Menu
GHS wins Putnam County Cross Country Meet
Despite muddy and rainy conditions the Putnam County Cross Country meet went on as planned Tuesday, and continuing its run of successes, Greencastle came in first in both the boys' and girls' varsity races.
South Putnam earned second in both the girls' and the boys' races with Cloverdale earning third.
In the middle school races it was Cloverdale taking the top spot in the boys' and girls' race. Greencastle earned second in the boys' race with North and South Putnam finishing third and fourth respectively.
North Putnam took second place in the girls' middle school race with Greencastle earning third and South Putnam taking fourth.
In the girls' varsity race Emma Wilson was way out in front by the end of the first leg and she was the only runner in the girls' race to finish under 20 minutes with a time of 19:28.40.
The Tiger Cubs dominated the race taking first through fourth places with Seelye Stoffregen at two, Arianna Pershing at three and Sydney Lewis at four. Katerina King rounded out All-County team, earning seventh.
"That was a nice finish to have all our girls finish in the top seven," GHS coach Garry Anderson said. "We had hoped for that. Kat was fighting like crazy to get into the seventh place. She was very happy."
Anderson said his team is looking to get in the best possible shape to be in position to move out of sectional.
"We are working hard to finish up really well," Anderson said. "Each tournament we are trying to improve in each one. I think the kids have that understanding. The rain made things a little nasty here. But they've got to get used to that. It may happen like it was a few years ago at Ben Davis in Regional. It was water up to the calf."
The rain actually had stopped by the time the race started. But the course was muddy in places near the wooded area and the conditions got worse after the middle school races.
It wasn't just the course. The air was also muggy and warm making it tougher for the athletes to get sufficient oxygen.
However the runners were not slowed as freshman Chelsie Edwards took the top spot for Cloverdale and earning All-county in her first county meet finishing fifth. Clare Plomondon finished 14th.
"They are running hard," CHS coach Andy Tyler said. "They aren't getting caught up in running comfortably. They go out and they are running hard and laboring. That's what we want to see."
Tori Szalay finished ninth for CHS and Tyler believes she is a positive leader for the younger runners.
"I'm so impressed with her effort tonight," Tyler said. "She really went out there and pushed herself hard. She was a couple spots out of being All-County but man she worked hard. It's that kind of effort and that kind of leader ship that has helped us improve the way we have.
"Chelsie ran absolutely great today. You can contribute a lot of that to having a good role model. She ran extremely well."
South Putnam's Maddie McHugh was the only Eagle on the All-County team finishing sixth. But Delano Julianna earned eighth, Ally Nichols took 10th and Samara Young earned 11th and Alex Fanning was at 13th, all of which contributed to the second-place finish.
"For the team in general not having raced for a while makes coming out here a little difficult," Eagle coach Brandon Welton said. "You don't have that mental edge and you are not as physically sharp from not racing at all. The team came out here and did a good job despite that."
While North Putnam didn't record a team score, Alanna Nuņez took 12th while Gabby Carney earned 15th.
"Our overall times about a minute slower than what they have been," NPHS coach Kevin Lutes said. "I'm sure the slippery conditions played into that. Having said that we need to be more aggressive."
In the boys' race it was only one Cougar running and Caleb Duncan missed All-County by a few slots, finishing ninth.
Duncan said it was a friend from another school that gave him some motivation.
"It was hard," Duncan said. "I didn't expect to go so fast. But (Cloverdale's) RT (Mann) one of my Cloverdale friends said to me 'you can do it. You got to go.' That hyped me up."
Lutes believes his team is capable of stronger finishes in the future meets.
"Our kids are still young and learning," Lutes said. "But there were several times where it seemed like we checked out mentally. We just can't do that. I am confident we can correct that and bounce back."
Leading the boys was South Putnam's Keiffer Vittetow who finished 30 seconds better than the field with a time of 17:46.85.
"Kieffer has been strong and consistent all year," Welti said. "I'm glad he's able to maintain the level of competitiveness that he's had. That he gets out there and pushes himself.
Vittetow said the course at times hard to see and he was happy with a first-place finish.
"It was a hard race because I was alone most of the race," Vittetow said. "I just focused on finishing well. The weather was okay. Coming out of the woods it looked like a scary movie. It was nice and dark and a lot of fog. But it was cool."
In betwen Vittetow and his teammates were three Tiger Cubs, Wilson Clayton, Cameron Lewis and Braden Pershing.
Anderson was pleased with the way his boys packed together to get the team victory.
"That was a good showing to get the guys like that," Anderson said. "We knew that the young man from South Putnam was tougher than nails. So we did what's best. We came in right behind him."
Taking fifth and sixth place for the Eagles were Michael Crossman and Logan Vandermark.
"I think they were excited to get hammered by the rain," Welti said. "Mostly I could tell they were focused on trying to compete with certain individuals from other schools. I like to see them forgetting about things that they can't control and focus on what you can."
Chad Stevens finished seventh, making the All-County team, just beating out teammate Nick Blundell.
After Duncan's ninth-place finish it was Preston Headley and Jacob Lewis whose 10th and 11th place finishes earned GHS the win.
