The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1040210
B-4 Sports Wednesday, October 17, 2018 The Press-Dispatch Sophomore Libby Stone led the Lady Chargers by placing 20th overall with a person- al record time and personal course record time of 20 :50, beating her previous PR time and personal course record time of 21:23 – set during the Pike Central Invitational on Sept. 22 – by 33 seconds. Freshman Quinlan Teague placed 25th with a person- al record time and personal course record time of 21:11, beating her previous PR time and personal course record time of 21:58 – set during the Pike Central Invitational on Sept. 22 – by 47 seconds. "They keep getting better and better, and sometimes, first-year runners, you won- der if they're going to hit a wall, and they've not," Roach said of Stone and Teague. "I think they've done a good job taking care of themselves outside of the sport as well – getting enough rest, getting enough food, and recovering and things. They've set the bar." Sophomore Lauren Young placed 49th with a personal course record time of 22:38, beating her previous course record time of 22:45 – set during the Pike Central Invi- tational on Sept. 22 – by sev- en seconds. Sophomore Charlotte Dudenhoeffer, meanwhile, placed 53rd with a time of 22:52 – two seconds off her personal record and person- al course record time of 22:50 she set during the Pike Cen- tral Invitational on Sept. 22 – while sophomore Jenna Mey- er placed 54th with a time of 23:09 – 21 seconds off her personal record and person- al course record time of 22:48 she set during the Pike Cen- tral Invitational on Sept. 22. "Pretty much, since our in- vite, it seems like it's been bang, bang, bang with them in every race," Roach said of Dudenhoeffer, Meyer and Young. "It might be a differ- ent order of what three it is, but they're always pushing each other." "At the invite, they actu- ally ran two minutes faster than their PR from last year, and now they believe that they can get to those levels," Roach added. "So now that they be- lieve AND they push each other, it's going to keep com- pounding, and it's really ex- citing, for both next week and the next two years." Craig agreed. "The next couple of years, we're going to have an excel- lent team," Craig said. "And even the middle schoolers all coming in, they're really good runners, too." Overall, four of the Lady Chargers' seven runners post- ed both personal record and personal course record times and another posted a person- al course record time despite temperatures that hovered in the low to mid 40s. "I feel like we ran, like, excellent," Craig said. "The weather was cold, but we al- ways PR in these weather con- ditions. So, it was a plus." Roach said that he, for one, was not at all surprised that the Lady Chargers would be in the running to be one of the top five teams advanc- ing from the regional meet to semi-state, which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 20, at Brown County's Eagle Park. "I truly didn't believe any other team out here wanted it as bad as they did, because they were hungry, and they hadn't experienced it yet," Roach said. "They show me that every day. I became more and more confident in them every day throughout this week because of what they would show me, as a team, and individually as well." Evansville Memorial junior Clare Vogel placed first over- all with a time of 18:21. Evans- ville Reitz junior Hannah Sale finished second with a time of 18:35. Evansville Memorial junior Allison Morphew was third with a time of 18:55. Evansville Memorial placed first as a team with 25 points followed by Barr-Reeve (52 points), South Knox (99 points) and Gibson Southern (122). All four, along with Pike Central, will advance to the semi-state meet. Meanwhile, Evansville North (189 points) was sev- enth followed by Castle (191 points), Signature (231 points) and Vincennes Lin- coln (253). Advancing as individuals to semi-state are Evansville Re- itz junior Hannah Sale; Mount Vernon (Posey) sophomore Emma Thompson; Evansville North senior Hadley Fisher; Castle junior Kaitlyn Porter; Evansville Central junior Ad- dison Emig; Evansville Ma- ter Dei senior Jenna Fehren- bacher; Evansville Mater Dei senior Vanessa VanBib- ber; Evansville North fresh- man Katherine Coe; North Daviess senior Lilly Vander- Mel; and Castle junior Shel- by