NEW MARKET — Crawfordsville boys snatched a repeat of last year’s champion status at the Sagamore Conference cross country championship meet on Saturday.
Southmont hosted the meet for its final year as each county school moves to the Monon Conference next year. While no Crawfordsville runners placed in the top five, coach Jared McMurry was pleased with the team’s solidarity that led them to the trophy.
“I’m really proud of our boys for repeating as Sagamore Conference champions, and with it being the last one, it’s that much more special,” he said. “The depth of this boys’ team all season has been special and that led us to the championship today. One through seven, our guys stepped up. You may look at it and see that we didn’t have a guy that finished high, but that doesn’t matter — they all came ready to run and ran well and I’m really proud of them.”
Southmont and North Montgomery showed some standout runners despite placing fifth and sixth overall. Southmont was led by senior and first-time cross country runner Vince Reimondo (17:39), Trent Reeves (18:27), Ethan Keck (19:16), Paxton Burris (20:58), Jackson Fruits (21:26), Kale Vaught (21:51) and Clay Allen (25:20).
“We’ve got some people out, but we work as a team at practice every day, so it’s a great time for us to turn out at conference,” said Reimondo, who despite running for his first year as a senior has contributed to Southmont’s success all season. “I’m a competitor, so I’m going to go out on everything I do and do the best I can.”
North followed with fifth-place finisher Jack Rogers (17:45), Drew Dark (19:04), Nolan Yarger (19:44), Kale Mitchell (20:34), Blake Welch (20:35), Connor Laws (21:19) and Kyle Ratcliff (21:23).
On the girls’ side, Crawfordsville crossed the finish line in fourth place overall, followed by North in seventh and South in eighth. Crawfordsville’s runners performed as follows: Katherine Novak (22:50), Remy Swinford (23:12), Caroline Novak (24:32), Soren Olofson (24:37), Melanie Dowd (27:28), LiLi Yeung (27:44) and Isabel Gerdes (29:44).
“We didn’t place as high as we wanted to, but still top half of the conference, and I’m really proud of their efforts,” McMurry said. “Everyone ran well, competed hard, and they left it all out on the course.”
North was led by Sarah Hopper (24:14), Katelyn Woolwine (24:36), Zoey McFarland (26:15), Kendra McClamroch (26:24), Avery Gayler (26:44), Beth Brooks (28:56) and Lucia Southwood (37:25).
“I felt that both teams ran exceptionally well,” coach Tim Leuking said. “We had a few people who were battling injuries, but they showed up, they ran hard, and ran well. [I’m] very excited about heading into sectional. I think they’re right there where they need to be with their time and with their effort, so I think both teams, boys and girls, did really well today. Jack Rogers and Sarah Hopper both performed exceptionally well today as well, so it was exciting.”
Southmont’s last-place finish came at a weak point for the team as two runners were unable to compete and two more competed through illness or injury. The team performed as follows: Darby Cottrell (23:06), Lennon Woods (30:54), Kylee Reeves (32:18), Amarah Shannon (33:20) and Kendyll Bullerdick (39:24). Despite this, coach Shelley Allen expressed her praise for their efforts.
“I am super proud of how well they ran,” she said. “Not everybody was at their healthiest today, and for the shape that everybody was in, everybody did great.”
The county teams gear up for sectional action at 10 a.m. Oct. 19, with Crawfordsville and North competing at Harrison and Southmont at Tippecanoe County Amphitheater.
