BROWNSBURG CROSS COUNTRY REGIONAL PREVIEW: Miller looking for spot among state’s elite; South Putnam ready to race again

The reconfigured IHSAA Cross Country State Tournament hits its midway point Saturday as several Putnam County runners will head to the Brownsburg Regional with an eye on making the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals next Saturday.

Those coming from the Terre Haute North Sectional know all about the finals course as they ran at the Laverne Gibson Championship Course over the weekend with Greencastle’s Landon Miller winning the sectional title and South Putnam finishing third overall in the boys’ team scoring, advancing together to the regional.

Six other runners advanced from Terre Haute in Tiger Cubs Charlie Menzel, Caleb Edwards and Colleen Bossnack, Eagles Elise Kendall and Stevie Keenan and Cloverdale’s Olivia Hemmerling.

Two other county runners will meet up with the group at Brownsburg as North Putnam’s Jeremiah Miles and Elijah Harless advanced from the Ben Davis Sectional.

The sectionals were held under cool, gloomy skies but that didn’t stop several runners from having strong performances at both places.

“I liked it personally,” Miles said about competing at Ben Davis. “The new schools they added were competitive and that helped me a lot.

“The front pack went out slower than anticipated so I focused on hanging with them as long as I could and using it to my advantage. Having been to the course when it was the regional course helped.”

“It went well,” Harless added. “I felt strong while running it. There were a lot of fast runners, so I felt I could push myself harder.”

“It was cold,” Menzel noted. “I had never raced with anything on other than my singlet but Saturday, I had a hat on, gloves, arm warmers and it was still cold.

“There were a couple of muddy patches; the course normally has timing mats on those patches but otherwise, the course felt normal.”

“It was a great race,” Miller said about his sectional win. A lot of us ran slower than we did when we raced it the first time. It wasn’t as good as many of us as hoped but it was still a good race.

“I’ve been trying to push for the school record and hope to finally get it at the regional. It’s been an uphill battle at times to stay locked in during the race but I did know I wanted to have a decent lead on (Jcim Grant) as he has a good closing time.”

“It was really good and I was happy with my finish,” Bossnack said about her third-place finish. “I started off really well, really strong with a big pack of girls.

“The two first-place runners were strong together while myself and (South Vermillion’s Isabella Turchi) were close together until the very end until I got in front.”

“We knew we had a solid chance of getting out and it was the expectation we try our hardest,” Keaton Chew said about the Eagles advancing as a team. “If we qualified it, we qualified it and if we didn’t, we didn’t.

“It helped we had run the course in the Nike Twilight, though I liked running the course more in the morning.”

“Since the reshuffle, our chances of reaching the regional increased by a lot,” Eagle Evan Hinkle pointed out. “It was a time to capitalize on the opportunity, we gave it our all and did really well as a team.”

“We knew we had a chance to advance as a team, so we were focusing on passing the Clay City guys and Terre Haute guys to secure a spot as a team,” Landon Chew added. “We focused on the plan and got the job done.”

“Knowing we had a big chance, but not having Noah Couch, I was thinking that I run really hard and we can’t make it or I run hard and we do,” Eagle senior Emillio Gallegos said, noting that normal No. 5 runner Noah Couch was absent. “Knowing if I ran fast enough that we could make it pushed me to over perform.”

“At the beginning of the season, regional wasn’t even a consideration,” Eagle senior Stevie Keenan said. “I dropped a lot of time over the course of season and, around halfway through, we thought it could go really well.

“There was a lot of pressure that morning because we thought it could go well and it was a good race.”

“It was one of the more difficult courses but our goal was to focus on the competition and we executed that plan,” junior Elise Kendall added. “We ended up with a pretty great result.”

“I definitely could have run faster but the course was pretty good and I had a decent race,” Hemmerling said. “It was a good race at Terre Haute.”

The runners will convene at Brownsburg East Middle School for Saturday’s race, the same course most have raced the past few years as part of the Brownsburg Sectional.

The Ben Davis and Terre Haute Sectionals will be joined by teams from the Harrison (West Lafayette), Logansport and North Central Sectionals, a field of 25 teams and 75 individual qualifiers competing on one of the faster courses in the state.

Given the size of the race and the competition level, including three of the top-10 boys’ teams in the state in No. 1 Carmel, No. 2 Zionsville and No. 8 Brownsburg, as well as the state runner-up and third-place runner from a season ago, advancing to the State Finals will be a tall task and, for most runners, the race is about ending the season on a high note.

“I’m very excited about the race,” Miles said. “It’s a good chance to go out, test myself and really push myself to the limit.

“I want a big PR Saturday. I want to race, not necessarily in the front group, but in the chase pack for sure.”

“We’ve done more straight stretches and speed training while preparing for the regional as it’s a flat course,” Harless added. “I want to try to break 17:30 as, in my last race, I ran 17:38, and my really big final goal is to break 17:15.”

“Being at Brownsburg helps because I know where all the hills are and where to go fast,” Hemmerling said. “I want to try to hit a new PR as I know it’s probably my last race.”

“Sometimes I know from past races what teams and runners I can stay with,” Bossnack said. “In this race, I know I’ll be more in the middle but it will be rough.

“My goal is to go out, finish my season strong, though not finish my season, and have a good race.”

“A big goal for me has been to break 17:00,” Keaton Chew said. “I’ve been close and it’s well within the realm of doable on Saturday.

“The most important thing is not worrying about being conservative the first couple of kilometers and seeing what you have left.”

“My main goal is competing really well and leaving it all out on the course,” Kendall said. “Breaking 21:00 would be awesome, too, and that would be great to hit.”

While many will be looking for a good time to close their season out on, Miller and Menzel have aspirations that go beyond Saturday.

“I have the same goal I’ve had the last four years: to make the state meet,” Menzel said. “This has been a hard season in a lot of ways, coming back from injury for the first time.

“I’ve been running less mileage each week than I’m used to by considerable bits. I’m disappointed with the new format as it’s a little easier to make it to state but it’s happening in the season I’ve been having.

“The goal is to make the state meet and I’m going to do everything in my power to do that.”

“A lot of times this season, I’ve started out a lot faster than I did last year,” Miller, who is among the top-20 times in the regional, said. “That’s helped me get out toward the front of the pack.

“Once out there, I let myself catch up behind them and try and stick with the best of the best, staying with them as long as I can hold it. My goal is to get a top-10 finish and getting the school record would put me within range of a top-10 finish. I want to break 15:30 and continue moving closer and closer to the sub-15 mark.”