Columbus North’s, from left, Justin Reckers, Graham Pumphrey, Denton Sluder, Jace Works, Sam Steinmetz and Joseph Day run side-by-side toward the finish line against Columbus East Aug. 26 at Ceraland.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
No matter how many standout runners graduate from Columbus North each year, the Bull Dogs have consistently continued to churn out state medal contenders.
After just missing the podium at the past two state cross-country meets, the Bull Dog boys are ranked second in the state and 15th in the nation this week. The North girls climbed from No. 16 to No. 12 in the state after running away with last week’s Franklin Invitational.
“This summer and this season, we’ve really been putting in the hard work,” said Ainsley Sherlock, the only senior among North’s top seven girls. “I think now, it’s starting to show off in all these races, and I think we’ll continue to look even better and stronger as we continue keeping up this hard work. I think we’ve been running great, and we’ve all been really excited with how hard we’ve been working in practice and how it’s shown in our meets, and I think that we’ll continue on doing great things if we keep up this attitude.”
The improvement in this year’s boys and girls teams isn’t limited to the top runners.
In the season-opening Brown County Challenge — a meet where two-person relay teams ran 2,500 meters each —the Bull Dog girls averaged 9 minutes, 28 seconds for each of thost 2.5K legs. The 30 runners combined to run 5:17 faster than last year. The boys ran 6:17 faster.
North coach Rick Sluder rested his top five boys runners at last week’s Franklin Invite, but the Bull Dogs still finished runner-up by only five points to No. 11 Center Grove. Sophomore Joseph Day, who set the freshman school record last year, ran a personal-best in winning the race.
Columbus North’s, from left, Emma Lowther, Tristan Works, Ainsley Sherlock, Adira Sluder, Kodi Smith and Rendy Zhong run in a pack against Columbus East Aug. 26 at Ceraland.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
The North girls collective team improved by 28:30 over last season’s Franklin meet. Two girls ran more than five minutes faster, three others ran more than 100 seconds faster and all but one of the 30 girls ran faster than in last year’s race.
“When you have a program that has achieved a lot over 40 years like ours has, you always focus on those good individuals that come through like the Christian Wagners and Reese Kilbarger-Stumpffs, those state champions, and that’s not really all we are,” Rick Sluder said. “We had two girls last week cut four and five minutes off from that race last year. It was just incredible. We’re really focused on the whole team getting better.”
Sluder’s son and daughter, senior Denton Sluder and junior Adira Sluder, are one of two brother-sister combos running up front for the Bull Dogs. Senior Jace Works, an All-State runner in cross-country and state runner-up in the 800 meters in track this spring, and his sister, junior Tristan Works, are among their teams’ top runners, along with juniors Graham Pumphrey on the boys side and Emma Lowther on the girls side.
“We started this summer, and we’ve just been nonstop,” Jace Works said. “We’ve been at practice every day and always putting in our effort in the workouts and just trusting in the coaches. So it’s just the trust between us and the coaches that have led us because they obviously know what they’re talking about. It’s just led us to another level that we have always thought we could achieve, but now, we’re actually achieving it.”
“It’s just consistency and believing in the coaching,” added Denton Sluder, who has committed to run at Indiana State. “I just feel like we show up, and it’s either if we work hard or we don’t work hard. It’s just all about consistency.”
That consistency is a big key.
“We love to consistently show up and work hard together as a team,” Adira Sluder said. “We always push each other. I think that as a team, we’ve all been working hard together, and I just know that our hard work is going to pull through for us.”
“The big thing we see is consistency,” Rick Sluder added. “When you’re consistent, you’re going to get better at this sport. A lot of teams in the summer will have their varsity show up quite a bit, and then some of their JV will show up consistently and then some of their other kids show up here and there. We started on the girls side with 24 or 25 every day, and we have 30 on our team right now, and the same with the guys. When they have this buy-in and they work this hard, it’s really fun to watch them all get better.”
The Bull Dogs will have a chance to test themselves against some of the state’s top teams in Saturday’s Rick Weinheimer Classic at Ceraland and against some of the best in the nation at next weekend’s Southern Showcase in Huntsville, Alabama. The boys race starts at 9 a.m., followed by the girls race at around 9:30 in the Weinheimer Classic, which is named after the longtime coach who led Columbus North to five boys and one girls state championship.
The state’s top three boys teams — No. 1 Noblesville, No. 2 Columbus North and No. 3 Bloomington North — will be there, along with local teams Columbus East, Hauser, Jennings County and Brown County. The No. 12 Bull Dog girls figure to battle with No. 13 Floyd Central and No. 16 Noblesville for the title.
“It’s cool to be ranked so highly, but I think right now, we’re not focused on what we are ranked nationally,” Jace Works said. “We’re more focusing on proving to ourselves what we can do this season because our top five hasn’t raced all-out yet. So it will be interesting to see what we can do Saturday.”
