SHELBYVILLE — The goal during the Shelbyville Cross Country Semistate on Saturday was to chase down the past while remaining focused on the present.
Mt. Vernon’s Austin Rush and Tristan Trevino understood the assignment.
The Marauders’ boys cross country team just missed out on an IHSAA state finals invitation, however, Rush and Trevino pushed through at Blue River Memorial Park to qualify as individuals, placing in the semistate field’s top-30.
Trevino, a junior, finished 27th overall in a time of 16 minutes, 9.9 seconds, and Rush, a senior, was 29th with a 16:11.1.
The duo are the program’s first state qualifiers since Christian Noble and Aaron Rush in 2015 when both capture all-state honors as seniors by placing fourth and 19th, respectively.
Noble and Rush became Mt. Vernon’s first all-state finishers since 1984 and led the Marauders to an 18th overall team placement at the state meet six years ago.
The modern-day Marauders, who won their first team regional since 2014 the week prior, were attempting to clinch their sixth state finals appearance, but they came in ninth at Shebyville.
Mt. Vernon tallied a score of 238 behind North Central (226), No. 19 Westfield (222) and the top-six teams, which were awarded automatic state-qualifying berths.
No. 3 Brebeuf Jesuit won the semistate title with a score of 60, followed by No. 4 Center Grove (77), No. 5 Carmel (86), No. 8 Zionsville (129), No. 10 Noblesville (159) and No. 12 Franklin Central (184).
Carmel swept the top-two individual spots with junior Kole Mathison winning his second straight semistate title in 15:15.8, but Trevino and Rush did enough to extend their seasons one more weekend.
“Trevino and Rush ran just incredibly smart races,” Mt. Vernon head coach Bruce Kendall said. “Just really disciplined runs. There are 10 teams in the regional and 15 in the sectional. There are eight in a conference. There is no meet where you’re running 200 kids, so you have a small meet, small meet, then boom. Then, they’re all good.”
The competition was dense with 14 runners posting times below the 16-minute mark.
At the Rushville Regional on Oct. 16, the Marauders placed all five scoring competitors in the top 11 with Rush in second at 16:40.5 and Trevino at fourth in 16:52.8.
Both ran personal-best times at their largest meet of the season.
“It’s hard to make that mental adjustment because when they go, you want to go with them, and maybe you can, but it’s hard to figure out,” Kendall said. “In our five previous trips to state with teams, we’ve always had a guy get first or second. So, it’s really hard to do it with a team, but those two had to have great races.”
If Mt. Vernon was to advance as a team, they needed both to perform at near their peak due to injuries that reconfigured the Marauders’ postseason lineup.
“We lost Reyce Morgan at the sectional, and it makes me sick. He hurt his knee, and Samuel Wilson hurt himself at the regional,” Kendall said. “So we were using freshmen trying to score the fifth runner. Bless their hearts, they’re freshmen and came through.”
Morgan, a senior, was 21st at the Mt. Vernon Sectional to help the host Marauders take runner-up team honors behind champion Franklin Central.
At regional, Wilson, a senior, was 11th overall in 17:17.7 as the fifth-scoring runner during Mt. Vernon’s championship day. The team’s average time at regional was 17-minutes flat.
At semistate, their time improved to 16:38 as senior Joseph Blagrave was 45th at 16:29.6, sophomore Colin Strachman was 77th at 16:53.2 and freshman Landon Willis was 113th in 17:27.6. Freshman Ahmed Saleh came in at 125th with a time of 17:36.0.
“These are freshmen and they ran fantastic,” Kendall said. “The Strachman kid, he ran his race, and the other three they just took their PRs and and just trash canned them, dropped 30-40 seconds, and then smoked it. Makes me look smart.”
If at full strength, the Marauders had the potential to challenge for one of the top-six team spots, but the eight state-ranked teams competing on Saturday would have made the task significantly difficult regardless.
“We were trying to get that sixth spot. We ran Westfield twice this season, and we basically finished in the same place, so that’s fantastic, I guess. North Central beat us twice just a little bit, and the same thing happened today,” Kendall said. “It’s like you chase these guys the whole season and at the end of the season, you’re in the same place you were before.”
For Trevino, who transferred from Lawrence Central to Mt. Vernon, his focus was on running down his former classmate, Bennett Dubois of second-ranked Hamilton Southeastern.
