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UPDATED: T-Birds, Lady Lakers pace area teams at Shakamak Invite
JASONVILLE - Saturday’s Shakamak Invitational cross country meet may have provided a preview of next week’s Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference meet.
Runners have battled near-90 degree temperatures the past two weeks. And it was another hot one Saturday.
But all things being equal, if Saturday’s results are any indication the Clay City Eels appear to be the early favorite for the boys SWIAC championship. The girls race for the conference title could come down to a battle between the Shakamak Lady Lakers and the North Daviess Lady Cougars.
The Eastern Greene Thunderbirds finished second to Clay City, 50-76 with three Eels placing in the top 10.
The Thunderbirds nipped West Vigo by a single point. The Linton-Stockton Miners compiled a team score of 85, finishing fourth.
“In this kind of heat - to have our guys go out there packed with five guys in the top 30 and for us to finish fourth - that just tells you the competition that’s out here,” Miners coach Bill Doyle noted.
The Lady Lakers and Lady Cougars each finished with team scores of 80, behind second-place Owen Valley’s 53. West Vigo captured the team title with 41 points placing four runners in the top 10.
North Daviess was awarded third place on a tiebreaker based on a higher finish by its sixth runner.
Shakamak’s Jacy Collins ran away with the girls race, outrunning Clay City’s Alexis Laswell by 29 seconds. Collins and Laswell ran side-by-side for the first mile. But by the time the runners entered the final turns the Lady Laker sophomore sensation had opened up a huge lead and won going away in 19 minutes, 43.8 seconds.
When the girls came through the first turn Shakamak coach Mark Messmer thought the first mile was a little on the slow side.
“And that was good for Jacy,” the coach said. “I could tell she really wanted to go. I said to her, ‘If you really feel it, go.’”
West Vigo and Owen Valley runners captured six of the eight remaining spots in the top 10.
Two other area girls ran to top-10 finishes. White River Valley’s Christiane Davis finished eighth in 22:19.5. Sierra Ford turned in a time of 22:32.0, good for 10th place for the Lady Thunderbird junior.
Ford was running behind some 20 girls early but continued to pick runners off coming in.
“It was nice to see Sierra move up,” Lady Thunderbirds coach Adam Nonte said. “But we had some kids struggle with the heat today.”
A pair of freshman girls - WRV’s Jailyn Lundy (12th) and Shakamak’s Carly Reynolds (15th) - cracked the top 15.
Eastern Greene edged White River Valley 127-128 for fifth place. Linton-Stockton was a distant seventh with a team total of 189.
“I hate to say I’m disappointed with the heat again,” Nonte commented. “But our times aren’t quite where I’d like them to be. Hopefully with cooler temperatures next week our times will come down where they need to be.”
In the boys race, Linton-Stockton’s Cameron Parola paced all area runners, finishing fourth overall. Parola ran the Shakamak layout in 17:50, 10 seconds behind Clay City’s Calvin Fry. Fry’s Eel teammate Kyle Wolf was second with a time of 17:28.
“You’ve got to admire the Clay City team,” WRV coach Claire Records said. “They’re very well-coached. They have a great training program there.
“Kyle Wolf and Calvin Fry are just awesome runners and have been all through their careers. I think it’s great they’re finishing their senior years so strong.”
West Vigo’s Damon Kessler was the individual winner, touring the course in 17:03.
Right behind Parola were two WRV Wolverines followed by two Eastern Greene Thunderbirds.
WRV’s Joe Records finished fifth with teammate Dakota Sparks close behind in sixth. Records ran in 18:00.04, Sparks in 18:07.7.
“Dakota always finishes hard,” coach Records said. “He drove through the finish.”
Records thought the WRV girls and boys both ran well despite the heat.
“They ran strong,” she said. “They all had runners they were supposed to target to take down and they accomplished the job. Everyone pulled together and that’s what counts.”
The Eastern Greene duo of Dustin Lester and Layton Anderson finished one place and seven-tenths of a second apart. Lester ran seventh in 18:11.3 with Anderson right on his heels.
“Layton really had a great week,” Eastern Greene boys coach David Young said. “He and Dustin are right there. Some of our performances were a little off but I’m still optimistic about next week.”
Shakamak’s Rylee Landry, Eastern Greene’s Cory Cramer and Linton’s Austin Gordon finished 12th, 13th and 14th respectively.
