MV’s Kendall named Daily Reporter Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year

FORTVILLE — The long list of accomplishments of the Mt. Vernon Marauders boys cross country program continue to grow.

Mark up another successful season for the Fortville school’s harriers under head coach Bruce Kendall, the 2021 Daily Reporter Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year.

The 2021 campaign was like so many others in the past.

The Marauders ran up front.

For the third straight year, Mt. Vernon won both the Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference championships.

Ranked as high as No. 17 in the state, the Marauders sent two runners to the state meet. They qualified, as a team, to the semi-state after winning their first regional title since going back-to-back in 2013-14.

The county championship was Kendall’s 25th as a head coach. He’s had 15 with the boys and 10 with the girls. This past season was his 41st as the boys head coach.

The conference crown was his ninth, seventh in the HHC. He won two conference titles in the White River Conference.

The regional championship was his seventh. Along with the back-to-back run, Kendall coached teams that won regionals in 2008 and had a three-year run from 1983-85.

This year’s team was runner-up in the Mt. Vernon Sectional, then avenged that loss to Franklin Central the following week at the Rushville Regional. They placed ninth at the Shelbyville Semi-State, three spots back from qualifying for the state meet as a team.

“It was sweet winning that regional, that was the best meet of the year, with just 30 points and avenging on Franklin Central,” Kendall added.

It was another talented group for the veteran coach. It was a group that, like so many other teams in cross country and other sports, had to overcome adversities related to pandemic protocol.

“There are going to be 10 teams come out of the Hamilton County, Marion County corridor, along with Zionsville that are going to be in the mix for those six (state qualifying spots at semi-state),” Kendall said. “Every year you’re going to have to deal with them. Then when you go down south in Johnson County, someone is going to come out of there. To get in those six places it’s like a wall. To break through that from places 12 on you can’t have any mistakes.”

“We ran fantastic for our semi-state. We just hadn’t recovered from the disruption (from contact tracing),” the coach added. “It’s the kiss of death. Our administration has been great about the whole way they have dealt with it. I don’t have any complaints about it. I’ve seen it on other teams and I’ve seen it on ours. We were much better than our record showed. That may sound crazy, but we were better. We had one meet we had only five kids.”

Kendall benefited by having a large number of good runners.

He had a strong senior quartet. It was led by two-time county runner of the year and state-qualifier Austin Rush, James Blagrave, who was the Marauders top runner in the sectional, and two more experienced vets in Samuel Wilson and Reyce Morgan.

The biggest boost came with the addition of junior Tristan Trevino. A transfer from Lawrence Central, Trevino did not become eligible for varsity races until late September. It was just in time for the newcomer to take individual crowns at both the county and conference meets. He joined Rush in the state race.

In addition, Kendall trained some youngsters to be ready for the future. He got another solid year from sophomore Colin Strachman and was also aided by some strong incoming freshmen in Landon Willis, Ahmed Saleh and Xaiden Jenson.

“By the time we got to county we had put some of that stuff behind us,” Kendall said. “Then Tristan arrived. Mt. Vernon pre-county was one team. Mt. Vernon after county was another. Then we were just trying to hold the pieces together.”

The Marauders will miss the four seniors, but of the five previously mentioned returnees all have run 5K courses in the 16-minute and middle-17 range.

“It’s always good when your freshmen are running in the middle-17s,” Kendall said. “We’re looking good for the future.”