Greencastle now is looking to claim the same finish in its WIC meet on Oct. 3 and the sectional meet on Oct. 10, the latter of which contains some of the stiffest competition in the state tournament.
"It's going to be tough," Anderson said. "Avon is one of the best teams in the state. Brownsburg is pretty good and so is Plainfield. So fighting for that fourth position is going to be tough.
In the middle school boys' school race it was Ian Frank of Greencastle, Kyle Young of North Putnam, Brady Koosman of Cloverdale and Karl Egold of Soutn Putnam in first through fourth places, respectively.
Eagle Lilly Vittetow earned first-place in the girls' middle school race with Maci Couch taking second for CMS and Anna Haste taking third for NPHS.
At South Putnam
2015 Putnam County Cross Country Meet
Boys Team Results:
1. Greencastle -- 28 2. South Putnam -- 42 3. South Putnam -- 60 4. North Putnam
Boys Individual Results:
1. Kieffer Vittetow -- SP -- 17:46.85 2. Clayton Wilson -- GC 18:21.25, 3. Cameron Lewis -- GC 18:44.52, 4. Braden Pershing -- GC -- 18:46.13, 5. Micheal Crossman -- SP -- 18:54.46, 6. Logan Vandermark -- CL-- 19:05.21, 7. Chad Stevens -- CL-- 19:11.32, 8. Cameron Lewis -- GC -- 19:16.27, 9. Caleb Duncan-- NP -- 17:38.2, 10. Preston Headley -- GC -- 19:26.30
Other Tiger Cubs: 11. Jacob Lewis -- 19:32.67, 12. Ben Gellman -- 19:35.36, 13. Ethan Tuggle -- 19:42.05, 24. Jacob Crawley -- 19:48.31, . 16. Justin Berish -- 19:50.12, 17. William Wren -- 20:10.92, 19. Peyton Jones -- 20:22.28, 28. 22. Donovan Asbell -- 20:54.60, 27. Tylan Jones -- 21:46.97, 46. Jackson Kendal -- 23:22.06
Other Clovers: 15. RT Mann -- 19:50.12, 23. 20. Nolan Maners -- 20:36.46, Rylan Hall -- 21:01.84, 26. Eddie Mannan -- 21:21.92, 28. Ryan Heavener -- 21:5769, 55. 31. Andrew Monnett -- 23:25.27, 32. Elliot Williamson -- 27:30.64, Abel Bates -- 21:56.5,
Other Eagles: 18. Dru Bottorf -- 20:14.55, 21. Austin Rumley -- 20.39.35, 24. Eric Hinkle -- 21:12.97, 25. Blake Clearwaters -- 12:14.41, 29. Brock Adair -- 23:06.98, Lorenzo, Mainetti DNF
Girls Team Results:
1. Greencastle -- 17 2. South Putnam -- 47 3. South Putnam -- 60 4. North Putnam
Girls Individual Results:
1. Emma Wilson -- GC -- 18:00.4, 2. Seelye Stoffregen -- GC -- 21:33.68, 3. Pershing -- GC -- 21:38.90, 4. Sydney Lewis -- GC -- 20:53.8, 5. Chelsie Edwards -- CL -- 23:01.42, 6. Maddie McHugh -- SP -- 23:09.11, 7. Katerina King -- GC -- 23:20.37, 8. Juliana Delano -- SP -- 23:34.09 , . 9 Tori Szalay -- CL -- 23:44.35, 10. Ally Nichols -- SP -- 24:09.39
North Putnam: Alanna Nuņez -- 25:29.18, Gabriela Carney -- 27:32.26, 32. Sydney Sims -- 30:30.12 Lilly Rambis DNF Lucy Springmeyer DNF
Other Tiger Cubs: Miki Mozawa DNF, Corrie Romer DNF
Other Clovers: 12. Plondon -- 26:45.99, 16. Darlene Whitaker -- 29:37.44
17. Trinity Rairdon -- 32:28.55 18. Ashely Nepote 33:20.33
Other Eagles: 11. Samara Young -- 24:47.69, 13. Alex Fanning -- 26:04.23, 16, Addi Blaydes -- 27:56.53, 17. Lena Rutz -- 28:25.24, 18. Katie Jo Beasley -- 28:51.28, 23. Angelina Becker -- 36:12.96, Rachel Jones DNF
Middle School All-County Results
Girls:
1. Lilly Vittetow -- SP -- 13:41.54, 2. Maci Couch -- CL --13:58.45, 3. Anna Haste -- NP -- 14:36.25. 4. Lilly Monnett -- CL -- 14:44.27, 5. Abby Nees -- CL -- 14:46.22, 6. Grace Elmore -- NP -- 14:46.03, 7. Taylor Hensley -- NP -- 14:59.53
Boys:
1. Frank Ian -- GC -- 12:07.6, 2. Kyle Young -- NP -- 12:23.50, 3. Brady Koosman -- CL -- 12:31, 4. Karl Egold -- SP -- 12:54.66 5. Arif Veseli -- GC -- 13:03.44, 6. Isaac Maldonado -- CL --13:06.30, 7. Lee Haywood -- SP -- 13:07.71