The Lakers (125) and Wolverines (127) finished finished fifth and sixth in the 10-team field.
The unseasonably hot weather of the past couple weeks isn’t expected to last into next weekend, giving the runners some welcome relief. Cooler temperatures are forecast for next Saturday’s SWIAC meet, also to be run at the Shakamak course.
CROSS COUNTRY
SHAKAMAK INVITATIONAL
BOYS
TEAM SCORES
1) Clay City 50, 2) Eastern Greene 76, 3) West Vigo 77, 4) Linton-Stockton 85, 5) Shakamak 125, 6) White River Valley 127, 7) Owen Valley 175, 8) Sullivan 200, 9) Eminence 217, 10) North Central 294.
TOP 15 INDIVIDUALS
1)Damon Kesler, WV, 17:03.1; 2) Kyle Wolf, CC, 17:28.4; 3) Calvin Fry, CC, 17:40.0; 4) Cameron Parola, L, 17:50.5; 5) Joe Records, WRV, 18:00.4; 6) Dakota Sparks, 18:07.7; 7) Dustin Lester, EG, 18:11.3; 8) Layton Anderson, EG, 18:12.0; 9) Eli Hostetler, CC, 18:15.0; 10) Jarrett Scott, WV, 18:19; 11) Riley Smith, Su, 18:29.9; 12) Rylee Landry, Sh, 18:40.6; 13) Cory Cramer, EG, 18:45.7;14) Austin Gordon, L, 18:48.6; 15) Tucker Kirkoff, OV, 18:52.1.
Other Eastern Greene: 22) Adam Anderson, 19:26; 26) Ben Lindsey, 19:41; 30) Wyatt Birch, 19:57; 46) Isiaha Padgett, 21:28.
Other Linton-Stockton: 18) Ben Cox, 18:58; 20) Samuel Feaster, 6:13; 29) Jonathon Hayden, 19:54; 48) Cody Neff, 21:34.
Other Shakamak: 21) Justin Lane, 19:22; 25) Adam Slater, 19:32; 34) Preston May, 20:17; 35) John Gould, 20:20; 47) Payton Yeryar, 21:32; 54) Andrew Miller, 22:24.
Other White River Valley: 24) Beau Driscol, 19:31; 32) Tanner Denham, 20:16; 62) Wyatt Westray, 27:14; 64) Taylor Hacker, 28:37.
GIRLS
TEAM SCORES
1) West Vigo 41, 2) Owen Valley 53, 3) *North Daviess 80, 4) Shakamak 80), 5) Eastern Greene 127; 6) White River Valley 128; 7) Linton-Stockton 189.
*Awarded third place on finish of sixth runner.
TOP 15 INDIVIDUALS
1) Jacy Collins, Sh, 19:43.8; 2) Alexis Laswell, CC, 20:12.9; 3) Brooklyn Hey, OV, 20:39.8; 4) Madelyn Brown, WV, 20:57.2; 5) Brooke Stateler, WV, 21:45.6; 6) Jozee Spatta, OV, 21:56.6; 7) Chloee Hurst, OV, 22:17.7; 8) Christiane Davis, WRV, 22:19.5; 9) Abigail Scott, WV, 22:27.3; 10) Sierra Ford, EG, 22:32.0; 11) Myers Morgan, ND, 22:40.5; 12) Jailyn Lundy, WRV, 22:45.1; 13) Sydney Pike, Su, 22:46.0; 14) Sammi Godwin, OV, 23:08.6; 15) Carly Reynolds, Sh, 23:19.8.
Other Shakamak: 19) Natalie Lang, 23:55; 27) Jada Huff, 24:49; 28) Kyrstin Busenbark, 25:00; 43) Hannah Walters, 26:51; 45) Rebekah Messmer, 27:48.
Other Eastern Greene: 25) Lilly Prince 24:41; 34) Lynnly Kirkman, 25:49; 36) Thea Ludvigsen, 25:51; 41) Zoe Logston, 26:08; 46) Stina Lindqvist, 28:10.
Other White River Valley: 40) Carley Sloan, 26:07; 42) Jailea Lundy,26:09; 52) Emma Records, 32:16.
Linton-Stockton: 29) Sarah Cox, 25:01; 47) Breanna Lower, 29:14.0; 48) Samantha Holcomb, 29:14.4; 49) Sierra Neff, 30:03; 53) Hannah Frady, 34:34; 54) Lily Fields, 36:02.
