Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star
Brazil —
Northview’s cross country teams unveiled a new trek for its course at Craig Park on Tuesday, opening the racing season against Shakamak and Western Indiana Conference foes Brown County and Owen Valley.
While Northview’s boys finished runner-up to Brown County, the Knights girls team took a commanding victory over second-place Shakamak led by a second-place finish by junior Alyssa Conrad, who finished the hilly 5-kilometer course in 23 minutes, 44.5 seconds.
Nicole Nelson was not far behind in fourth, Donna Martin in sixth, Leeanna Knight in 7th and Kylie McKee in 10th to round out a fairly tight pack.
“With four new runners that it’s their first varsity race, they have to learn how to race yet,” coach Ryand Tucker said. “That’s not too bad for that first group. As the meets come along, we’ll learn how we can run in a group and be successful like that. This kind of gives me a target to where we should be on our training paces.”
Danielle Matsel of Owen Valley took first place in 23:27.0, and Shakamak’s Megan Phipps was third.
Brown County’s boys edged Terre Haute South by a few points in last year’s regional at the BC course to earn the program’s first semistate berth in several years, said coach Rob Abraham, who lost three seniors from that team.
On Tuesday, Alden Westcott and Dylan Allen raced each other to the finish line for the Eagles, Westcott winning in 18:52.4.
“We have a solid group, but we’re working on getting the five, six seven and eight guys up there,” Abraham said.
Ryan South took seventh for the Knights, who were without freshman Nick Yocom due to a stress fracture injury.
“Nick’s probably going to be our No. 1,” boys coach Chad Smith said. “Without him running, I thought Ryan South ran well for us. We’re hoping just to get in to better shape as the season goes on. We had a good first meet for us.”
Freshmen Ian Heffner and Travis Biel showed good promise for the Knights, clocking times of 19:59.8 and 20:22.0 respectively. Senior Tanner Brown ran 20:21.6, and junior Pat Durcholz ran a 20:42.3.
“We’re just trying to get in race shape,” Smith said. “We run Saturday at Rushville against some good teams so hopefully we can have some good times on a little bit faster course than ours.”
Eric Johnson of Shakamak cracked the top 10 with a time of 19:35. Coach Jon Miller said the Lakers are looking for a good performance Thursday in the Greene County Invitational at White River Valley.
The Lakers’ girls squad had three athletes in the top 10 led by juniors Megan Phippps and Brooklyn Samm. Savannah Turner was eighth.
Boys
Team scores — Brown County 17, Northview 58, Owen Valley 80, Shakamak 82.
Top 15 — Alden Westcott (BC) 18:52.4, Dylan Allen (BC) 18:52.8, Christian Ely (BC) 19:07.5, Jack Petry (OV) 19:16.1, Connor Guingrich (BC) 19:22.9, Cody Whipker (BC) 19:29.3, Ryan South (N) 19:31.8, Eric Johnson (S) 19:35.4, Ian Heffner (N) 19:59.8, Nick Harding (BC) 20:10.2, Ethan Sparks (OV) 20:11.0, Zach Roush (BC) 20:17.7, Tanner Brown (N) 20:21.6, Travis Beil (N) 20:22.0, Ben Housman (BC) 20:29.8.
Other Northview — 16. Pat Durcholz 20:42.3, 19. Kyle Yocom 21:32.7.
Other Shakamak — 17. Brodie Crowe 20:55.1, 18. Luke Sweet (S) 21:10.7, 22. Dylan Phipps 22:19.9, 23. Brock Dowell 22:20.7, 25. Alex Enstrom 23:46.6.
Girls
Team scores — Northview 24, Shakamak 43, Brown County 58, Owen Valley, inc.
Top 15 — Danielle Matsel (OV) 23:27, Alyssa Conrad (N) 23:44.5, Megan Phipps (S) 24:47.1, Nicole Nelson (N) 24:53.0, Brooklyn Samm (S) 25:16.8, Donna Martin (N) 25:30.6, Leeanna Knight (N) 25:49.9, Savannah Turner (S) 25:51,1, Anna Lutes (BC) 26:09.3, Kylie McKee (N) 26:26.8, Alice Merryman (BC) 26:46.7, Chrissi Hodapp (BC) 27:01.4, Aleksey Green (S) 27:16.0, Meaghan Pilman (N) 28:55.9, Sadie Freeman (BC) 29:12.2.
Other Northview — 17. Olivia Howald 30:07.
Other Shakamak — 19. Jerri Beck 31:44, 22. Kindrah Schmidtz 36:06.
Next — Northview’s teams compete Saturday in the Rushville Invitational. Shakamak competes Thursday in the Greene County Invitational.
