FORTVILLE — Franklin Central swept the Mt. Vernon boys and girls cross country sectional on Saturday, but it didn’t prevent Hancock County’s representatives from achieving their primary goal.
Mt. Vernon’s boys team finished second overall on its home course with 44 points behind Franklin Central (31), followed by Greenfield-Central’s 66 for third, which secured a Rushville Regional spot for both local programs this upcoming weekend.
New Palestine had four runners push through individually in senior Colin Darley (17 minutes, 41 seconds), junior Cody Crawmer (18:42.1), sophomore Jacob Collins (18:56.9) and junior Connor Lapenta (18:57.5).
Eastern Hancock advanced three runners in freshman Preston Markley (17:50.1), senior Luke McCartney (18:39.8) and sophomore Brandon Metz (18:53.4).
At each sectional site across the state, the top-five teams and top-10 individuals without an advancing team move on to regional.
On the girls side, New Palestine was second with 67 points, while host Mt. Vernon finished fourth at 76. Roncalli (69) was third.
Franklin Central won the girls team title with a score of 24, placing all five of its runners in the top 15, including individual meet champion Ella DesJean in 20:20.5.
Greenfield-Central had all five runners advance as individuals, including freshman Lexie Copeland (22:14.9), junior Reagan Crouch (23:11.9), sophomore Emma Bogle (23:27.8), junior Olivia Wahl (24:15.0) and sophomore Shelby Hoffman (24:52.2).
Eastern Hancock’s Olivia Evans, a freshman, finished 26th overall to move on individually at 22:15.5.
“We knew the sectional was tough. It’s usually six teams fighting for those top spots, and the top-five teams here ran pretty well. Our top-five ran well. Getting five through is the most individuals we’ve ever had make it through to the regional,” G-C girls coach Scott Burton said. “That’s nice to have that team mentality going into next week. Hopefully, we can close the gap on those five teams.”
The Flashes claimed the top-three spots in the girls event, followed by New Palestine senior Emma Mann, who unfortunately collapsed down the final stretch of the 5K race before reaching the finish line.
Mann was aided by DesJean near the end after leading the eventual champion and the pack a majority of the event.
“Even with Emma not finishing, she crawled herself to finish fourth and she was pretty much easily going to win,” New Palestine coach Chuck Myers said. “She still finished for her team. She did a great job, and she’s going to be OK. She just got a little overheated.”
Mann crossed the finish line in a time of 20:28.6 ahead of teammate Courtney Study, a sophomore, who took fifth in 20:36.1.
Mann was runner-up at the Hoosier Heritage Conference meet the week prior in a time of 19:27.91. She posted a 19:48 to win the county’s individual title last month.
“She was looking good through about 4K, then she started to look a little bit tired. I’ve seen it happen with other runners where late in a race sometimes you just run out of energy at the end and you just can’t quite make it to the finish,” Myers said. “But, she made it there. She just had a little bit of difficulty.”
New Palestine senior Caitlin Urrutia was 11th at 20:56.8. Senior Emily Adam was 21st at 22:07.2, and junior Alexis Baynes was 27th at 22:27.7.
Senior Morgan Tharp led the Marauders with a eighth-place run in 20:47.8, and sophomore Alexandria Jenson was 10th at 20:55.6.
The defending county and conference champion Marauders were hoping to contend for the team title, but they struggled to keep pace, placing their top-five runners at 16th, 19th and 23rd.
“Allie (Jenson) ran really well. She probably ran better than anyone today. She finished ahead of probably where she was supposed to finish,” Mt. Vernon girls coach Kean Coy said. “It was great that Morgan finished in the top 10 even when didn’t have her best day. That’s awesome.”
Senior Lydia Carrell ran a 21:20.4, followed by freshman Emma Gale at 21:58.6 and freshman Julia Iserloth at 22:11.2.
“Overall, the fact that we’re still able to move on when we couldn’t run full force today was good. But, part of that is on me. I need to figure out what we did this past week because that’s two years in a row,” Coy said. “I switched it up because we ran poorly here last year, too, so I don’t know if it’s a mental block on our home course, but New Pal ran really well today and Roncalli had a few girls that hadn’t run well here recently came back strong. It was just a perfect storm.”
The time was right for Greenfield-Central’s Griffen Wheeler, a junior, who was the county’s highest-placer in the boys race at third in 16:48.9.
Mt. Vernon senior Joseph Blagrave (16:54.0) and junior Tristan Trevino (17:00.0) were fourth and fifth, respectively. Franklin Central staked the top-two spots with Brayden Henkle winning in 16:31.2.
“I heard it all season, you got to beat those (MV) guys. And, it felt really good to go out there today and actually do it, but much respect to them,” Wheeler said. “They’ve beaten me all season, and they’re great runners, so it was nice to be able to beat them all.”
The Cougars third-place finish as a team was all the more impressive as they competed without Chris Ross, one of their top-five runners.
