Will Russell
SHELBYVILLE — Columbus North saw its regional moved from Ceraland to Blue River Park, but the move didn’t faze its second-ranked girls or third-ranked boys teams.
The Bull Dog girls ran to their 14th consecutive regional title, and the North boys posted their 15th straight regional crown Saturday morning in leading a group of area teams in advancing to the Brown County Semistate.
The North girls scored a Perfect 15 points in claiming the top spot. Charlestown finished second with 93, Austin edged Seymour 104-105 for third and Columbus East took the fifth and final qualifying spot with 107. Jennings County was sixth with 145.
In the boys meet, the Bull Dogs scored 24 points to 69 for Austin, 100 for Seymour, 110 for Jennings County and 121 for Brown County. East finished 10th with 249.
Julia Kiesler
Julia Kiesler led a sweep of the top four spots for the North girls, running 17 minutes, 38.1 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles). Lily Baker finished second in 17:56.1, Brianna Newell third (19:00.4), Ellen White fourth (19:17.8), Julie Klaus seventh (19:34.1), Jessica Meza 11th (19:52.2) and Sydney Morlok 15th (20:15.7).
With top boys runner Clayton Guthrie resting, the Bull Dogs’ Will Russell won the boys race in 15:49.0. Mateo Mendez was fourth in 16:00.2, Neal White sixth (16:23.1), Draven Martinez eighth (16:39.6), Adler Larson ninth (16:42.8), Sam Hobbeheydar 10th (16:42.9) and Kellen Hottell 11th (16:53.2).
Jennings was led by a 14th-place finish from Eli Wahlman in 17:10.1. Kraedyn Young was 16th in 17:23.4, Noah McFall 29th (18:03.1), Zachary Wahlman 34th (18:11.3), Dawson Leak 39th (18:19.3), Elijah Hatton 69th (19:25.3) and Jace Vojkufka 70th (19:25.6).
Chase Austin led Brown County with a fifth-place finish in 16:39.6. Cord Smith and Case Smith were 32nd and 33rd in 18:06.6 and 18:08.5, Rafe Silbaugh 38th (18:18.6), Charlie Webb 42nd (18:22.3), Kai Koester 48th (18:32.1) and Clayton Austin 57th (18:43.0).
Hauser’s Colin Kistler qualified for semistate as an individual after finishing 25th in 17:58.0. The Jets’ Nolan Dailey was 54th (18:37.7), Ledger Gelfius 67th (19:20.3) and Collin Buck 68th (19:25.3).
For Columbus East, Jackson Brookes finished 44th in 18:23.7, while Cayden Lynott was 64th (18:58.3), Christopher Gilroy 71st (19:37.7), Jacob Peeples 73rd (19:41.2), Derek Patchett 75th (19:54.8), Elijah Clore 77th (19:56.5) and Asher Stevens 87th (21:15.8).
East’s girls were led by a 13th-place finish from Carly Otte in 20:01.4. Chloe Krueger was 19th in 20:50.7, Victoria Cuhadar 32nd (22:03.2), Madison Swartzentruber 42nd (22:39.2), Riley Carothers 44th (22:52.6) and Ameila Fay 46th (23:02.8).
Brown County’s Hadley Gradolf finished fifth in 19:26.9 to qualify for semistate as an individual. The Eagles’ Sadie Hiatt took 45th in 22:52.9.
Jennings’ Avery Willhite claimed the final individual qualifying spot after finishing 26th in 21:25.9. Also for the Panthers, Halle Franks was 28th (21:44.9), Haley Vogel 40th (22:34.1), Molly Wathen 52nd (23:24.7) Grace Gambrel 63rd (24:23.5), Kambrie Maschino 64th (24:32.3) and Kennedy Woods 76th (27:10.8).
Hauser had two girls competing as individuals. Lucie Asher finished 69th in 25:09.3, and Madison Hollman took 74th in 25:50.0.
