INDIANAPOLIS — Saturday ended up being a very successful day for many area cross country runners.
After getting both the boys and girls teams out of the sectional, Crawfordsville had another overall strong showing at Ben Davis High School. The boys earned a 7th place finish with a score wof 207 and were lead by Ryan Miller who placed 15th overall with a time of 17:05. Other individual results included Max Brumett (50th), Hutton Haas (58th), Tyson Fuller (62nd), Roman Contreas (63rd), Ian Hensley (78th), and Arthur Ruano (85th).
Miller’s 15th place finish qualified him to advance to Saturday’s Semi-State which will take place at Blue River Park in Shelbyville.
Over on the girls side the Athenians finished sixth overall with a score of 195.
Freshman Sophia Melevage paced the Athenians witha 16th place finish with a time of 20:38. Junior Elyse Widmer placed 41st overall with a time of 22:13. Both Melevage and Widmer will join Miller next week at Semi-State, a feat which Athenian coach Megan Craig is truly proud of.
“Every week that you can continue in October is a success,” she said. Taking three athletes out next week is a great feeling. The last two seasons we have only had 1 or 2 runners advance. Our ultimate goal is to get the group through. All of these runners are taking their first trip to semi state and they work the entire season for this opportunity. Saturday’s success was a product of months of hard work and sacrifice.”
The ultimate goal of any runner is to get to the higest level of competition at the state finals. Craig knows that advacing on Saturday won’t come easy, but her athletes are more than capable of reaching that milestone.
“Pushing to the next level and having the athletes get to state is one of our goals,” she said.It’s important that the athletes understand that we have the ability to compete at the next level. When we get them through it will no longer be a vision it will become a reality. Pushing into the post season brings awareness to the success of these athletes. It’s our hope that this exposure and excitement around their success will encourage the growth of the program.”
Southmont advanced four runners to the Regional. Juniors Faith Allen and Heaven Smith represented the girls, while Mason Cass and Aaron Evans represented the boys.
Allen for the third consecutive season advanced to semi-state with a tenth place finish and a time of 20:03. Cass just missed on qualifying as he was the 11th best individual on a non-advancing team. The top ten individuals move on to next week.
“I’m so excited for Faith to get to contnue her season one more week,” Southmont coach Shelly Allen said. “There’s really no other words than that. She has the work ethic that is needed to earn her way there. This week I’m just going to let her enjoy the moment however she wants and not focus too much on the actual race itself to kind of keep the nerves down.”
The semi-state meet will be nothing new for Faith who in all three seasons has been qualified for the meet. The experience of knowing what to expect will help as she will look to extend her season one more week.
North Montgomery’s Elijah McCartney also earned a trip to the semi-state with a 13th place finish at the Harrison Regional with a time of 17:16.
McCartney will be joined by two Fountain Central Mustangs at Semi-State. Freshman Brailey Hoagland earned a tenth place finish witha time of 20:17, and Sophomore Hayden Kler placed 22nd with time of 17:34.
McCartney, Hoagland, and Kler will compete at New Prairie on Saturday. Just like the Regional, the top ten individuals from non-advancing teams will advance to the state finals at Terre Haute on Oct. 30.