“We ran for him today,” Wheeler said. “For us to still get third without him, and we need him, it felt good. I hope we get him back. We need him big time.”
The Cougars had three runners in the top 10 and all five in the top 25 with sophomore Liam Brinkruff (17:03.6) in seventh, senior Matthew Wickham (17:07.9) in ninth, senior Earnest Jacob Presser (18:14.9) in 23rd and senior Lucas Tutrow (18:18.6) in 24th.
“We didn’t worry about time today, just about placing,” G-C boys coach Aaron Smith said. “We knew third was probably where we were going to be because we were missing our No. 3 runner. His knee has been bothering him, so he hasn’t run the past couple of weeks. We’re just trying to hopefully get him to regional and semistate, but I was happy because this is the first year in several that we’ve all as a team run really well at the sectional.”
Mt. Vernon’s quest at a seventh sectional team title and first since 2015 was thwarted by Franklin Central’s collective finish of seven runners in the top 17. The Flashes’ five scorers placed no higher than 12th with four in the top 10.
Mt. Vernon’s third-best runner was senior Austin Rush (17:06.8) in eighth. Senior Samuel Wilson (17:25.2) was 13th and sophomore Colin Strachman (17:25.7) was 14th.
“I think Rush tried too hard at the start, and Trevino figured he knew what he was doing, but Franklin Central was a better team than us today,” Mt. Vernon boys coach Bruce Kendall said. “We didn’t match up with Franklin Central very good today. The big prize is trying to get out of semistate. That’s become our goal. If we can’t win sectional, regional, then get the first six at semistate. Mathematically, it’s a very realistic goal to shoot for the state.”
Mt. Vernon Cross Country Sectional
Boys Results
Team Scores: Franklin Central 31, Mt. Vernon 44, Greenfield-Central 66, Roncalli 130, Warren Central 151, New Palestine 167, Eastern Hancock 180, Indianapolis Lutheran 227, Beech Grove 267, Scecina Memorial 292, Triton Central 325.
* Top-three teams advance to regional
Team Results
Mt. Vernon: Joseph Blagrave, 4th, 16:54; Tristan Trevino, 5th, 17:00; Austin Rush, 8th, 17:06.8; Samuel Wilson, 13th, 17:25.2; Colin Strachman, 14th, 17:25.7; Landon Willis, 15th, 17:27.1; Reyce Morgan, 21st, 17:59.2.
Greenfield-Central: Griffen Wheeler, 3rd, 16:48.9; Liam Brinkruff, 7th, 17:03.6; Matt Wickham, 9th, 17:07.9; Earnest Jacob Presser, 23rd, 18:14.9; Lucas Tutrow, 24th, 18:18.6; Adam Bright, 33rd, 18:48.2; Carter Crouch, 34th, 18:49.4.
New Palestine: Colin Darley, 18th, 17:41.9; Cody Crawmer, 30th, 18:42.1; Jacob Collins, 38th, 18:56.9; Connor Lapenta, 40th, 18:57.5; Willam Hahn, 41st, 19:07.8; Gavin Smith, 46th, 19:22.5; Hayden Isaacs, 50th, 20:05.6.
Eastern Hancock: Preston Markley, 20th, 17:50.1; Luke McCartney, 28th, 18:39.8; Brandon Metz, 36th, 18:53.4; Luken Edwards, 44th, 19:19.5; John Henry Gray, 52nd, 20:16.2; Brandon Cross, 64th, 22:41.5.
* Bold = Individual regional advancement
Girls Results
Team Scores: Franklin Central 24, New Palestine 67, Roncalli 69, Mt. Vernon 76, Warren Central 116, Greenfield-Central 175, Beech Grove 209.
* Top-three teams advance to regional
Team Results
New Palestine: Emma Mann, 4th, 20:28.6; Courtney Study, 5th, 20:36.1; Caitlin Urrutia, 11th, 20:56.8; Emily Adam, 21st, 22:07.2; Alexis Baynes, 27th, 22:27.7; Jocelynn Flagle, 34th, 23:11.6; Anne Bauer, 41st, 24:09.6.
Mt. Vernon: Morgan Tharp, 8th, 20:47.8; Alexandria Jenson, 10th, 20:55.6; Lydia Carrell, 16th, 21:20.4; Emma Gale, 19th, 21:58.6; Julia Iserloth, 23rd, 22:11.2; Melinda Cornelius, 29th, 22:35.3; Alexandra Overshiner, 32nd, 23:03.7.
Greenfield-Central: Lexie Copeland, 24th, 22:14.9; Reagan Crouch, 35th, 23:11.9; Emma Bogle, 38th, 23:27.8; Olivia Wahl, 42nd, 24:15; Shelby Hoffman, 44th, 23:52.2; Josie Joyner, 48th, 25:56.8; Emily Wright, 49th, 26:26.4.
Eastern Hancock: Olivia Evans, 26th, 22:15.5.
* Bold = Individual regional advancement
