Menzel, Miller among five county runners taking on Shelbyville Semistate

Temperatures may be fluctuating but at Blue River Memorial Park, the heat will be on five Putnam County runners, as well as a strong field, looking to qualify for the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals Saturday morning at the Shelbyville Semistate.

Greencastle’s Charlie Menzel and Landon Miller, North Putnam’s Brayden Monnett and Jeremiah Miles and Cloverdale’s Ella Szczerbik will compete against some of the state’s best runners, all looking for a place on the starting line at the Laverne Gibson Championship Cross Country Course next Saturday.

Menzel, competing in his third semistate in three years, said the season has been a mixed bag depending on the race.

“It’s been a season of opposites this season,” Menzel noted. “I’ve had the two best and two worst races of my life this season.

“I’ve had a lot of highs and lot of lows, especially recently. There hasn’t been a lot of middle ground this season.”

Miller said he wasn’t sure how the season would go coming in with a hip injury but has closed the year strong.

“I was hoping to have success this season but didn’t expect this much,” Miller said. “Somewhere around county through conference and the Nike Valley Twilight, those were the three points I started coming up and then hit my peak around sectional.”

In the last two races, the Brownsburg Sectional and Ben Davis Regional Miller has finished ahead of Menzel.

“It was definitely a surprising factor,” Miller said about flipping the order at the end of the season. “The way Charlie went out, it’s a bit of a fluke the way things have happened and a surprise to me.”

“To a lot of people,. it looked like I went out hard and faded physically but it was a mentally draining race for me,” Menzel said. “I don’t think the end result was anywhere what I was capable of but you’re only as good as your last race.”

With Menzel having been to the semistate round before, the junior said the biggest wisdom he had been able to offer was to prepare for a start unlike any other.

“The big thing I’ve told him is that there’s 180 kids on the line and they’re all going to converge at the same point 600 yards down the course,” Menzel said. “You’re going to feel drowned in the people and there’s a lot of fast runners you don’t see until the semistate.”

“From him and his dad (Kent Menzel), it’s a dogfight for the state spots,” Miller added. “It’s rough with amazing teams like Carmel, Noblesville and others out there.”

Though facing a strong field, both runners had the same goal in mind.

“I want to make it to the state meet,” Menzel said. “Before, it felt like it would take a miracle because it took a miracle to get to the semistate.

“These past two weeks aside, I know I’m fit and capable. I just have to replicate my performance at the county meet or the Twilight meet and I can lock up a spot at Terre Haute again.”

“It’s going to be a great experience that will hopefully help me in future years,” Miller said. “I’m aiming to get in to state, which will be hard but I want to get into one of those spots.”