Crawfordsville's Hunter Hutchison, Drake Hayes, and Eli Widmer used pack running to pace the Athenians and lead them to a fourth place finish overall.
Crawfordsville's Madison Fry, right, pulled away from the majority of the field to place second overall at the IHSAA Sectional on Saturday a Brownsburg.
Southmont's Faith Allen placed 16th overall on Saturday to advance to the cross country regional.
BROWNSBURG — Crawfordsville’s girls cross country team rode momentum from last week’s Sagamore Conference championship to a fourth place finish at the Brownsburg IHSAA Sectional, while the boys’ squad joined them on the podium with a fourth place finish to advance to the regional.
“Just solid performances,” Crawfordsville coach Megan Craig said of her girls’ team. “I think they came in off that conference win last week and came in here with some confidence that if they all pushed themselves and advance just a few more places than that puts us in a better position to advance as a team.”
Led by Madison Fry’s second place finish and personal best run of 19:09, the Athenians were fourth with 116 points.
“That first pack went out really fast, and she knew what she needed to do,” Craig said. “She ran a very smart race, and tucked into that second pack rather than making her move early and getting out into that head wind.”
Freshman Elyse Widmer was 22nd for Crawfordsville in a time of 21:04, followed by Shelby Greene’s 27th place finish in 21:33, while Halle Smith was 29th in 21:46. Olivia Biddle was 40th in 22:35, Kiara Martinez 58th and Olivia Fichter 60th.
On the boys’ side, the pack of Hunter Hutchison (14th in 16:55), Drake Hayes (17th in 17:08), and Eli Widmer (18th in 17:10) paced the Athenians to their fourth place finish with 132 points.
“They’re blessed with three guys that run very comparable speeds,” Craig said. “They can pack run and then one of them can pull away. Drake’s done it, Eli’s done it, and Hunter did it this week. Someone is always shouldering that, and they’re big on sharing that load.”
Devin Burris placed 41st in 18:19, Arthur Ruano 46th in 18:36, Luke Stewart was 50th with a time of 18:41, and Cole Watt was 55th in 19:10.
Brownsburg won both the girls and boys team titles.
Southmont’s Faith Allen advanced as an individual with a 16th place finish in a time of 20:17.
“It’s the same story as last week, we just want to continue to see her progress and get more race experience and we are going to see how far she can get,” Southmont coach Courtny Cotten said. “I like how she responded. She was hitting her pace times, and she kind of ran her own race in the beginning.”
Southmont’s top finisher on the boys’ side was Aaron Evans, placing 56th in a time of 19:11.
Crawfordsville along with Allen will compete at the Ben Davis IHSAA Regional next Saturday.
At Benton Central
Fountain Central’s boys and girls teams raced to fourth and fifth place finishes respectively to advance at the Benton Central Sectional.
Led by Carson Pietrzak’s fifth place finish in a time of 18:08, the boys were fourth with 119 points. Kyle Mellady was 21st in 19:04, Justin Butts 30th in 19:33, Nathan Solomon 31st in 19:38, and Jacob Rice 32nd in 19:38. Dan Adams was 38th, and Ethan Mellady 49th.
On the girls’ side Tyler Bowling led Fountain Central with a 29th place finish in a time of 23:51, while Angela Gonzalez was 34th in 24:23, and Nadya Rahm-Bradford 38th in 24:39. Katie Hurt placed 48th in a time of 27:28.
North Montgomery’s Claire Bonwell and Elijah McCartney advanced to the regional as individuals.
Bonwell placed 22nd in the girls’ race with a time of 23:00, while McCartney was 10th overall in the boys’ race with a time of 18:29.
Fountain Central along with Bonwell and McCartney will compete at the IHSAA Regional next Saturday at the Tippecanoe Amphitheater in West Lafayette.
