Wilson, five others advancing from XC regional
INDIANAPOLIS — Greencastle’s Emma Wilson successfully defended her Ben Davis Regional cross country championship on Saturday.
Wilson was the regional runnerup as a freshman, but won the title last year as a sophomore.
She will advance to the Shelbyville Semistate on Saturday at Blue River Park.
South Putnam’s Chelsie Edwards will also be making her second straight semistate appearance, after competing at Shelbyville last fall for Cloverdale.
Edwards placed 23rd overall, but was the fifth-fastest runner not on an advancing team.
Others advancing will be Cloverdale’s Lily Monnett (27th overall, sixth-best individual), South Putnam’s Lillie Stein (34th overall, eighth-best individual), South Putnam’s Austin Rumley (15th overall, second-fastest individual) and Greencastle’s Ben Gellman (24th overall, sixth-fastest individual).
South Putnam’s girls placed sixth as a team, just missing qualifying for the semistate by one position.
South Putnam’s boys finished ninth in the team competition.
“Overall it was a good day for both SP teams,” Eagle coach Brandon Welti said. “With the change in the course, the times aren’t as fast as in years past. However, we’re really excited for our semistate qualifiers.“
Welti was confident going into the meet of the chances of Rumley and Edwards to advance.
“Fortunately, they both ran smart and finished about where we hoped/expected,” he said. “For Lillie, we knew it was going to be a lot more difficult. She came out with some serious determination and ran her best race ever.
“She was the only one to PR for us, and she was rewarded by advancing to the semistate.
“No doubt, we’re pretty happy with how these three competed,” Welti added. “Now we have one more week of training, and hopefully these three will each be able to finish out the year with a PR at Shelbyville.”
Cloverdale coach Andy Tyler continues to be impressed with the performance of Monnett, a freshman.
“She is thrilled to have advanced to semistate,” Tyler said. “She knew a solid effort would get her into the conversation for advancing.
“I was surprised to see her take off the amount of time that she took off of her PR with the course being in the shape that it was in,” Tyler added. “She has improved so much and continues to improve every week. We are excited for the next race, and look forward to the competition.”
North Putnam did not have any semistate qualifiers, but coach Kevin Lutes was pleased with how his participants fared.
Senior Caleb Duncan placed 36th overall and was the 13th fastest runner not on an advancing team.
Freshmen Anna Haste (51st overall) and Grace Elmore (57th) also drew praise from their coach.
“All three of our kids ran well,” Lutes said. “Caleb had a great finish in the boys’ race and was extremely close to moving on. It’s a shame that he’s a senior.
“Anna and Grace really pushed themselves to their limits,” Lutes added. “I’ve been impressed with all they’ve accomplished, especially since they’re just freshmen. It’s been about 20 years since we’ve had regional XC qualifiers, so it was great that all three were there to compete.”
The six Putnam County qualifiers will compete at Shelbyville with those advancing from the Noblesville, Rushville and Shelbyville Regionals.
Girls’ race
Team scores (top 5 advance)— Zionsville 29, Brownsburg 38, Pike 97, Avon 105, Plainfield 140, South Putnam 207, Cascade 214, Ben Davis 219, Indianapolis Herron 221, Decatur Central 260-
Individual winner — Emma Wilson (G) 17:36.72
Other top 10 advancing individuals — 6. Claire Kaneshiro (International) 19:09.41, 21. Courtney Merrill (Speedway) 20:24.92, 22. Mariah Judy (BD) 20:33.98, 23. Chelsie Edwards (SP) 20:36.35, 27. Lily Monnett (Cloverdale) 20:43.31, 32. Morgan Watkins (Herron) 21:14.46, 34. Lillie Stein (SP) 21:24.90, 37. Grace White (Cascade) 21:34.96, 39. Toren Hartog (BD) 21:37.66.
Other South Putnam runners — 47. Samara Young 22:30.14, 65. Rachel Jones 24:16.71, 76. Ally Menke 26:11.64, 82. Addison Blaydes 27:43.59
Other Greencastle runner — 42. Sydney Kallem 21:51.87
North Putnam runners — 51. Anna Haste 23:01.97, 57. Grace Elmore 23:35.41.
Boys’ race
Team scores (top 5 advance)— Avon 45, Zionsville 54, Pike 99, Brownsburg 128, Danville 152, Ben Davis 165, Plainfield 169, Speedway 174, South Putnam 197, Indianapolis Herron 276, Decatur Central 335.
Individual winner — Ethan Goddard (Avon) 16:09.71
Top 10 advancing individuals — 14. Dalton Kane (Plainfield) 17:00.66, 15. Austin Rumley (SP) 17:04.23, 16. Nick Curran (Speedway) 17:06.67, 20. Spencer Decker (Plainfield) 17:16.04, 22. Eli Eckert (Herron) 17:22.32, 24. Ben Gellman (Greencastle) 17:22.93, 26. Shewaferahu Gared (BD) 17:26.37, 29. Hayden Baldwin (BD) 17:29.23, 30. Mark Goshen (Speedway) 17:30.74, 32. Philip Bauwens (International) 17:34.87
Other South Putnam runners — 42. Steven Schnepp 17:57.64, 45. Karl Egold 18:03.12, 56. Dru Bottorff 18:36.11, 58. Andrew Carr 18:37.21, 73. Eric Hinkle 19:20.76, 89. Adair Bock 22:05.40
North Putnam runner — 36. Caleb Duncan 17:43.22
Cloverdale runner — 86. Chase Ashcraft 19:59.33