County runners battle heat, course at WIC XC Meet

North Putnam's Jacy Huffman (front) and Cloverdale's Daphanie Geiger make for a turn at the halfway point of Tuesday's WIC Cross Country Meet at Edgewood. Huffman finished 24th overall while Geiger finished in 30th place with the Clovers finishing fourth overall in girls' race and the Cougars sixth as a team.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

ELLETSVILLE – The dying embers of summer conspired for one more scorching hot stretch, one the runners at the WIC Cross Country Meet might have remembers from the early days of August but hadn’t been subjected to for some time.

Only a red-hot boys’ team title race could match the heat that bore down at Edgewood high school with the hosts withstanding Northview and Indian Creek 50-54-55 while the Knights were able to overcome a 1-2 finish for the Braves to claim the girls’ team title 33-41.

Cloverdale had the highest finish among the county schools, finishing fourth in the girls’ standings on 126 points, tied with Owen Valley but with a better sixth runner, while North Putnam was sixth on 163 points and South Putnam eighth on 129 points.

The Cougars finished fifth in the boys’ team race on 123 points, a place ahead of the Eagles on 133 points. Both the Clovers and Greencastle had four runners and did not qualify for a team score, a disappointment for the Tiger Cubs after Charlie Menzel (17:31) and Landon Miller (17:33) finished fourth and fifth overall.

Not far behind the Greencastle duo were North Putnam pair Brayden Monnett (17:56) and Jeremiah Miles (18:12) in ninth and 11th place overall; all four runners earned All-WIC honors for placing inside the top-15.

The same honors went to Cloverdale pair Abigail Nees (22:45) and Ella Szczerbik (22:53), who finished in 13th and 15th overall in the girls’ race.

Scoring for the Cougar boys was Corie Stancombe (19:48) in 34th place and Thomas Nelson (21:08) and Elijah Harless (21:18) in 43rd and 44th place. Kaleb Watson finished in 24:24 and Owen O’Hair crossed in 24:47.

Keaton Chew (18:29) finished a spot out of the All-WIC spots in 16th place to lead South Putnam with Dunkin York (18:55) closely behind in 22nd place, followed by Gabe Feltner (19:44) in 31st, Evan Hinkle (20:59) in 41st and Harry Eaglin (21:03) in 42nd place. Noah Couch crossed in 22:59 and Emilio Gallegos finished in 25:23.

Behind Menzel and Miller was Daniel Dinn (21:30) in 45th place and Isaac Hertenstein (25:58) in 60th place.

Cloverdale was led by Carson Hall (20:30) in 37th place with Jacob Miller (21:55), Spencer Nees (22:07) and Matthew Miller (22:52) finishing 48th, 49th and 50th place.

Daphanie Geiger (25:14) finished 30th overall for Cloverdale with Olivia Hemmerling (26:34) crossing in 34th place, Hannah Baker (30:05) coming in 43rd place and Ludovica Savoiani (30:32) finishing in 44th place, winning out the tiebreak with Owen Valley for fourth place.

Madalynn Trent (24:18) and Jacy Huffman (24:35) paced North Putnam, finishing 23rd and 24th overall with Alaina Chew (26:28) finishing in 32nd place, Brooke Hensley (28:36) crossing in 39th place and Erica Zatorski (33:56) finishing in 54th place.

Elise Kendall (24:51) led South Putnam in 25th place, followed by Hope Taylor (28:50) and Stevie Kennan (29:16) in 40th and 41st place. Jasmine Guzman (30:50) finished 45th overall and Bailey Haddon (32:03) finished in 49th place with Molly Trammell crossing in 32:33 and Sarah Hinchman finishing in 32:56.

Greencastle’s Meredith Ball (29:32) finished in 42nd place.

The county schools reconvene Saturday at South Putnam for the Putnam County XC Meet beginning at 9 a.m.