Flatter course for CC regional should aid times

When comparing times between runners who competed last week in high school cross country sectionals at Ben Davis and South Putnam, it would be easy to think the Ben Davis runners were superior.

Their times were much faster than those of the South Putnam sectional participants.

Even Greencastle’s Emma Wilson, an all-state performer last year who has rarely lost in high school, had a slower sectional time than the girls’ winner at Ben Davis (by two seconds).

The reason?

South Putnam’s course contains several hills that slow down the runners, while the course at Ben Davis is much flatter.

“It’s like a whole different race running there,” said South Putnam senior Logan Vandermark. “It’s almost like running track instead of cross country.”

When athletes from those two sectionals compete in the Ben Davis regional on Saturday, the comparison will return to apples versus apples.

The Ben Davis girls’ winner was Indianapolis Ritter freshman Mary Anna Wehrle, who had a time of 18:50.16.

Wilson’s time at South Putnam was 18:52, a full 30 seconds ahead of runnerup Taylor Nicholson of Avon.

The boys’ winner at Ben Davis was Jackson Martin of Zionsville, who had an impressive winning time of 15:59.02.

Danville’s Daniel Gerber won the South Putnam sectional in 16:33, defeating Kieffer Vittetow of South Putnam by three seconds.

Vittetow has run at Ben Davis several times during his career, and he likes the course.

“I’ve had some of my better times there,” he said Thursday as the team was practicing at the DePauw Nature Center. “We’ve been working hard all season, and we feel good about the regional.”

Vittetow has won several individual races this season, and his sectional time was beaten by only six runners in the Ben Davis sectional despite the faster course.

“I have run against the winner at Ben Davis [Jackson Martin of Zionsville] before,” Vittetow said. “He’s a good runner, and there will be a lot of good runners were. I just want to go out and run my best to try to advance.”

Vandermark noted that the teams from the Ben Davis sectional may have a slight advantage from being familiar with the course, but the runners from his sectional also have something in their favor.

“There is more room for improvement for the runners from our sectional because of the difference in courses,” he said.

The boys’ teams who will be competing in the regional are Avon, Brownsburg, Danville, South Putnam and Greencastle from the local sectional and Zionsville, Pike, Ben Davis, Ritter and Speedway from the Ben Davis sectional.

Zionsville won the team title at Ben Davis with 20 points, placing its top five runners in the top seven spots.

Avon won at South Putnam with 61 points, only having one runner in the top 10 but placing its next four runners in the 11-16 range.

Greencastle’s Clayton Wilson placed eighth in the South Putnam sectional, and also figures to be a good candidate to advance.

Thirteen runners in the Ben Davis sectional had better times than Wilson, who will also benefit from the site change this week.

The top 10 runners from non-advancing schools will also be competing. Cloverdale’s Chad Stevens is one of those entrants.

Girls’ teams who will be competing are Brownsburg, Avon, Plainfield, Greencastle and Cascade from South Putnam and the only four schools to field full teams at Ben Davis — Zionsville, Pike, Ritter and Ben Davis.

Putnam County athletes who will be competing as individuals are Chelsie Edwards of Cloverdale and Maddie McHugh, Samara Young and Ally Nichols of South Putnam.

Zionsville placed its top five runners in the top 11 and easily won the Ben Davis team title with 39 points.

Brownsburg won the South Putnam sectional with 38 points by placing five runners among the top 10.

Once again, the top five teams and top 10 individual finishers from non-advancing teams will move on — this time to the Carmel semistate on Oct. 22.