27th to round up the scoring, but needed Lewis' effort to claim the team title.
Greencastle head coach Garry Anderson commended Lewis' efforts.
"Cameron's a great kid," Anderson said. "He's the kind of kid that can do that for you. I like that. He's a good young man."
Anderson added that the squad performed well in an unknown environment.
"I'm pretty impressed," Anderson said. "I didn't know what to expect tonight with the workouts we've had and the meet Saturday, so I'm pleased. Both teams did fine. I'm happy. We got some real good times out of the young guys."
Corrie Romer was first across the line for Greencastle in the girls' race, finishing third and was followed by Brittany Love, Sammy Haynes and Alex Stoffregen to claim four of the top six spots. Megan Haynes finished eighth to complete a dominant outing by the Tiger Cubs.
Anderson was surprised by the gap the girls created against the hosts and county rivals South Putnam.
"We were a little hesitant at first," Anderson said. "We didn't know what to expect with South Putnam here and Northview having a good runner or two. It was going to be a tight race but it turned out to be more than we expected. Not too bad for a group of kids.
South Putnam's boys finished fourth behind Berndt Freeman's 10th place finish. Kieffer Vittetow and Lane Franklin finished 13th and 14th, Tyler Nield finished 23rd and Tyler Vandermark rounded out the scoring in 35th place.
Madison Egold split up the Greencastle finish by placing seventh in the girls' race. Julianna DeLano finished 11th, followed by Jessica Jones in 14th, Ariel Higgins in 19th and Mallory Glaze in 26th place.
South Putnam head coach Brandon Welti said both squads were right in the thick of the action.
"I feel like the boys finished about where we expected them to finish," Welti said. "The girls' finished ahead of where we thought they might as we watched the race. They finished better than we expected."
Welti added that without a race between now and the WCC meet, the squad for the conference race was likely settled upon.
"On the girls' side, we have an injury that kind of determined the conference squad for us," Welti said. "That's no exactly the best way to determine things and it stinks for our injured runner.
"It looks pretty well determined on the boys' side but we'll look at the workouts because we have a couple of guys that are close together. The order can change on any given day."
Welti's primary concern was keeping practices fresh enough between now and the WCC meet in two weeks' time.
"The lack of racing definitely makes us nervous," Welti said. "The fact that we have conference before county now is not ideal. We'll work longer intervals since we have not put too much emphasis on that yet.
"We'll have a guys-versus-girls intra-squad competition. They don't know about that yet. We'll find ways to keep practice creative as we finish up."
North Putnam's boys finished ninth on Tuesday, led by Michael Roach's 50th-place finish. Austin Trotter came in 56th, Avery Gambill placed 64th, Chase Salyers took 70th place and Trae Straziscar closed the Cougar run in 79th.
Claire Dean led the Cougar girls with a 46th-place finish, beating out Alexandria Land in 49th place. Brooke Smith finished 59th and Kylee Detro came in 63rd place.
With two invitationals still to come before the WCC meet, Anderson said the Tiger Cubs weren't done putting in work just yet.
"We have the Decatur Central race on Saturday," Anderson said. "There's going to be some pretty good competition over there. The following week we have our own invitational over at the fairgrounds with about eight or nine other teams.
"We're still working hard. We worked through this meet tonight. We won't be cutting or tapering for quite some time. There's a lot of hard work to go. The kids all know it, they're pushing hard and there are no complaints. I'm enjoying this as much as they are."
At Northview
Northview Invitational
Boys' Results
Greencastle 53 (Tiebreaker 29), Northview 53 (Tiebreaker 32), Clay City 85, South Putnam 96, Cascade 123, South Vermillion 152, Rockville 172, Fountain Central 173, North Putnam 274, North Vermillion 300, Riverton Parke 325
1. Yocum (N) 16:53.7; 2. Brattain (G) 17:41.0; 3. Wilson (G) 17:47.1; 4. Secrest (G) 17:50.5; 5. Ames (CC) 17:56.7; 6. Heffner (N) 18:01.4; 7. White (C) 18:07.4; 8. Cochran (CC) 18:11.4; 9. Trout (N) 18:20.6; 10. Freeman (SP) 18:27.9; 13. Vittetow (SP) 18:41.3; 14. Franklin (SP) 18:42.2; 17. Lewis (G) 18:52.5; 23. Nield (SP) 19:18.6 27. Pershing (G) 19:32.0; 29. Lewis (G) 19:35.4; 34. Crawley (G) 19:45.4; 35. T. Vandermark (SP) 19:47.1; 37. L. Vandermark (SP) 19:50.7; 47. Schroer (SP) 20:21.9; 48. Bunten (SP) 20:25.8; 50. Roach (NP) 20:33.3; 51. Jones (G) 20:37.2; 56. Trotter (NP) 20:43.5; 57. Painter (G) 20:46.2; 60. Evans (SP) 20:51.8; 64. Gambill (NP) 21:19.4; 70. Salyers (NP) 21:32.3; 79. Straziscar (NP) 22:15.2; 80. Ichiro (G) 22:25.7; 86. Taylor (SP) 22:58.2; 97. Albers (SP) 24:50.3
Girls' Results
Greencastle 26, South Putnam 77, Northview 89, Fountain Central 96, North Vermillion 141, Rockville 144, South Vermillion 149, Clay City 184, Riverton Parke 230, North Putnam INC, Cascade INC
1. Kidwell (N) 21:23.2; 2. Grubb (FC) 21:36.5; 3. Romer (G) 21:47.4; 4. Love (G) 21:50.2; 5. S. Haynes (G) 51:57.0; 6. Stoffregen (G) 22:35.5; 7. Egold (SP) 22:39.1; 8. M. Haynes (G) 22:55.2; 9. Hayes (R) 23:00.5; 10. Gayler (FC) 23:03.5; 11. DeLano (SP) 23:09.2; 12. King (G) 23:15.9; 15. Jones (SP) 23:29.7; 21. Higgins (SP) 24:02.8; 29. Glaze (SP) 24:43.2; 38. Lady (SP) 25:38.1; 40. Scales (SP) 25:42.5; 46. Dean (NP) 27:19.1; 49. Land (NP) 27:33.1; 59. Smith (NP) 30:07.6; 61. Nield (SP) 30:26.3; 63. Detro (NP) 31:30.7; 68. Seeman (G) 34:57.8