SHELBYVILLE — To advance out of the Shelbyville Cross Country Semistate as a team is a difficult feat.
No more so than this year.
With eight of the state’s top-25 boys teams, including five in the top 10, and seven state-ranked girls programs competing at Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville on Saturday, there was zero room for error.
As expected, most of the state’s top programs upheld their rankings, which brought about the end of the season for a majority of Hancock County’s semistate qualifiers.
Overall, the semistate’s top-six finishing teams — both in the boys and girls races — advanced to the IHSAA’s state finals to be conducted in Terre Haute this upcoming weekend.
In addition, the top-10 individual placers from both races without a state-qualifying team moved on.
The county had two runners push through to the state meet in Mt. Vernon’s Tristan Trevino (16:09.1) and Austin Rush (16:11.1), who placed 27th and 29th in the boys race, respectively. They were ninth and 10th in the individual-qualifying standings for the state finals.
Beyond the Marauders’ duo, however, the county came up just short.
On the boys side, No. 3 Brebeuf Jesuit won the team 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-three individual spots with junior Kole Mathison repeating as a semistate champion in 15:15.8.
Mt. Vernon placed ninth as a team with 238, and Greenfield-Central was 15th with 390.
The G-C Cougars’ top runner was junior Griffen Wheeler, who finished 43rd overall in 16:28.2. Liam Brinkruff, a sophomore, was 67th in 16:46.1. Matthew Wickham, a senior, was 90th in 17:02.7.
G-C sophomore Carter Crouch finished in 17:54.8, Earnest Jacob Presser, a senior, ran in a time of 18:13.0 and senior Lucas Tutrow came in at 18:20.9.
“We ran well as a team today, I thought. We run down at Columbus North (in season), and we always have fast times there, so most of the season, we’re chasing those times,” G-C head coach Aaron Smith said. “We had a couple guys who were pretty close to those times, so that was definitely huge.”
At the Rushville Regional, Greenfield-Central placed third behind team champion Mt. Vernon and runner-up Franklin Central.
Brinkruff was third individually at 16:48.3, and Wheeler took 10th at regional with a time of 17:13.2.
“I feel like after last week, when we didn’t run well, to end with this one was definitely good,” Smith said. “We got a bunch of guys coming back, so we’re going to keep working and hopefully, it’s a different story next year.”
Eastern Hancock freshman Preston Markley was 127th at semistate with a time of 17:37.8. New Palestine senior Colin Darley placed 97th at 17:10.9. Both competed as individuals.
“Mt. Vernon definitely ran well today, and I’m glad their two guys were able to make it on because it’s tough for us (as a county) to get out,” Smith said. “You look at the schools that got out and it’s a private school and the rest are over 2,000 (enrollment), so there are big, big, perennial schools here.”
On the girls side, No. 3 Carmel won the team title with a score of 46. No. 4 Noblesville was second with 78, No. 7 Franklin Central was third with 133. Fourth went to No. 8 Westfield at 144, No. 9 North Central was fifth at 148 and No. 18 Avon was sixth at 172.
Bishop Chatard’s Lily Cridge won the individual semistate championship in a time of 17:04.6.
Mt. Vernon’s Lydia Carrell, senior, was the county’s best finisher at 94th in 20:36.1. Marauders’ sophomore Alexandria Jenson was 100th in 20:41.8. MV senior Morgan Tharp was 122nd at 21:10.9, freshman Emma Gale was 124th in 21:13.1 and freshman Tenley Benz finished in 21:49.1.
The Marauders placed 18th in the team standings followed by New Palestine in 19th.
“Realistically, we knew we didn’t have a shot to get out as a team. I thought that Morgan and Lydia had a shot to be up there, but unfortunately, it was the same story that has played over and over this season. We struggled to get out in that first (kilometre), and I think they kind of put themselves behind the eight ball,” Mt. Vernon head coach Kean Coy said.
At regional, Mt. Vernon was second behind champion Franklin Central, while New Palestine was fourth as a team.
Carrell and Tharp were fifth and ninth at regional, respectively, in times of 20:19.9 and 20:44.1.
“Rather than racing through that middle part today, they kind of had to try to get back into it mentally. That made it difficult,” Coy said. “The future is bright still, though. We had three freshmen that competed today. All three freshmen ran really well. Allie ran really well. I’m not going to dwell on it. We didn’t run well, but it’s over now.”
The Marauders capture the county and Hoosier Heritage Conference team titles this season with a runner-up run at both sectional and regional.
“They did a lot this season, especially getting some of those new girls some experience,” Coy said. “I’m happy with the season overall.”
New Palestine’s Courtney Study, a sophomore, was 103rd in 20:44.3. Caitlin Urrutia, a senior, ran in 20:50.9 for 108th. Emily Adam, a senior, posted a time of 21:55.9. Alexis Baynes, a junior, finished in 22:29.9 and Joceylnn Flagle, a sophomore, recorded a time of 22:54.4.
