South Putnam lopers run past Cloverdale

Wednesday, August 28, 2013
South Putnam's Berndt Freeman competes in the Eagles Medley on Tuesday. Freeman won the boys' race. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

It was a little late in coming, but summer seems to have finally arrived, right as the cross country season kicked into gear for South Putnam Tuesday.

Temperatures rose above 90 degrees in time for the first meet of the season but the Eagles powered through to beat Cloverdale in both races. The boys' squad won 23-40 while the girls' scored a perfect 15 as the Clover girls did not qualify for a team score.

Both head coaches, South Putnam's Brandon Welti and Cloverdale's Andy Tyler, said that the day presented challenges to the squads.

"We knew with this heat it was going to be a struggle," Welti said. "The game plan was to use this more as a workout, not a race to be concerned or caught up about certain times. We used this as a Fartlek day. That was our goal and we weren't concerned with much else."

Fartlek is a method of training that combines interval and continuous exercises, which challenges aerobic and anaerobic systems.

"I'm pretty happy with the race," Tyler said. "The flu bug is killing us right now. Two of our boys, Evan Monnett and Jake Waycott, were unable to run today. With those two in the line-up, it will help us be competitive."

Berndt Freeman won the boys race in a time of 19:12, followed by teammate Kieffer Vittetow at 20-minutes flat. Tyler Vandermark, Tyler Nield and Logan Vandermark finished fifth, seventh and eighth, rounding out the Eagle scoring.

Bret Brumfield led the Clovers with a third place finish in 20:20, followed by Nick Blundell in fourth. Ethan Maners finished sixth, with Clayton Byrd finishing 13th and Nolan Maners finishing 14th.

Madison Egold

Junior Madison Egold won the girls' race with a time of 23:55 with teammates Juliana Delano, Jessica Jones, Ariel Higgins and Michaela Scales finishing third through sixth.

Clare Plamondon paced Cloverdale with a second-place finish in 25:26. Laura Worthington, Chelsea Combs and Izzy Monnett finished eighth, ninth and tenth but, with only four runners, the Clovers could not register a team score.

While Tyler was happy with the results on the South Putnam course, the Clovers head coach said the squad would need to keep working hard during a hot week before traveling to White River Valley Saturday.

"Clare Plamondon and Bret Brumfield both really ran well today," Tyler said. "Brumfield, at practice, has been the third one, so he really had a breakout day today. I've stressed to some of the guys that we want to be breaking 20 minutes.

"With the heat on this course, that was not an easy task but Bret was close today. We know we still have a lot of work to put in but we're going to keep on trucking.

"It's going to be hot when we run Saturday, so we're going to have to get used to it," Tyler added. "We'll make sure to keep hydrated and stay safe, but we're going to have to keep working hard to catch anybody."

Welti said the teams would be building into future meets but stressed that the week's practice and the Danville Hokum Karem were building blocks towards the latter half of the season.

"The times were where I expected with the heat," Welti said. "Some of them were better than I thought, such as freshman Kieffer Vittetow in finishing second. Berndt did well running solo the entire time.

"With this heat, we're trying to tone back the volume of the practice," Welti added. "The intensity is still there, just not the length. We want to have our legs under us for Saturday and we see that day as another quality workout."



At South Putnam

Girls' Results
South Putnam 15, Cloverdale INC
1. Egold (SP) 23:55; 2. Plamondon (CL) 25:26; 3. Delano (SP) 26:00; 4. J. Jones (SP) 26:12; 5. Higgins (SP) 26:37; 6. Scales (SP) 27:32; 7. H. Jones (SP) 27:50; 8. Worthington (CL) 28:05; 9. Combs (CL) 36:26; 10. Monnett (CL) 36:55

Boys' Results
South Putnam 23; Cloverdale 40
1. Freeman (SP) 19:12; 2. Vittetow (SP) 20:00; 3. Brumfield (CL) 20:20; 4. Blundell (CL) 20:36; 5. T. Vandermark (SP) 20:48; 6. E. Maners (CL) 20:52; 7. Nield (SP) 21:10; 8. L. Vandermark (SP) 21:40; 9. Bunten (SP) 21:58; 10. Evans (SP) 22:50; 11. Taylor (SP) 23:06; 12. Schroer (SP) 23:52; 13. Byrd (CL) 25:22; 14. N. Maners (CL) 32:01; 15. Fulkerson (CL) 44:40

Next Meet: South Putnam participates in the Danville Hokum Karem and Cloverdale travels to Riverton Parke on Saturday.

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