“It means a lot because I’ve been wanting to go to state, and I’ve also been chasing a certain someone, his name is Bennett Dubois. I’ve been kind of chasing him and doing my thing. So, going to state as a junior, like he did, it was my goal,” Trevino said. “I’m really proud of doing it this year.”
Trevino and Dubois, a senior at HSE, ran together in middle school before the latter transferred from Lawrence Central, much like the former.
Dubois helped HSE placed sixth at state in 2020, and he finished 86th overall at the meet on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in a time of 16:50.10. HSE won the New Haven Semistate this past Saturday with Dubois taking ninth in 16:00.0.
“I approached this race with a very clear mind. I was very confident in my ability to keep up because I knew I could pass a lot of people, and I know I have the ability to run really fast and keep a good mind,” Trevino said.
“I’m very smart when I’m running and that’s where I kind of compete better than most because I know where I’m going, who to pass and I know where to get out to pass people. It was a lot of thinking and a really fun race.”
Trevino was the ninth, individual state qualifier to cross the finish line on Saturday with the top-10 runners without an advancing team moving on. Rush was the 10th individual state qualifier.
“Tristan really had to come back from deep, and then Rush just ran a brilliant race,” Kendall said. “Earlier in the week, when we came down here, they were just exhausted, and I thought, man, we’re really in trouble, and they didn’t give up and ran their best so far on a fast course in fast conditions.”
Rush is following in his older brother’s footsteps as Aaron became an all-state runner in his final season.
Austin Rush placed 117th at semistate in 2019, and in 2020, he was 56th in 16:48.2, missing the state cut.
“Going to state, they’ll feed off each other, and that’s a different beast,” Kendall said. “Getting on the podium is always a possibility because you never know, are we still getting better? What kind of conditions are we going to get? It can be brutal one day and fast the next. You never know what you’re going to get when you get there. It’s a different beast.”
In 2015, the Marauders were chasing down the 1984 group and Mt. Vernon 1983 state champion Jeff Wheeler, who won in a time of 14:57.3. Wheeler was also state runner-up in 1984 at 15:08.4 with both times posted at the South Grove Golf Course in Indianapolis.
The 2015 team’s state placement was the fifth highest in program history behind the 2014 group in 17th. In 1982, Kendall guided the team to a 15th-place run, and in 1983 Wheeler and former standout Mike Mundy captained the squad to a fourth-place finish.
This coming weekend, Trevino and Rush will write their own legacies, individually.
“I’m going to try to take it all in as a junior and kind of get the feel for how state is for when I come back my senior year,” Trevino said. “I want to come back my senior year and be really prepared, know what I’m doing and have a game plan. So, I’m just taking it all in this junior year with a clear mind.”
2021 Shelbyville Cross Country Semistate
Boys Race Results
Team Standings: Brebeuf Jesuit 60, Center Grove 77, Carmel 86, Zionsville 129, Noblesville 159, Franklin Central 184, Westfield 222, North Central 226, Mt. Vernon 238, Brownsburg 268, Perry Meridian 322, Avon 346, Plainfield 374, Mooresville 386, Greenfield-Central 390, Batesville 420, Whiteland 428, Indian Creek 467, Northeastern 467, Rushville 537.
* Top-six teams advance to IHSAA state finals
Race winner: Kole Mathison, Carmel (15:15.8)
Top-10 individual state qualifiers without advancing team: Kai Connor, Westfield (15:29.5); Nate Killen, North Central (15:42.8); Griffin O’Neill, Avon (15:53.5); Ethan Hines, Guerin Catholic (16:01.7); Liam Eifert, Cathedral (16:02.0); Nathan Burns, Mooresville (16:02.2); Clayton Reichanadter, Covenant Christian (16:05.6); Emerson Nehring, Plainfield (16:06.0); Tristan Trevino, Mt. Vernon (16:09.1); Austin Rush, Mt. Vernon (16:11.1).
Girls Race Results
Team Standings: Carmel 46, Noblesville 78, Franklin Central 133, Westfield 144, North Central 148, Avon 172, Zionsville 175, Batesville 245, Brownsburg 300, Franklin Community 310, Brebeuf Jesuit 323, Plainfield 326, Whiteland 344, Center Grove 351, East Central 358, Southport 393, Roncalli 396, Mt. Vernon 453, New Palestine 527, Warren Central 588.
* Top-six teams advance to IHSAA state finals
Race winner: Lily Cridge, Bishop Chatard (17:04.6)
