County schools run at Northview Invitational

Wednesday, September 17, 2014
(From Left) Maddie McHugh (SP), Brittany Welker (G), Katerina King (G) and Julianna DeLano (SP) turn into the last lap at the invite Tuesday. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

BRAZIL--With the number of cross country races dwindling before the WCC, Putnam County and sectional meets, Greencastle, North Putnam and South Putnam took part in the Northview Invitational Tuesday afternoon.

The Tiger Cubs, winners in both the boys' and girls' races the previous year, both finished second marginally behind the host Knights 57-60 and 48-52.

Corrie Romer paced the girls' team with a second place finish, followed in the scoring by Arianna Pershing in fourth, Katie Haynes in ninth, Brittany Welker in 17th and Katerina King in 20th.

Taylor Secrest finished sixth to lead the boys' squad with Clayton Wilson following in eighth, Braden Pershing following in 12th, Cameron Lewis finishing 16th and Preston Headly finishing 18th.

Greencastle coach Gary Anderson said the girls' squad, missing one runner, still kept their times close to one another.

"We ran without one of lead girls, who is injured and will be back shortly, but finishing within five points of a team in cross country is one step in front or behind somebody," Anderson said. "Northview ran a good race and our girls ran a good race as well.

"The time from (Corrie Romer) to (Katerina King) is only two minutes and that's not too bad. We had it down lower than that Saturday and the boys were closer than a minute again.

"We ran well but I do not like midweek meets," Anderson added. "I think we did fine, all thing considered."

Anderson added that the boys' team was continuing to challenge not only other teams but also one another in each race.

"Our top eight feature two seniors and the rest as sophomores and freshmen," Anderson pointed out. "I'm pleased with the young guys and how they're pushing themselves.

"They challenge each other in practice and we're getting good races out of a lot of them and the girls are too. They'll mature and get better, which pleases me."

South Putnam finished third in the girls' race and fifth in the boys' race but did feature the highest placing county runners in each race as Madie Egold won the girls' race and Kieffer Vittetow was second in the boys' race.

Alex Fanning finished 10th behind Egold, with Ariel Higgins coming in 12th, Julianna DeLano finishing 16th and Maddie McHugh placed 20th. Berndt Freeman came across 10th for the boys, followed by Logan Vandermark in 33rd, Michael Crossman in 39th and Colton Bunten in 41st.

South Putnam head coach Brandon Welti pointed out that the girls' team was better prepared for Tuesday's race than the previous event.

"We raced better today than we did at Ben Davis," Welti said. "We ran faster times there but, in terms of competing and racing the person in front of you, we raced significantly better today.

"I know Greencastle was short one of their top runners but the goal for us is to keep closing the gap and I feel like the girls did a good job of doing that. They listened, looked ahead and made moves to try to make up ground so I'm pleased with how they raced today."

Meanwhile, Welti said that the boys' team needed to get out of the gates quicker next time.

"Our start was significantly was too slow at the start," Welti admitted. "We should have gone out harder and by the time they started to move up in the race, we were too far back to do anything.

"I am still happy with the way they closed at the end of the race. They ran well in the last mile and caught up to people but the start put us in a hole."

North Putnam, hampered by injuries, could only field four runners in each race. Kylee Detro was the highest finisher for the girls in 53rd, followed by Kayla Clodfelter in 55th, Claire Dean in 58th and Sydney Sims in 59th.

Michael Roach crossed the line in 51st for the boys, while Jake Hull came through in 58th, Zach Culberson finished 79th and Kaiden Kimble placed 96th.

North Putnam head coach Kevin Lutes said that both squads ran well individually.

"I thought the groups ran well," Lutes said. "Michael and Jake both had good races while Kaiden and Zach are still getting into it and figuring things out.

"The boys are pushing each other now and that's a good thing to see. Kylee and Kayla ran fair races but they need to be pushing each other.

"Claire ran well for what she normally does and Sydney ran a good time as well," Lutes added. "We've yet to put a whole girls team together with injuries and other sports limiting us.

"Once we get a whole team together, we'll do well for what we want to do. We've got a long way to go but we're getting there."

The Cougars return to action in a week and a half with a dual meet at North Vermillion and Lutes was holding out hope that the squads would be whole by the time that meet came around.

