Cross country runners compete at WCC tourney

Corrie Romer of Greencastle took first in the WCC meet on Tuesday. (Courtesy Photo)

The West Central Conference celebrated its final cross country race Tuesday evening as the five remaining conference schools met at South Putnam to determine the winners of the 45th edition of the meet.

Greencastle comfortably topped the girls' meet over second-place South Putnam and third-place Cascade. Cascade, for the second straight meet, conquered Greencastle in the boys' race with South Putnam finishing third and Cloverdale taking fourth.

Tiger Cub junior Corrie Romer waited until the final stretch to fly past Eagle senior Madie Egold to win the girls' race in a time of 21:19. Arianna Pershing and Katie Haynes came in fourth and fifth for Greencastle while Brittany Love finished seventh and Sammantha Haynes finished the team score in ninth.

The Tiger Cub girls took first place at the WCC. (Courtesy Photo)

Greencastle head coach Gary Anderson said that the races were exciting and that the girls powered through in the end.

"They were outstanding, exciting races," Anderson said. "I thought the girls ran very strong and I was pleased.

"Corrie Romer ran well and I'm proud of her result. Egold's a tough runner and to get her took quite some doing.

Indinidual female winners (Courtesy Photo)

"I'm also proud of all seven of our girls because they almost ran in the top-10," Anderson added. "They were very close."

Julianna DeLano came in eighth for South Putnam, followed by Ariel Higgins in 12th, Maddie McHugh in 13th and Michaela Scales in 15th.

South Putnam head coach Brandon Welti said the squad still needed time to rest before the race.

Individual male winners (Courtesy photos)

"Coming into the race, we had a couple of sick girls out of school and a couple of other banged up and the meet turned out about how we expected it to," Welti said. "Madie had four days off to heal a foot injury.

"We had her run yesterday and then today. For her to run as well as she did, we're pretty proud of that."

Cloverdale and North Putnam both did not have enough runners for team scoring. Tori Szalay finished 14th for the Clovers, while Clare Plamondon finished 16th, Laura Worthington placed 19th and Izzy Monnett came in 23rd.

Cloverdale head coach Andrew Tyler said the squad missed their primary goal but thought times were moving in the right direction.

"The girls ran pretty well," Tyler said. "We were really hoping to have an all-conference runner but that didn't happen.

"Saturday, we definitely want to improve on those times and hopefully pull off something there."

Alanna Nunez was the highest finished for North Putnam in 22nd place, followed by Kylee Detro, Sydney Sims and Kayla Clodfelter in 25th, 26th and 27th respectively.

North Putnam head coach Kevin Lutes said the squad kept shrinking while some fixes were in order for Saturday.

"We keep getting smaller amounts of people to run," Lutes noted. "The ones that were here put forth a pretty good effort. We need to be more relaxed going into the race as a few of them went out too fast at the beginning of the race. That's something we can learn from and make corrections for Saturday.

"Sydney Sims had a good race for us. Alanna Nunez bounced back from being injured and as a freshman, she ran well here and I look forward to seeing what she can do over the next couple of weekends."

Cascade, as they had done at the Tiger Cub Invitational three days ago, got the better of Greencastle 33-39, with the Cadets' Mac White winning the boys' race with a time of 16:57.

Taylor Secrest placed third for the Tiger Cubs, followed by Clayton Wilson in sixth, Preston Headley in ninth, Cameron Lewis in 10th and Elijah Brattain in 11th.

Anderson said the boys would need to be ready to go again with the Cadets come sectionals.

"It was close again with Cascade," Anderson noted. "We've been that with them for the past three meets and it will probably be that way again for sectionals."

Kieffer Vittetow finished second for South Putnam, followed by Berndt Freeman in 5th, Michael Crossman in 16th, Logan Vandermark in 17th and Tyler Vandermark in 21st.

Welti said the team title was a little bit out of reach but two all-conference runners was a positive.

"The guys knew coming in that it was going to be a longshot in the team score," Welti noted. "We also knew it was going to be competitive for the all-conference spots.

"Berndt probably had his best race of the year and Kieffer ran well but fell off in the last 400 meters. We finished about as well as we expected and we're pleased with having two all-conference placers."

Cloverdale was paced by Nick Blundell's 15th-place finish, followed by Evan Monnett in 19th, Chad Stevens in 22nd, R.T. Mann in 25th and Nolan Maners in 27th.

Tyler said the squad didn't match what they were looking for but had time to regroup before Saturday.

