Mt. Vernon’s Tristan Trevino (2783) finishes first at the Arabian Roundup Cross Country Meet at Pendleton Heights on August 24, 2022.
Rob Baker | For The Daily Reporter
PENDLETON — Tristan Trevino did what’s expected of a veteran runner coming off a season where he was co-Hancock County Boys Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
A state qualifier and last year’s county and Hoosier Heritage Conference champion, Trevino added a first-place finish in the Arabian Roundup to his list of prep accomplishments.
Trevino — who shared the top runner honor with now-graduated teammate Austin Rush — got by Wapahani’s Nick Cook just before the midway point of the 5K race at Pendleton Heights High School Wednesday.
He stretched that advantage out to a 22-second margin of victory, leading the Marauders to a victory in the 14-team event.
“Trevino ran smart today,” Mt. Vernon coach Bruce Kendall said. “He has a tendency to let things get away from him and then try to make up the difference. This time he didn’t let (the leader) get away from him. He made up the difference early, a lot of maturity on his part on running a 5K. The course is not particularly fast, a lot of turns, grass is relatively high, and it was a good time (16-minutes, 22.29 seconds) for this course.”
“My plan was to take the lead, but he went out fast,” Trevino said. “(Cook is) a pretty good runner. I was just chasing him down, when I passed him I wanted to keep that big gap. The plan changed throughout the race.”
Mt. Vernon scored 52 points. Ahmed Saleh was sixth in 17:22.47. The Marauders followed with four straight to cross the finish line from positions No. 15 to No. 18. Colin Strachman (17:57.18) was closely followed by Landon Willis (17:57.27), Xaiden Jenson (18:01.48) and Isaiah Njau (18:02.52).
There were three county teams in the race. Greenfield-Central finished third with 89 points. New Palestine was ninth with 206.
Three other Hoosier Heritage Conference schools were in the race, too. Pendleton Heights placed fourth (93 points). Yorktown was fifth (182) and New Castle was 13th (331). The closest team competition for the Marauders came from Wapahani (72).
Greenfield-Central had three runners in the top 10, but too big of a gap between their No. 4 and No. 5 runners.
Griffen Wheeler was fourth with a time of 17:11.02. Freshman Luke Haffner placed fifth in 17:11.29. Liam Brinkruff placed seventh with a time of 17:25.63.
“We ran a certain pace and wanted to get a couple of guys (our No. 4 and No. 5 runners) pushed up a little,” Greenfield-Central coach Aaron Smith said. “We have to close that gap on our No. 5 runner. We get Chris (Ross) back on Saturday, so we’ll be excited to have four (up front), but we still have to close that gap on our No. 5.”
On Wednesday, following Brinkruff, freshman David Wasson was 40th (19:18.95) and Carter Crouch placed 41st (19:19.97).
New Palestine was led by sophomore Gavin Smith. He placed 32nd in 19:01.96. Jacob Collins was 39th in 19:18.71.
Dragons coach Chuck Myers said there was just a 57-second gap between his No. 1 and No. 5 runner, but they’ll continue to work on trying to get that group pushed up closer to the front.
“They’re improved,” Myers said of his team. The pack was pretty good. We just need to move them up some. We’re moving in the right direction, but have some work to do. Mt. Vernon and Greenfield both looked strong (today).”