"Hopefully we can get everyone rested so that the soreness goes away," Lutes said. "We've got a lot of new people who haven't been running but I'll be thrilled when we have enough people to have a full team and we'll continue to push on until then."

Greencastle travels to Decatur Central Saturday for the Decatur Central Invitational and Anderson said that the squad would get to see yet another round of powerful competition.

"They're running against bigger and better teams," Anderson noted. "They're not going to run against many small schools in the sectional and after that it becomes big schools.

"Why not let them take a sample of that now? They'll see Warren Central, Whiteland, Martinsville, Mooresville, just to name a few, so we'll see how we can do."

Meanwhile, South Putnam's runners find themselves in a holding pattern until the WCC meet in two weeks' time.

Welti said the gap was a bit big but the squads could utilize the practice time to fix a number of things.

"It's not ideal," Welti stated. "We appreciate the time to get in quality workouts, something that we need to do, and there's things we need to work on.

"As far as being racing fit, there are some things we have planned to compensate for that and by the time we get to conference, we still should be ready to go.

"We want to keep closing the gap between us and the teams in front of us," Welti added. "It would be great to have individual champions but ultimately the goal is to win as a team."


At Northview

Northview Invitational

Girls' Results

Northview 48, Greencastle 52, South Putnam 57, Fountain Central 89, Cascade 114, South Vermillion 239, Clay City 252, North Vermillion 256, Riverton Parke 277, North Putnam INC, Rockville INC

Individual Results

1. Egold (SP) 21:37; 2. Romer (G) 21:43; 3. Grubb (FC) 21:53; 4. Pershing (G) 22:04; 5. Arnold (N) 22:14; 6. Smith (N) 22:29; 7. Hayes (R) 22:30; 8. Kidwell (N) 22:50; 9. Whicker (C) 22:56; 10. K. Haynes (G) 22:57; 11. Fanning (SP) 22:59; 13. Higgins (SP) 23:07; 17. DeLano (SP) 23:20; 18. Welker (G) 23:21; 19. McHugh (SP) 23:36; 21. K. King (G) 23:42; 22. S. Haynes (G) 23:45; 23. Nichols (SP) 23:54; 24. Scales (SP) 24:08; 25. R. Jones (SP) 24:21; 26. A. King (G) 24:39; 29. Tucker (G) 24:52; 34. Hoagland (G) 25:15; 39. Jones (SP) 25:41; 42. Harms (G) 26:11; 49. Blaydes (SP) 26:54; 50. H. Jones (SP) 26:56; 53. Detro (NP) 28:11; 55. Clodfelter (NP) 29:03; 58. Dean (NP) 29:43; 59. Sims (NP) 29:57

Boys' Results

Northview 57, Greencastle 60, Cascade 67, Clay City 96, South Putnam 125, Rockville 171, Fountain Central 177, South Vermillion 269, Riverton Parke 320, North Vermillion 361, North Putnam INC, Turkey Run INC


Individual Results

1. Trout (N) 16:35; 2. Vittetow (SP) 17:13; 3. White (C) 17:17; 4. Ames (CC) 17:37; 5. Payton (FC) 17:51; 6. Secrest (G) 17:55; 7. Zadeii (N) 18:10; 8. Wilson (G) 18:17; 9. Herron (N) 18:26; 10. Freeman (SP) 18:31; 12. Pershing (G) 18:36; 16. C. Lewis (G) 18:51; 18. Headley (G) 18:55; 20. J. Lewis (G) 19:07; 29. Gellman (G) 19:25; 30. Brattain (G) 19:31; 32. Crawley (G) 19:40.0; 33. L. Vandermark (SP) 19:40.9; 39. Crossman (SP) 20:01; 41. Bunten (SP) 20:23; 44. Evans (SP) 20:31; 47. T. Vandermark (SP) 20:46; 48. Jones (G) 20:49; 51. Roach (NP) 21:01; 53. Berish (G) 21:07; 58. Hull (NP) 21:30; 62. Jackson (G) 21:38; 70. Schroer (SP) 22:10; 72. Bock (SP) 22:16; 79. Culberson (NP) 22:49; 91. Albers (SP) 24:22; 92. Mozawa (G) 24:26; 96. Kimble (NP) 25:03


Next Meet: Greencastle travels to Decatur Central Saturday.

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