SHELBYVILLE — The boys 2019 cross country season came to an end for Hancock County runners at Saturday’s Shelbyville Semistate.
The closure came with a memorable final run at Blue River Park.
Conditions were miserable for runners who had to operate through heavy rains, wind and cold weather.
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Or, as veteran Mt. Vernon coach Bruce Kendall called it, “Finally, we get some decent cross country weather. This is cross country weather.”
Kendall had the lone county team (seven members) in the 20-team event that also included individual runners from each of the other three county schools. Greenfield-Central was represented by Conner Kinnaman. Eastern Hancock had a pair of runners in Daniel Campbell and Nick Edwards. Colin Darley ran for New Palestine.
The field included six teams ranked in the top 11 of the Indiana Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches poll, including four ranked in the top six.
Mt. Vernon finished 16th with 460 points. No. 2 Carmel (89), No. 3 Center Grove (110), No. 4 Brebeuf (119), No. 6 Brownsburg (120), No. 10 Noblesville (169) and No. 11 Zionsville (177) were the six teams advancing to Saturday’s IHSAA Boys Cross Country State Finals in Terre Haute.
The top county finisher was Kinnaman, who placed 61st with a time of 16:48.
“We could not have done any better than 16th today,” Kendall said. “Today was the best we could have done.”
The coach wasn’t just happy with how his team ran on Saturday, he was happy with the entire season. The Marauders won seven invitational/championship races including the Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference meets.
He did it with a crew of underclassmen, giving him hope for better things down the road.
“We have just won all year. It seems like we’ve won everything,” Kendall said.
Reyce Morgan, a sophomore, led the Mt. Vernon runners. He placed 84th with a time of 17:03.7 for the 5K run. Jacob Benz, who finished 142nd and was the No. 5 runner for the Marauders on Saturday, was the lone senior in Mt. Vernon’s seven-team group.
Junior Colin Brown and sophomore Austin Rush followed Morgan. Brown was 114th in 17:21.2. Rush was 117th in 17:22.0. Junior Evan Rappe was the other scoring runner, placing 137th in 17:43.6.
“It was like a normal race. You had to do what you had to do,” Morgan said of the race conditions. “The rain was blowing in your eyes and it was hard to keep your eyes open to see the runners you were looking for. It was hard to keep your balance.”
Other runners competing for Mt. Vernon were junior Tyler Strantz (153, 18:06.9) and sophomore Sam Wilson (159, 18:15.5).
Kinnaman said, “In conditions like this, it’s really more of a mental race.
“With the wind and the rain, it makes it fun, in a weird way. It takes a special kind of person to run cross country.”
Campbell and Edwards were 130th and 134th, respectively, with times of 17:34.6 and 17:40.5.
Like Benz and Kinnaman, Edwards was also a senior running his final high school race.
New Palestine’s Darley, a sophomore who is also competed on the school’s tennis team this fall, finished 122nd with a time of 17:25.
