Crawfordsville’s Cross-Country teams gave their seniors a wonderful evening as convincing wins in both the girls and boys races give those seniors four-peats.
The Athenians did have a senior, Ryan Miller, who carried his share of the load by winning his second county title, but there was a freshman and a bunch of sophomores and juniors who made sure the county crowns stayed at CHS.
“It’s a good feeling to defend, and give our seniors four county titles,” noted Crawfordsville coach Megan Craig, “We were really motivated to get the seniors those four-peats, and that really gives us some momentum going into the conference and rest of the season. It’s a good feeling as a coach and as a person.”
GIRLS MEET
The C’ville girls made it look easier than folks thought before the race started, as they finished 1-2-4-5-7 and won with 19 points.
Remy Swinford won the title with a time of 22:44.9
“The beginning was a little tough, but when I got the lead pretty early, things started to feel a lot better,” the sophomore said. “It was fun to just run against the girls from the county, and I can’t say how happy I am that we were able to get the seniors that four-peat. They have been so supportive all season long, and they are just great.”
Sophomore Caroline Novak played a half of the soccer match over on the football field and then trekked across campus to run in the cross-country race. She was three-one hundredths of a second in front of South’s Amarah Shannon in a photo finish. Gabrielle Warren finished fourth, Skylah Strawser was fifth and Soren Olafsson was seventh.
“All the girls ran amazingly well,” Craig said. “Soren (Olofson) has come so far as a freshman.”
Shannon was South’s top finisher in third, and the freshman was followed by another Mounties freshman, Lennon Woods, in sixth. Sophomores Jaysa Crull and Darby Cotrell were eighth and tenth, while junior Kylee Reeves was 16th.
“We are very aware that our top two were freshman and our top five are underclassmen,” South coach Shelley Allen said “I thought they all ran better than we expected today and they have been improving all season. They ran hard and we are really proud of them.”
The Mounties finished in second with 42 points, while North Montgomery had 62.
The Chargers top finished was Jordyn Frommer, and the senior was followed by two more seniors, Payton Kunz and Maggie Ireland. Freshman Beth Brooks and senior Zuri Santana-Roldan were the other scorers for the Chargers.
BOYS MEET
Miller paced the race for the Athenians as they had five runners in the Top 8 to finish with 22 points.
The senior’s time of 16:55.8 put him across the line first, followed by South’s Mason Cass, teammate Hutton Haas and North’s Paul Lueking. C’ville’s Max Brumett was fifth.
“I just wanted to get our fast and run my race,” Miller said. “I’ve got my dad and mom out along the course giving me my times, so it’s great having them out there to help and support me.”
Miller was on his own most of the race, mostly closest to the lead four-wheeler. “There was plenty of dust and fumes from the Gator,” he said of the chase.
The second county title is just as nice, the defending champ noted.
“I kind of had myself a little psyched out and stressed last year,” he said. “This year it was don’t stress, don’t overthink it, and have fun,”
The four-peat was also on the team leader’s list of thoughts.
“It’s a credit and honor to the seniors on the team that we won four,” he said, “but it is a bigger credit to all the runners over the years who made it possible to win. This win will help give us some confidence heading into the conference meet in a couple weeks and then the postseason. We were only one point away (at the conference meet) last year, and we have not forgotten. It is a big motivator.”
Crawfordsville’s other scoring runners were Jantzen Thayer and Tyson Fuller.
The Chargers won the tie-breaker for second place as their sixth runner, Connor Laws, finished one position in front of South’s sixth runner, Ethan Keck.
Their other scoring runners were Jack Rogers, Kale Mitchell, Nolan Yarger and Blake Welch.
“Both our teams ran hard and ran well tonight,” North coach Tim Lueking said. There is one senior on the roster, so we are really looking forward to the future.”
That one senior was the coaches son, who was also honored after the meet, as all three schools held Senior Night activity.
“It’s been so exciting to coach him (Paul) for four years,” Dad said. “I’m so proud of him and he has performed so well. It’s been an honor to coach him, and an honor to have him as my son. He has had back-to-back personal bests in the last two weeks, so we are looking forward to more.”
South’s top five rounded out with Sam Crum, Trent Reeves, Brett Keller and Kale Vaught.
“I’m just so proud of all our runners,” Allen said. “Brett (Keller) and Kale (Vaught) both had personal bests tonight, and we’ve got a lot of young guys running. We are looking forward to the conference and post season also. There are lots of good things that can happen.”
North won both middle school meets.
The girls meet was only scored by North, as the other two teams didn’t have enough runners.
Joyanna Columbo of Southmont had the best overall time, Italia Espinosa had the best time for Crawfordsville and Kendra McClamrock led her Chargers team.
North’s Cooper Stephens had the best time in the boys middle school meet, Paxton Burris was the top runner for South and Marcus Brummett was best for the Athenians.
North scored 24 points, the Athenians 45 and the Mounties 55.
All three county schools will see each other again on Sept. 30 for the Sagamore Confernce meet at Danville.