"We wanted to have two guys break 18:00 but that didn't happen today," Tyler said. "We're looking forward to Saturday and, with a few days to train, look to pull something off then."

North Putnam only had two runners available for the race, with Michael Roach finishing 26th and Zach Culberson placing 28th.

Lutes said the running duo put in a good showing but, like the girls, needed a couple of tweaks.

"The guys ran really well," Lutes said. "Again, there's a couple of things we need to tweak before Saturday and some different parts of the course where we could run better."

With the four county school returning for the Putnam County Meet Saturday, the four coaches said that getting another crack at the course before county would beneficial in different ways.

Lutes and Tyler said the Cougars and Clovers needed a second chance to get their timing down.

"We need to get mentally stronger," Lutes said. "There is a couple of areas, like the middle mile where we went into limbo, where we can work on before Saturday."

"Today, it seemed like everyone ran their first mile slow except Clare," Tyler added. "For whatever reason, I feel like a few of the runners are intimidated by this course and we've got to get that out of our heads and pick it up on that first mile"

Welti said the Eagles need the time to heal their sick and injured.

"We're just hoping to get healthy between now and Saturday," Welti said. "We need to get rested, compete as best as we can and see if we can mix in a little bit better with Greencastle."

Anderson, meanwhile, said the race was a chance to get another look at the course before the sectional race.

"We need to keep getting used to this course," Anderson said. "We've been here several times and they've made slight adjustments to the course.

"We need to get used to the course again and see how well we can do."

At South Putnam

Greencastle 26, South Putnam 49, Cascade 63, Cloverdale INC, North Putnam INC

Individual Results

1. Romer (G) 21:19; 2. Egold (SP) 21:21; 3. Whicker (C) 22:02; 4. Pershing (G) 22:03; 5. K. Haynes (G) 22:22; 6. Edmondson (C) 22:26; 7. Love (G) 22:38; 8. DeLano (SP) 22:49; 9. S. Haynes (G) 22:56; 10. Welker (G) 23:03; 11. King (G) 23:13; 12. Higgins (SP) 23:27; 13. McHugh (SP) 23:32; 14. Szalay (CL) 23:45; 15. Scales (SP) 23:52; 16. Plamondon (CL) 24:01; 17. J. Jones (SP) 24:10; 18. R. Jones (SP) 24:27; 19. Worthington (CL) 24:33; 22. Nunez (NP) 25:42; 23. Monnett (CL) 27:21; 25. Detro (NP) 28:53; 26. Sims (NP) 29:05; 27. Clodfelter (NP) 30:29

Boys' Race

Cascade 33, Greencastle 39, South Putnam 61, Cloverdale 107, North Putnam INC

Individual Results

1. White (C) 16:57; 2. Vittetow (SP) 17:14; 3. Secrest (G) 17:40; 4. Edmondson (C) 17:59; 5. Freeman (SP) 18:01; 6. Wilson (G) 18:02; 7. Durham (C) 18:12; 8. Johnson (C) 18:13; 9. Headley (G) 18:19; 10. C. Lewis (G) 18:24; 11. Brattain (G) 18:48; 12. Pershing (G) 18:52; 15. Blundell (CL) 19:19.20; 16. Crossman (SP) 19:19.21; 17. L. Vandermark (SP) 19:23; 19. E. Monnett (CL) 19:41; 20. J. Lewis (G) 19:57 21. T. Vandermark (SP) 20:05; 22. Stevens (CL) 20:14; 23. Bunten (SP) 20:30; 24. Evans (SP) 20:33; 25. Mann (CL) 20:35; 26. Roach (NP) 20:36; 27. Maners (CL) 20:38; 28. Culberson (NP) 21:50; 29. A. Monnett (CL) 22:18; 30. Mannan (CL) 22:28

JV Boys' Race

Greencastle 15, Cloverdale 40, Cascade INC, South Putnam INC

1. Crawley (G) 18:59; 2. Gellman (G) 19:27; 3. Gomez (C) 19:42; 4. Jones (G) 19:59; 5. Berish (G) 20:23; 6. Reynolds (C) 20:47; 7. Kendall (G) 21:27; 8. Bock (SP) 22:21; 9. Trauner (C) 23:14; 10. Williamson (CL) 23:40; 12. Bates (CL) 25:37; 13. Fulkerson (CL) 28:56; 14. Nees (CL) 30:43; 15. Nelson (CL) 31:00

JV Girls' Race

1. A. King (G) 24:40; 2. Blaydes (SP) 27:40

Next Meet: The Putnam County schools compete in the Putnam County Meet Saturday.