Semistate Sweep / North girls, boys claim team titles; Barnett wins girls race

Columbus North's Makenzie Barnett crosses the finish line during the Brown County Cross-Country Semistate at Eagle Park in Nashville. Tommy Walker (For The Republic). Tommy Walker | For The Republic

NASHVILLE — Although there was no race-day rain to drench the Eagle Park course like in last year’s Brown County Semistate, some rain on Friday softened it up a little for Saturday.

That played right into the hands of the top-ranked Columbus North boys. Two hours after the third-ranked Bull Dog girls captured the championship, the boys defended their title to give North a semistate sweep.

“We enjoyed seeing the rain (Friday),” North boys coach Danny Fisher said. “We were hoping maybe it would be a little bit muddier and a little bit dirtier for a real cross-country race. We pride ourselves in running well in those kind of conditions. We just wanted to go out and compete today and throw times out the window and be as close to the front as we can.”

The Bull Dogs did just that, putting five runners in the top 11 to score 34 points. Floyd Central was a distant second with 128, with Bloomington North (133), Bloomington South (179), Jasper (181) and Northview (197) also qualifying for Saturday’s state finals.

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The Columbus North girls also cruised to the title with 50 points. Floyd Central was runner-up with 109, followed by Northview (118), Bloomington North (127), Bloomington South (166) and Jasper (175).

With defending girls individual champion Annalyssa Crain of Edgewood out with a stress fracture in her foot, Bull Dog senior Mackenzie Barnett raced to victory in 18 minutes, 13.0 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles).

“My plan was just to kind of let other people do the work the first mile or so and then try to get a gap after the mile,” Barnett said. “Annalyssa Crain wasn’t running today, so I’m sad for her that she couldn’t race, but my goal since she wasn’t racing was to win, so I was happy about that.”

Columbus North’s Lily Baker finished sixth in 18:50.7. Julie Klaus took 10th in 19:07.1, while Ellen White was 13th (19:12.2), Brianna Newell 22nd (19:25.3), Jessica Meza 25th (19:27.3) and Katherine Rumsey 31st (19:39.9).

“We probably ran a little off today,” Columbus North girls coach Rick Sluder said. “I think some of that was the training. We kind of still coached a little bit this week, getting ready for next week (at state), so we were a little off, maybe a step, but we ran a great race. Our 1-through-7 hung in there, even though they were a little tired. We’ll rest up a little bit and get our mind set, and I think we put ourselves in a really good spot for next week.”

Junior Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff led the Bull Dog boys with a second-place finish in 15:31.9, just 1.3 seconds behind winner Camden Marshall of Corydon Central.

“I was happy with it,” Kilbarger-Stumpff said. “I can’t complain. I just got to sit on Camden Marshal for the entire second half and then tried to beat him at the end, but he just had that other gear.”

Andy Stohr finished fifth in 15:45.9, while Evan Carr (15:57.7), Matt Newell (16:00.1) and Austin Pulkowski (16:03.2) placed 9-10-11. Will Kiel took 27th (16:26.4), and Collin Pruitt was 33rd (16:32.0).

“We ran good 1 through 7,” Fisher said. “We’re pleased. It’s where we want to be going into next week.”

Jennings County finished ninth with 234 points, missing by three spots of qualifying for state as a team, but the Panthers did advance senior Gavin Hendrix as an individual after a 17th-place finish in 16:12.2. Brenden Baker took 45th in 16:45.5, while Lane Elsner was 62nd (16:59.0), Logan McIntosh 71st (17:06.3) and Ian Campbell 77th (17:07.8).

Brown County’s boys finished 20th with 491 points. Chase Austin took 36th in 16:35.2, while Rhett Silbaugh was 137th (17:58.7), Cord Smith 151st (18:15.2), Rafe Silbaugh 155th (18:26.2) and Cameron Fox 161st (18:35.1).

Meanwhile, the Brown County girls finished 10th with 265 points, their best showing ever at semistate, and qualified two runners to state. Sophomores Abby Fleetwood and Hadley Gradolf took seventh and 11th in 18:52.1 and 19:07.5. Also for the Eagles, Emelia Koester was 87th (20:50.6), Emma DeBord 100th (21:11.2) and Leslie Austin 131st (22:05.8).

“Abby and Hadley have battled the whole year and have done a really good job,” Brown County coach Rob Abraham said. “We have two girls that are capable of making it to that All-State type of situation next weekend. I’m really proud of those two, and it was a good team effort. Overall, I’m just really happy with their performance.”

Columbus East’s girls finished 18th with 450 points. Chloe Krueger led the Olympians with a 52nd-place finish in 20:15.5, while Carly Otte was 122nd (21:48.9), Laurel Knight 124th (21:50.5), Riley Carothers 147th (22:43.6) and Elizabeth Stevens 152nd (22:58.9).

“I was really happy with our effort today,” East girls coach Jesse Shoaf said. “Everybody just was going out for their personal-bests, and we got a few PRs today and some season-best times.”

Jennings finished 20th with 476 points. Halle Franks took 72nd in 20:36.1, while Grace Gambrel was 126th (21:52.8), Liz Wahlman 134th (22:18.8), Elizabeth Evans 138th (22:23.3) and Sarah Poole 159th (23:16.3).

“We weren’t projected to make it out of the regional, so we pretty much did our taper last week for regional and had a very successful regional race, which got us here,” Jennings girls coach Leah McLeod said. “That was meeting our expectations and meeting our goals for the season. Today, we were a little bit slower, but that’s to be expected when you needed to taper to get out of the regional.”