PREP ROUNDUP: Wilson wins again; many local runners get best time

INDIANAPOLIS – Greencastle and South Putnam both competed in the Ben Davis Invitational cross country meet on Saturday.

Greencastle junior Emma Wilson finished first in the girls’ varsity division with a time of 17:37.66.

Ben Gellman paced the Tiger Cubs in the boys’ race, placing 45th in 17:10.23.

South Putnam was led by Austin Rumley (35th place in the boys’ race) and Lexi Vanihel (72nd in the girls’ race).

“This was a really good meet for us, but at the same time it was a pretty rough one as well,” SP coach Brandon Welti said. “I don’t think I really prepared them for this mentally as well as I should have. I didn’t stress enough to them how they would likely feel based off of all the quality work they’ve been putting in lately.”

Welti thought his team was “flat” overall.

“The training we’ve been doing over the past two weeks has been pretty heavy with quality, and we just raced on Thursday at Clay City,” he said. “Both squads have some heavy, dead legs that they’re running on, yet many of them still did an excellent job of battling through it. We didn’t look good, we looked flat, yet we still ran fast (relatively speaking, of course). Although we as a team are disappointed with how things turned out, we know that we still ran fairly well despite not looking/feeling the greatest.”

Rumley set a personal record by 46 seconds in leading the Eagles.

“Karl Egold was at 17:20, so it’s exciting to think that he could be another sub-17 guy by the end of the season,” Welti said. “The guys’ pack was a little broken up, but we still like their depth and feel they will be prepared to race well together at the end of the season.”

Injury and illness slowed the Eagles in the girls’ race.

“Chelsie Edwards has been sick over the past two weeks, so she had to sit this one out,” he said. “Ally Nichols got hurt about a mile into the race and had to get carted off the course. Lexi Vanihel normally paces off those two, so she found herself in a new situation pretty early in the race.”

In spite of not having her pacing partners, Welti thought Vanihel ran well.

“It was great to see her simply focus on racing and getting sub-21,” he said. “This is her first time running cross country, and she’s still kind of figuring things out. I believe she’ll be really strong by the end of the season, and her work ethic and commitment leads me to believe she’ll be flirting with sub-20 by the end of the season.”

Welti also thought Rachel Jones had a strong race.

“She seemed to be stuck in a rut for some time in terms of racing, but things clicked in this race and she looked really strong,” he said. “Overall, it wasn’t a bad day. We ran well while at the same time left the meet knowing that we can be much better than this.

“I guess it’s kind of a good thing when you can walk away with a PR or SB and still think, ‘Man, I should have been so much better than this’,” Welti added. “That’s kind of the vibe I got from a few of the runners, and I like that mindset.”

Greencastle girls – 1. Emma Wilson 17:37.66, 68. Sydney Kallem 20:43.72, 149. Emmy Huber 23:59.62, 155.Mika Mozawa 24:36.64

Greencastle boys – 45. Ben Gellman 17:10.23, 112. Justin Berish 18:42.31, 128. Ian Frank 19:28.87, 138. Preston Headley 20:09.27, 155. John Brook 22:07.76, 158. Donovan Asbell 23:59.69, 161. Tylan Jones 26;49.94

South Putnam boys – 35. Austin Rumley 16:57 (PR), 54. Karl Egold 17:20 (PR), 100. Dru Bottorff 18:11 (SB), 106. Steven Schnepp 18:34, 113. Eric Hinkle 18:47 (SB), 116. Andrew Carr 19:03, 142. Adair Bock 20:32 (SB), 212. Brent Wiggins (JV) 20:53 (PR), 228. Daniel Johnson (JV) 21:09

South Putnam girls – 72. Lexi Vanihel 20:43 (PR), 121. Lillie Stein 22:16 (PR), 138. Samara Young 23:14 (SB), 145. Rachel Jones 23:43 (SB), 161. Ally Menke 25:32 (PR), 168. Addi Blaydes 26:07, 237. Naomi Martinez (JV) 26:39 (PR)

NOTE: (PR) is personal record, (SB) is season best.

