Cross country teams run at County Tourney

Greencastle took the honors in Saturday's Tourney. (Banner Graphic/JOHNATHON GOODE)

South Putnam High School hosted the 2014 county tournament, along with the conference tournament earlier this week and they will also host a sectional next Saturday.

County teams arrived to the home of the Eagles to be met by the bone-chilling wind and a 5,000-meter course. Spectators stayed in their cars as long as possible to break away from the atmospheric conditions and when they got out, they were bundled up as much as they could stand to walk.

Greencastle and South Putnam both had full teams to participate, while Cloverdale only had a full boys' team. North Putnam only had four girls and a lone boy.

Greencastle boys claim the County Title on a brisk Saturday morning. (Banner Graphic/JOHNATHON GOODE)

The full teams gave advantage to both the Tiger Cubs and Eagles because they took the first two spots in both boys' and girls' events. Even though Greencastle had five in the top seven in both events, South Putnam managed to win both races. They controlled both first place positions and also the seventh place position. Anything in between belonged to Greencastle.

This is important because the top seven runners in each event are all put on the all-Putnam county team.

The all-county team of the girls is Maddie Egold (SP), Corrie Romer (GC), Arianna Pershing (GC), Brittany Love (GC), Katie Haynes (GC), Brittany Welker (GC) and Juliana Delano (SP).

The boys' team consisted of Kieffer Vittetow (SP), Taylor Secrest (GC), Cameron Lewis (GC), Elijah Brattain (GC), Jacob Lewis (GC), Clayton Wilson (GC) and Michael Crossman (SP).

"We raced real well overall," Greencastle coach Garry Anderson said. "Of course you don't want to tarnish the two winners from South Putnam. They did a fine job. I thought our kids did real well considering the weather conditions."

"We raced really well today," Eagles' coach Brandon Welti said. "We went out there and tried to compete a little bit better than at conference and I'm very pleased with how we raced."

Egold was the top spot on the girls' team, who finished in 21:30.77. She beat out Romer by nearly a minute.

Vittetow went blazing fast around the course without any let up, but only took the top spot by a few seconds beating Secrest 17:34.09 to 17:58.97.

The fight was between Greencastle and South Putnam, but both Cloverdale and North Putnam also showed up. Even though North Putnam's teams could not be scored, they still fought hard.

Freshman Alanna Nunez led the Cougar girls with a time of 25:10.97 and Michael Roach was the only boy, but he finished with a 20:24.37.

Cloverdale had a full boys' team, but its top finisher was Nick Blundell, who finished 10th.

The Clover girls' team did not have a full squad and Tori Szalay led them with an 11th place finish.

With the racing over with, it was concluded that Greencastle beat South Putnam in both events, followed by Cloverdale and North Putnam.

"It feels real good," Anderson said. "That's our goal every year to win county. It's very interesting every year putting a team together and hoping to win county. It's really fun coaching these kids."

"We kind of expected that," Welti said. "Second place should have been worst case scenario for us. We knew first place would be a hard challenge. We're OK with second place for now."

Now the regular part of the season is over it is time for postseason action. The teams are looking forward to sectionals next Saturday, which all teams will be racing at South Putnam.

Other teams that are making the trip will make it very hard for county teams to advance. Avon, Bethesda Christian, Brownsburg, Cascade, Danville, Decatur Central, Plainfield and Tri-West will all be making the trip along side the Putnam County teams.

"It's going to be tough," Anderson said. "Our sectional is a very tough sectional. Avon is one of the top ranked teams in the state. Brownsburg is tough and so is Plainfield. Fighting for those last two spots is going to be very tough."

"We definitely are hoping to advance as a team," Welti said. "We also should have a lot of individuals in contention to advance. We haven't really thought on that one too much yet. We were just focused on conference and county. We will start planning for that next."

Putnam County tournament at South Putnam High School

Madie Egold (SP) 21:30.77, Corrie Romer (GC) 22:28.73, Arianna Pershing (GC) 22:35.75, Brittany Love (GC) 22:49.92, Katie Haynes (GC) 23:01.11, Brittany Welker (GC) 23:08.36, Juliana Delano (SP) 23:09.92,Alex Fanning (SP) 23:22.39, Ally Nichols (SP) 23:34.93, Ariel Higgins (SP) 23:49.80, Tori Szalay (CD) 23:53.30, Katerina King (GC) 23:54.36, Michaela Scales (SP) 24:00.47, Rachel Jones (SP) 24:11.76, Jessica Jones (SP) 24:17.32, Clare Plamondon (CD) 24:34.06, Samantha Haynes (GC) 24:57.02, Jessica Tucker (GC) 25:03.06, Laura Worthington (CD) 25:05.29, Lanna Nunez (NP) 25:10.97, Abigail King (GC) 25:17.37, Abbie Harms (GC) 25:30.99,Erica Hoagland (GC) 25:56.31, Addi Blaydes (SP) 26:20.58, Hannah Jones (SP) 26:22.82, Izzy Monnett (CD) 26:59.39, Kylee Detro (NP) 28:14.70, Sydney Sims (NP) 28:36.08, Kayla Clodfelter (NP) 28:38.78, Angel Nield (SP) 33:47.00.

Team Scores (Boys)

Kieffer Vittetow (SP) 17:34.09 , Taylor Secrest (GC) 17:58.97, Cameron Lewis (GC) 18:13.64, Elijah Brattain (GC) 18:26.77, Jacob Lewis (GC) 18:29. 41, Clayton Wilson (GC) 18:35.99, Michael Crossman (SP) 18:57.76, Ben Gellman (GC) 19:06.07, Braden Pershing (GC) 19:23.08, Nick Blundell (CD) 19:26.98, Berndt Freeman (SP) 19:31.00, Evan Monnett (CD) 19:33.00, Colton Bunton (SP) 19:36.48, Tyler Vandermark (SP), 19:41.33, Logan Vandermark (SP) 19:43.00, Jacob Crawley (GC) 19:49.94, Jackson Kendall (GC) 20:15.63, Chad Stevens (CD) 20:18.93, Peyton Jones (GC) 20:23.26, Michael Roach (NP) 20:24.37, Cody Evans (SP) 20:26.26, Justin Berish (GC) 20:30.58, Nolan Maners (CD) 20:30.83, RT Mann (CD) 21:08.93, Adair Bock (SP) 21:56.61, Jake Schroer (SP) 21:57.95, Eddie MAnnan (CD) 22:51.01, Chase Albers (SP) 22:55.62, Andrew Monnett (CD) 23:16.79, Austin Nelson (CD) 23:25:57, Abel Bates (CD) 23:36.06, Ichiro Mozawa (GC) 24:00.15, Aaron Fulkerson (CD) 27:55.00, Zack Nees (CD) 29:57.00.