Columbus North’s Jace Works approaches the finish line to win the boys race in in Saturday’s Brown County Sectional at Eagle Park.
Dakota Locker | For The Republic
NASHVILLE — As the only ranked teams in Saturday’s cross-country Brown County Sectional, Columbus North’s top-ranked boys and 14th-ranked girls teams had clear paths to the titles.
Jennings County’s boys and girls also advanced to the Oct. 25 Evansville Regional with fourth-place team finishes, and Hauser’s boys qualified for regional for the first time since 2009 by claiming the fifth and final spot.
The Bull Dog boys, who are ranked No. 7 in the country in this week’s MileSplit poll, claimed the top four spots and seven of the top eight in scoring 16 points. Seymour edged Greensburg 128-131 for second, and Jennings nipped Hauser 137-138 for fourth.
“They wanted to run hard and push it, so they did and ran a great race,” North coach Rick Sluder said. “We trained hard this week, so they were probably a little tired, and we were still excited with that performance.”
North senior Jace Works won the boys race in 15 minutes, 24.8 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) at Eagle Park. Justin Reckers finished second in 15:41.8, while Joseph Day was third (15:49.1), Denton Sluder fourth (15:51.7), Logan Vanzant sixth (16:06.6), Graham Pumphrey seventh (16:06.9) and Sam Steinmetz eighth (16:07.6).
“We wanted to come out here and put as many guys in the front as we could, so I think we did a good job of that today,” Works said. “We definitely pushed ourselves. This is just the first step, so we’ll go on to regional next weekend and hopefully try to do the same thing that we did here.”
Jennings was led by back-to-back-to-back finishes from Maxwell Rodriguez in 16th (17:02.1), Cash Summers in 17th (17:03.5) and Zachary Wahlman in 18th (17:13.7). Dawson Leak took 40th in 18:18.6, while Elijah Lucas was 48th (18:41.7) and Ellis Rodriguez 84th (29:43.9).
“They gave all their effort,” Jennings boys coach Nathaniel Staples said. “I’m very pleased with the support that the team has brought to one another. I saw many season-bests and personal-bests from the athletes, so I’m excited for them to be able to have another race to in the season and that it didn’t end today.”
Nolan Dailey led Hauser with a ninth-place finish in 16:10.5. Jace Wright took 13th in 16:54.7, while Max Moore was 34th (18:06.0), Braydon McFarland 37th (18:16.6), Mason Moore 46th (18:32.5), Grady Niccum 62nd (19:47.4) and Mason Johnson 78th (21:52.7).
“We knew it was going to be a battle, and it was going to be a tough race,” Hauser coach Ben Finke said. “We knew that all season. We trained really well for it all season. It was a struggle. I’m proud of the way they went out and battled. We knew it was going to be a test, and I think they performed well under the test.”
Brown County finished sixth with 148 points and had four individuals advance, with Nathan Cumberledge 15th (17:01.3), Aden Skaggs 22nd (17:22.0), Jacob Webb 30th (17:48.4) and Eddie Webb 31st (17:54.2). Also for the Eagles, Xavier Himebaugh was 51st (18:56.1), Robert Johnson 59th (19:38.1) and Jonathan Stinson 83rd (27:32.2).
Columbus East came in seventh with 153 points and advanced three individuals in Norman Dickson 11th (16:42.1), Elijah Clore 23rd (17:24.7) and Riley Wilson 33rd (18:03.8). Also for the Olympians, Lorren Westerfeld was 43rd (18:28.2), Maddox Hult 45th (18:30.6), Cullen Fullerton 60th (19:42.1) and Beckett Mocas 63rd (20:15.4).
“That’s just how it goes with cross-country — sometimes, you can do everything the right way and it not work out,” East boys coach Gabe Ocasio said. “There’s a lot of life lessons that come out of that. We did our best We just didn’t have it today. We just mark it up and get ready for track.”
Trinity Lutheran’s Oliver Eggersman claimed the 15th and final individual qualifying spot with a 38th-place finish in 18:17.3. The Cougars’ Nathan Negrete took 56th in 19:12.2.
South Decatur’s lone boys runner, Luke Poling, finished 82nd in 24:20.3.
Meanwhile, the girls race was a little closer, but North ran to its state-best 29th consecutive sectional title. The Bull Dogs scored 38 points to 69 for Edgewood, 99 for Seymour, 107 for Jennings and 112 for Greensburg.
North was led by fifth-, sixth- and seventh-place finishes from Emma Lowther (19:30.9), Kodi Smith (19:38.1) and Tristan Works (19:46.0). Adira Sluder took ninth (20:06.4), while Sydney Madden was 11th (20:15.7), Maria Gaggiano Camargo 12th (20:19.3) and Hazel Sasse 28th (22:13.2).
“They ran really tough,” Rick Sluder said. “We went out kind of hard on purpose. We wanted to set up a strong race. We knew Edgewood was pretty good, and we just wanted to get away from their 3-4-5. Our girls may have been a little tired the last mile, but that’s because they set it up with a really good first two miles. I’m really excited with our girls performance today and keep the state’s strongest consecutive streak alive.”
Adistyn Long finished fourth in 19:16.0 to lead the Panthers. Alaina Watts and Shelby Allen took 21st and 22nd in 21:17.1 and 21:22.8, while Addison Otte was 29th (22:26.9), Brianna Phillips 31st (22:41.1), Izabelle Miller 39th (23:31.1) and Macey Willhite 54th (25:34.6).
“We came into this with a really good mindset, goals in mind,” Jennings girls coach Jill Stoner said. “Our goal was to make it to regional, our goal was to perform well, and we really performed well and that’s enough to take us there. This is probably the most motivational team I’ve coached in a long time. I can’t ask for a better group of girls.”
Brown County (180) and East (200) finished seventh and eighth, and each had four individuals qualify for regional.
The Eagles’ Addie Adams finished 20th (21:00.0), Ela Robinette 27th (22:07.5), Sadie Hiatt 40th (23:38.3) and Della Hitchcock 43rd (23:58.0) to advance. Also for Brown County, Michaela Smith was 50th (25:00.3), Izzy Miller 52nd (25:23.1) and Kalyani Schilling 68th (28:30.8).
The Olympians qualified Ainslee Shaw, who was 24th (21:49.3), Elizabeth Sztaba 35th (23:11.0), Abby Collins 42nd (23:56.6) and Brooke Newell 48th (24:57.4). Also for East, Trinity Burns was 51st (25:10.8), Abigail Morales-Pascual 56th (25:44.8) and Daphne May 59th (26:20.1).
“I’m pleased with our effort today,” East girls coach Jesse Shoaf said. “We kind of knew going into it that we were working on getting some individuals out. So I think they did well.”
South Decatur’s Summer Masters finished 53rd in 25:33.7, while Sophia Powers was 55th (25:35.9), Bri Benefiel 64th (27:59.1) and Andrea Brogan 66th (28:13.4).
Trinity’s Elizabeth Downey finished 60th in 26:20.7, and Emma Mellencamp took 67th in 28:24.9.