• Clovers, Cougars compete at Cascade – North Putnam and Cloverdale runners competed in the Cascade Invitational on Saturday.

Cloverdale coach Andy Tyler was proud of his team’s effort.

“Almost everyone ran a personal best,” he said. “Rylan [Hall] took off nearly two minutes from his time here last year.

“Seth Geiger also had a great run, as did both Ray and Abel Bates,” Tyler added. “Eddie Mannan had a breakout run for his season this year, as did Michael Halloran.”

Lily Monnett placed sixth overall in the girls’ race.

“She continues to impress me with every outing,” Tyler added. “We plan on working hard and dropping our times here at the end of the season.”

Coach Kevin Lutes of North Putnam was also pleased with the efforts of his runners.

“There was great work turned in by our kids Saturday,” he said. “Unfortunately we were missing several athletes due to injuries and illness, so our girls couldn’t field a complete team. They still ran their hearts out.”

Lutes said that almost half of his runners ran personal bests.

“We were pleased and look forward to racing at Northview [today].”

Boys’ team scores – Speedway 38, Mooresville 95, Decatur Central 97, Cascade 103, Cloverdale 148, Southmont 155, North Putnam 158, Monrovia 160, Eminence 221

Girls’ team scores — Greenfield-Central 28, Cascade 41, Mooresville 63, Monrovia 97 (no other schools fielded full teams)

Cloverdale boys – 13. Rylan Hall 18:21.96, 27. Ray Bates 19:32.23, 35. Seth Geiger 20:02.96, 36. Brady Szczerbik 20:06.87, 37. Chase Ashcraft 20:15.08, 41. Elliott Williamson 20:28.46, 44. Abel Bates 20:40.06

Mixed 5K run – 4. Eddie Mannan 20:47.94, 9. Michael Halloran 21:35.64, 12. Andrew Monnett 22:09.17, 14. Jarren Rossok 22:14.61, 18. Nate Monnett 23:16.62, 21. Jason Miller 25:35.76, 22. Brant Maners 25:51.17

Cloverdale girls – 16. Lily Monnett 22:16.60, 34. Megan Miller 26:33.02, 35. Abigail Bernard 26:34.41

North Putnam boys – 28. Kyle Young 19:38.71, 31. Adam Bonebrake 19:49.29, 34. Matthew Trotter 19:59.63, 55. Jacob Farrington 22:52.22, 59. Janus Oestergaard-Dinesen 24:15.89

North Putnam girls – 13. Grace Elmore 23:09.41, 24. Sydney Sims 25:06.14, 32. Madison Trotter 26:07.92, 37. Taylor Hensley 27:22.74

Soccer

• Greencastle 6, Cascade 0 (girls) – The Lady Tiger Cubs scored two goals in the first half and doubled that total in the second half in recording the shutout.

Kennedy Trigg sent the first goal in with an assist from Erin Thomas. The second point was on a penalty kick from Thomas.

“The second half offered more goals for the scoreboard as the team’s offense took to their feet with great passing and teamwork,” Greencastle coach Angie Weeks said.

Trigg assisted Thomas on three goals in the second half, while the final shot was made by Sydney Doan with the assist given by Thomas. Claire Gillen had 17 saves as goalkeeper. The final score was 6-0.

The Cubs host West Vigo today.

• Northview 5, North Putnam 2 (boys) – The Cougars took a 2-1 halftime lead on two Tyler Thompson goals, but went scoreless in the second half while the Knights scored four times.

“The game started out in a promising way game by scoring two penalty kicks in the first 20 minutes,” NP coach Curt Krominaker said. “We took our foot off the accelerator and gave up a goal before halftime. Going into the second half we felt good about our chances, but what has turned into a recurring theme put ourselves in a negative position by surrendering three goals in a nine-minute span that killed us.”

Krominaker said Caleb Duncan led the team with “outstanding hustle.”

“Over all we had a very good game and have been improving, which is a positive,” he said.

• Northview 8, North Putnam 2 (girls) – The Lady Cougars lost at home on Saturday to the Knights. Kylee McCollough and Grace Fry both scored for the Lady Cougars.