TERRE HAUTE — A young Columbus North boys cross-country team finished the regular season ranked ninth in the state and entered the state finals ranked seventh.
The Bull Dogs knew they were a little better than those rankings, and on Saturday, they proved it. North ran to a fourth-place finish, earning a spot on the medals podium for the first time since 2014.
“These boys knew in June what we were capable of, and they worked hard back over the summer and saw the fruits of their labor today,” North coach Danny Fisher said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran won the boys championship with 93 points. Carmel finished second with 112, followed by Brebeuf Jesuit with 135, the Bull Dogs with 161, Brownsburg with 214 and Homestead with 215.
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Lowell senior Gabe Sanchez won the 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) race in 15 minutes, 28.7 seconds.
North sophomore Matt Newell earned All-State honors by finishing 14th overall in 15:56.8 for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.
“I’m definitely happy with getting All-State this year,” Newell said. “I think we did what we came here to do, and it was overall a very successful day for the whole team. I think we all did a good job today.”
Another sophomore, Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff, just missed an All-State spot by the narrowest of margins. He finished 26th in 16:15.5, the same time as Jasper’s Jackson Miller, who claimed the 25th and final All-State spot.
But Kilbarger-Stumpff was happy for the team’s success.
“We just had plans that we spent basically the whole week coming up with, basing it off of whatever other individuals and teams were going to do, and we executed those plans perfectly,” Kilbarger-Stumpff said. “Going out the first kilometer kind of conservative and then just picking off people, I think we did that really well.”
Junior Andy Stohr finished 47th in 16:26.1, and junior Austin Pulkowski took 66th in 16:34.8. Sophomore Evan Carr rounded out the scoring with an 80th-place finish in 16:45.9.
Also for the Bull Dogs, Collin Pruitt took 99th in 16:53.5, and Will Kiel was 145th in 17:13.3.
“We talked about, ‘We don’t need any heroic efforts. Everybody just show up and do their job and hold themselves accountable, and where the dust settles is where we are,’” Fisher said. “It was just a good test to see where we measure up against the rest of the state.”
Jennings County had a pair of individuals compete at state after it missed qualifying as a team with an eighth-place semistate finish. Senior Carter Leak wrapped up his high school career by taking 69th in 16:37.7.
“I wanted All-State, but it didn’t happen,” Leak said. “I went out better than I came in, so that’s all I can ask for.”
Panther junior Gavin Hendrix finished 88th in 16:48.4.
“I think I had a much better race than last year, but I would have liked to gone out a little farther back and work my way up,” Hendrix said. “Next year, I’ll be shooting for top 25 or top 20.”
That also will be the case with several of the North runners who will look to improve next season.
“We return everybody in our top 25 but one, so we’re going to hopefully train well and be consistent and healthy to be a little bit better next year,” Fisher said.
