FLOYDS KNOBS — Going into the Hoosier Hills Conference race, Jennings County boys cross-country coach Bryant Layman laid out a plan of attack for his team.
He told the Panthers to start fast, and try to trap Floyd Central with bait.
The tactic paid off.
Jennings three-peated as HHC champions on Saturday by scoring 30 points. Floyd Central was runner-up with 34 points, followed by New Albany (76), Bedford North Lawrence (109), Seymour (129), Columbus East (165), Jeffersonville (203) and Madison (256).
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Top-seven finishers earned All-HHC status while placings eight-through-14 were dubbed HHC honorable mention. Less than a minute was the difference between first and 14th place in the boys race.
Panthers junior Carter Leak was the overall champion in 16 minutes, 25.45 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles), while senior teammate Alex Hendrix was runner-up in 16:35.02. Jennings’ Lane Elsner clocked 16:41.43 for fifth, Gavin Hendrix timed 16:54.22 for ninth and Jason Gasper was 13th in 17:19.21.
“We knew Floyd had a great pack, but we knew that our frontrunning was better,” Layman said. “We told our guys that ‘we’re going to go and make their pack split.’ We wanted to make them race and not make it a foot race at the end. We went out fast and hard. We knew it would hurt us on the back end of the race, but our goal was that Floyd would get uncomfortable with the lead expanding and try to take a shot at us in the middle of the race. The boys executed it, and did what they needed to do to win today’s race.”
While it was a third straight HHC, Layman said this one meant a lot to the program.
“It means more this year than it has in the past,” he said. “The first year was special, because it was the first time we had won (HHC) in 40 years, but this year, with our young team, we never thought in a million years that we’d be running for the conference championship. We thought we were a third or fourth at our best.”
The win was a long time coming for Leak, who had three HHC runner-up finishes between cross-country and track going into the meet going into Saturday.
“I felt pretty good. It was perfect weather conditions,” Leak said. “Individually, I’ve been honorable mention since freshman year. I was glad to win it this year. As a team, it’s a big accomplishment since we are so young.”
“At first, I was going out to get in front,” he added. “I heard people yelling that they were behind me, and I was just trying to keep that gap.”
Layman said winning the HHC is a steppingstone.
“Winning this is huge for us,” he said. “Next year’s team will be even more powerful than what this team is. This is a young team that just won the conference. You bring that back, and add in some younger kids, they will be a force again next year. It gives us the confidence that we can run with the big dogs.”
Garrett McGaha led the Olympians sixth-place effort by finishing 28th in 18:05.79. Nick Walter (35th, 18:23.45), Tyler Hertle (38th, 18:29.22), Colby Hertle (45th, 18:56.69) and Ryan Sadtler (46th, 18:56.87) completed East’s scoring.
“Teamwise, we didn’t finish where we wanted to, but time-wise we continued to make good progress as we head into sectional,” East boys coach Ryan Burke said. “We had two personal bests and another two season bests. We didn’t have anything exceptional, but we did have some good performances today.”
In the girls race, Floyd Central dominated the competition by scoring 20 points. The Highlanders had five runners finish in the top seven and seven in the top 11.
Jennings finished runner-up with 63 points, and East (78) edged Seymour (79) for third. Madison (146), Bedford North Lawrence (159) and Jeffersonville (213) completed team scoring.
Emma Morrison was All-HHC for the Panthers by finishing fifth in 19:54.56. Ashley Heindel (10th, 20:34.23) and Kaylee Ebinger (14th, 21:09.33) were both honorable mention, and Patricia Henney (20th, 21:29.67) and Heather Sea (23rd, 21:32.90) rounded out Jennings’ top five.
“I’m extremely happy,” Panther girls coach Leah McLeod said. “Our goal was to come in and get second place. That is what we did today. Our times are still a little bit slower than what we want them to be, but we haven’t started tapering yet. We are trying to play it safe until further along in the tournament run.”
East’s Olivia Linneman was eighth (20:09.38) to lead the Olympians and earn honorable mention recognition. Jordan Spurgeon (21:13.70), Elizabeth Stevens (21st, 21:31.12), Olivia Shoaf (22nd, 21:32.50) and Amanda Pottorff (25th, 21:42.07) followed for East.
“We did great today,” East girls coach Jesse Shoaf said. “We’re really pleased with where we’re at. We wanted top-three at the beginning of the season, and we met that goal today. I was pleased with Olivia Linneman. Our whole pack, 2 through 5, was really condensed. I think the biggest thing we saw today was that we’re still improving, and that’s a good thing.”
