Wilson wins, ‘excited’ Cubs take ninth

Sunday, September 11, 2016
Greencastle sophomore Emma Wilson easily won the Ben Davis Invitational on Saturday.

INDIANAPOLIS — Greencastle sophomore Emma Wilson placed first in the girls’ division and South Putnam senior Kieffer Vittetow was third in the boys’ race at the Ben Davis Invitational cross country meet on Saturday.

The event was run in soggy conditions with standing water for the first few hundred feet after the starting line.

Wilson sloshed her way to victory in a time of 18:45.35, which was nearly 11 seconds faster than runnerup Erin Sullivan of Southport.

“Emma ran a beautiful race,” Greencastle co-head coach Craig Jordan said. “She’s a natural front runner, but this year we’ve been getting her to explore other race strategies. She has good speed and she’s starting to get confident in her abilities.”

Shelby Kallem ran second for the Tiger Cubs, placing 28th overall.

Jordan noted the excitement in his team members as the announcer finished the meet by going over team results.

”Our girls sat quietly and began looking at each other when they heard ‘12th Avon, 11th Batesville, 10th Plainfield, 9th GREENCASTLE!’,” he said. “All of our girls screamed in excitement as if we won and the announcer said ‘Greencastle is pumped!

“Yes we were!” Jordan added. “We finished behind three teams that are in our regional. That was spectacular as the top five on that day will advance to semi-state.”

South Putnam’s top finisher in the girls’ race was Maddie McHugh, who placed 90th in 22:29.78. The Eagles finished 22nd as a team.

Clayton Wilson paced the Greencastle boys by placing 23rd in 17:37.23.

“We have been working on dialing in the early part of the race for the boys, and they nailed it,” Greencastle co-head coach Mark Jedele said. “All of our boys were looking very comfortable after the first mile.”

Jedele noted the course was in even worse shape for the boys’ race following the girls’ event.

“Many runners were just as focused on staying upright as making their way down the course,” he said. “Our boys remained optimistic in spite of the conditions. One of our boys even lost both shoes early on in mud traps but still managed to finish the race barefoot with a season-best time.

“The Greencastle boys have a lot of spirit, and when the time is right (weather permitting) they are going to produce some great times.”

South Putnam’s Vittetow ran a time of 16:35 for his third-place finish, which was 5.25 seconds behind the winner.

“Rain had the course really messy and slow compared to most years,” South Putnam coach Brandon Welti said. “The girls really struggle, and just didn’t seem to have it in them. The guys raced well.”

Michael Crossman was out of the Eagle lineup due to illness.

“We missed him, so we know we can do better,” Welti added. “A few guys were under the weather. Kieffer and Logan did great jobs as usual. Those two are highly-motivated and driven.

“We still have a lot to improve on, but we’re pleased with how things went.”

Girls’ race

Team scores — Fishers 69, West Lafayette 114, Pendleton Heights 142, Brownsburg 165, Zionsville 192, Southport 202, Lawrence North 211, Center Grove 215, Greencastle 262, Plainfield 267, Batesville 308, Avon 309, East Noble 322, Westfield 365, Bellmont 387, North Central 404, Crawfordsville 456, Columbus East 494, Herron 505, Western Boone 536, Ben Davis 582, South Putnam 623, Covenant Christian 685, University 725.

Winner — Emma Wilson (Gc) 18:45.35

Other Greencastle runners — 28. Shelby Kallem 20:48.42, 43. Sydney Kallem 21:08.11, 89. Seelye Stoffregen 22:28.77, 101. Mika Mozawa 22:50.30, 111. Arianna Pershing 23:15.80, 127. Katie Haynes 24:28.30

South Putnam runners — 90. Maddie McHugh 22:29.78, 118. Ally Nichols 23:42.48, 119. Samara Young 23:43.04, 145. Rachel Jones 25:49.52, 151. Addi Blaydes 27:01.81, 162. Angelina Becker 38:00.73

Boys’ race

Team scores — Avon 43, West Lafayette 83, North Central 113, Center Grove 137, Southport 145, Greenfield-Central 199, Lawrence North 231, Brownsburg 276, Ben Davis 287, Westfield 300, South Putnam 323, Plainfield 336, Batesville 343, Columbus East 350, Greencastle 378, East Noble 441, Crawfordsville 443, Indianapolis Pike 446, Western Boone 540, Herron 590, Covenant Christian 634, University 670, International 705, Tri-West 720

Winner — Rhys Grealish (Avon) 16:29.75

Greencastle runners — 23. Clayton Wilson 17:37.23, 50. Cameron Lewis 18:05.54, 82. Ben Gellman 18:45.62, 106. Braden Pershing 1:13.37, 117. Jacob Crawley 19:34.44, 120. Justin Berish 19:42.63, 142. Tylan Jones 21:18.89.

South Putnam runners — 3. Kieffer Vittetow 16:35.00, 38. Logan Vandermark 17:55.14, 59. Austin Rumley 18:17.86, 109. Dru Bottorff 19:18.90, 114. Eric Hinkle 19:28.48, 138. Adair Bock 21:00.2

Clovers, Cougars at Cascade — At Clayton, Cloverdale and North Putnam competed in the Jon Mitchell Invitational on Saturday.

Cloverdale’s boys were the only group to have enough runners to enter the team competition, and placed seventh out of nine sqauads.

Nolan Maners paced the Clovers by placing 28th in 19:57.96. North Putnam’s top finisher was Kyle Young, who was 68th in 23:14.00.

In the girls’ race, Chelsie Edwards of Cloverdale was fourth in 22:29.20. Taylor Hensley paced North Putnam by finishing 30th in 27:11.09.

Girls’ race

Winner — Madison Vauters (Mooresville) 20:51.91

Cloverdale runners — 4. Chelsie Edwards 22:29.20, 25. Tori Szalay 26:36.76, 41. Ashleigh Nepote 31:17.10

North Putnam runners — 30. Taylor Hensley 27:11.09, 31. Sydney Sims 27:44.24, 45. Amber Schubert 36:24.02

Boys’ race

Team scores — Danville 47, Southmont 60, Speedway 84, Mooresville 94, Decatur Central 95, Cascade 146, Cloverdale

Winner — Daniel Gerber (Danville) 16:55.81

Cloverdale runners — 28. Nolan Maners 19:57.96, 32. Eddie Mannan 20:04.43, 45. Ryan Heavener 21:07.63, 59. Andrew Monnett 21:58.77, Elliot Williamson 22:09.55, 72. Abel Bates 23:31.61, 79. Josh Beikman 25:07.24, 84. Zack Nees 29:34.34, 85. Aaron Fulkerson 30:37.65

North Putnam runner — 68. Kyle Young 23:14.00

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