Columbus North’s Brianna Newell (1353), Lily Baker (1339) and Julia Kiesler lead the girls cross country sectional at Eagle Park in Brown County in Nashville, Ind., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
NASHVILLE — After not running their varsity in the cross-country sectional last year, Columbus North was full-go for this year’s sectional at Brown County, and that wasn’t good news for the rest of the field.
Both teams claimed the top three individual spots and put all seven of their runners in the top 10 Saturday morning at Eagle Park. The second-ranked Bull Dog girls scored a “Perfect 15,” and the fourth-ranked boys finished with 19 points to kick off the tournament series by defending their sectional titles.
“We lost a meet this year (when the North Invitational was canceled because of storms), and we thought it was worthwhile getting some competition,” North boys coach Andy Keffaber said. “They really haven’t gotten to run in the tournament a lot because the class ahead of them was so good. There’s some very good individuals from the other teams that we knew we’d have to run well, and it we could get in front of them, it would be a good workout, and it’s good race experience for them.”
Brown County’s boys and Columbus East’s boys and girls also advanced to Saturday’s regional, which has been moved from Ceraland to Shelbyville’s Blue River Park because of construction at Ceraland.
Seymour edged Brown County 72-73 for second in the boys meet, and Brownstown Central (121) and East (164) claimed the final two regional-qualifying spots. In the girls meet, Seymour (57), East (72) and Brownstown (104) were the only other schools with full teams.
The Bull Dogs’ Brianna Newell won the girls race in a season-best 18 minutes, 35,46 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles).
“This is a huge confidence builder,” Newell said. “I really needed that. It kind of put me back on the right track.”
Newell ran with teammates Julia Kiesler and Lily Baker the first 4,750 meters. Kiesler finished second in 18:37.22, and Baker was third in 18:37.59.
“Our plan was to pack run for the entire race,” Newell said. “We had a specific pace, and the goal was for all the girls to stay together as long as possible. I’m happy with how everyone performed.”
North’s Ellen White finished fifth in 19:01.32. Julie Klaus took seventh in 19:12.23, while Sydney Morlok was ninth (19:32.87) and Ainsley Sherlock 10th (19:34.01).
“We felt really good after last week, and we wanted to keep it rolling, so we came out here today with a good plan,” North girls coach Rick Sluder said. “We really grouped up and tried to pack together early in the race to get used to what the semistate and state will look like. I thought our front three ran fantastic races up front, and Ellen White ran fantastic, probably her best race ever, and then Julie, Sydney and Ainsley Sherlock ran fantastic races out here.”
East was led by 11th- and 12th-place finishes from Carly Otte and Chloe Krueger in 20:14.67 and 20:57.22. Victoria Cuhadar was 17th (21:40.90), Madison Swartzenbruber 21st (23:03.50), Amelia Fay 24th (22:24.28), Hayden Carothers 26th (22:26.65) and Riley Carothers 27th (22:31.87).
“We had three up on the podium in the top 20, so that was good,” East girls coach Jesse Shoaf said. “We’ve been competing well and really coming around as a team together. Our 2-through-6 were really tight today, so that’s what I was really looking forward to, and we just hope to keep that going for next week.”
Brown County’s Hadley Gradolf, who finished fourth in 19:01.32 and Sadie Hiatt, who took 28th in 22:57.44, qualified for regional as individuals, along with Hauser’s Lucie Asher and Madison Hollman, who were 34th and 36th in 24:37.95 and 25:01.32.
Hauser had four runners, one short of the number needed to score as a team. Amanda Steward was 37th (25:06.40) and Reiss Kistler 43rd (29:46.92).
Edinburgh had two runners. Lillie Goff was 44th (40:43.20) and Alanna Hobbs 45th (40:53.80).
Meanwhile, in the boys race, North’s Clayton Guthrie ran to victory in 15:18.97. Will Russell finished second in 15:24.66, while Mateo Mendez was third (15:34.29), Neal White fifth (15:50.68), Draven Martinez eighth (16:31.11), Kellen Hottell ninth (16:39.24) and Adler Larson 10th (16:47.10).
“We came in with a pretty structured plan, kind of taking it a little bit more conservative than we usually do through two miles and then just kind of closing from there,” Guthrie said. “We had different groups, and our goal was to get those people under their PRs, so we all kind of worked together and moved in a pack. I think we played it really well, and everything went pretty much how we wanted it to.”
Chase Austin led Brown County with a sixth-place finish in 16:05.62. Cord Smith was 15th (17:34.15), Case Smith 16th (17:44.71), Rafe Silbaugh 17th (17:49.73), Charloe Webb 19th (17:54.76), Clayton Austin 25th (18:22.44) and Kai Koester 31st (18:43.02).
“On a whole, I’m pretty happy,” Brown County coach Rob Abraham said. “We ended up having five guys under 18 for the first time. It would have been nice to come in second place, but Seymour slipped three in front of my two, and that kind of did us in a little bit there. I thought that for the most part, we ran pretty good.”
The East boys qualified for regional for the first time in three years. Jackson Brookes finished 22nd in 18:06.92, while Lorren Westerfeld was 32nd (18:45.32), Jacob Peeples 33rd (18:50.93), Christopher Gilroy 37th (19:06.42), Cayden Lynott 40th (19:16.99), Derek Patchett 42nd (19:17.94) and Elijah Clore 43rd (19:20.30).
“We have a small team, but they’re close-knit, and I’m really happy with how they ran today,” East boys coach Ryan Burke said. “Everybody came out with the same goal in mind, which was to advance, and they were able to do that. They did all we could have asked for them today.”
Hauser finished sixth as a team with 175 points, 11 behind East for the final spot, but the Jets did advance four individuals. Nolan Dailey was 21st (17:58.61), Colin Kistler 34th (18:54.99), Collin Buck 35th (18:55.84) and Ledger Gelfiuis 38th (19:08.33). Also running for Hauser were Mason Moore (47th in 20:04.43) and Taylen Absher (50th in 20:36.54).
“Four for the boys and two for the girls (advancing) is pretty good,” Hauser coach Ben Finke said. “I’m proud of the way they ran. The boys ran pretty well. We were hoping to get out as a team, but they came real close. We’re happy to get those four out.”
Edinburgh had three runners. Irving Luis-Orozco finished 48th in 20:12.20, while Brian Callejas was 54th (22:47.40) and Ethan Campbell 61st (29:42.80).