Luker. The Pike Central girls' cross country team last ad- vanced to semi-state as a team in 2007 – the first year that the girls' race was extended from 2-1/2 miles to 3.1 miles – when Lady Chargers Kris- tin Helton, Katie Hill, Ariel Hopf, Jessica Manges, Ser- ena McCammon and Sar- ah Yager teamed up to place fourth in the regional meet. At semi-state, which was hosted by Bedford North Lawrence, Pike Central placed 15th out of 20 teams while Yager fin- ished 33rd out of 152 runners with a time of 20 :28. Last year, Lady Charger se- nior Halley Powers advanced as an individual to semi-state at Brown County's Eagle Park, where she placed 80th out of 176 runners with a time of 20 :32. "It was good for the ones that went up with us last year to see the field, see how ma- ny kids there are, see the course," Roach said. "We're going to go up and practice on it on Monday, and see the course." "While seeing it before has helped, I think going and just being there together – expe- riencing this together for the first time – is probably just as big as even practicing there," Roach added. For Craig, advancing to semi-state extends her senior year at least one more week. "Ever since I started run- ning my sophomore year, I've always wanted to go that far, and I'm really excited, as a se- nior, that we're finally making it," Craig said. "We're really hoping to get up there and re- ally show what Pike Central has to offer." SEMI-STATE Continued from page 1 ADVANCE Continued from page 1 GIRLS' CROSS COUNTRY Pictured above is the 2018-19 Pike Central High School girls' cross country team. They are, first row, left to right: Charlotte Dudenhoeffer, Jenna Meyer, Madison Peer, Erin Craig, Shelby Vaughn and Lauren Young. Second row: Assistant Coach Joe Chamberlain, Libby Stone, Morgan Sallee, Quinlan Teague, Morgan Anderson, Laney Johnson and Head Coach Josh Roach. Not pictured: Assistant Coach Wil Teague and Managers Amelia Bailey and Austin Goodrid. Ed Cahill photo GOOD LUCK AT SEMI-STATE 625 N. 9th St., Petersburg Phone: 812-354-8776 104 E. Main St., Petersburg 812-354-8531 Go Chargers! P.O. BOX 218, HWY. 57 SOUTH, PETERSBURG, IN 47567 Phone: (812) 354-8542 or 1-800-581-5826 Wyatt Seed Company, Inc. GO CHARGERS! fifth than we envisioned get- ting. It's huge." "Huff and Ijaa getting to go, that's great," Roach add- ed. "It's kind of bittersweet that the rest of them don't." Pike Central junior Nate Woolery placed 24th with a personal record and person- al course record time of 17:19, beating his previous PR time and personal course record time of 17:29 – which he set during the Pike Central In- vitational on Sept. 22 – by 10 seconds, falling just two spots shy of advancing as an indi- vidual to the semi-state meet. Chargers sophomore Trent Zimmerman placed 73rd with a personal record and person- al course record time of 18:56, beating his previous PR time and personal course record time of 19:07 – set during the Pike Central Invitational on Sept. 22 – by 11 seconds. Pike Central sophomore Colt Armstrong placed 78th with a time of 19:15, just three seconds off his season-best time of 19:12. Chargers junior Sam Theis- ing placed 81st with a person- al record and personal course record time of 19:21, beating his previous PR time and per- sonal course record time of 19:53 – set during the Pike Central Invitational on Sept. 22 – by 32 seconds. Pike Central junior A.J. Hill placed 83rd with a personal record and personal course record time of 19:24, beating his previous PR time of 20 :24 by 60 seconds and his previ- ous personal course record time of 20 :33 – set during the Pike Central Invitational on Sept. 22 – by 51 seconds. "It's a tough loss; we've been training all year," said Huff. "I can't say anything bad about any of them. They worked hard and they all set PRs. I wish we could've made it through, but that's just how the cards fell." Princeton senior Jackson Krieg placed first overall with a time of 15:43, while Gibson Southern senior Travis Hart finished second with a time of 15:59. Evansville Memori- al junior Joseph Russler was third with a time of 16:05. Advancing as teams to the semi-state meet, along with Evansville Memorial, are Evansville Reitz (64 points), Gibson Southern (71 points), South Knox (104 points) and Castle (121 points). Evansville North (172 points) placed seventh, fol- lowed by Evansville Mater Dei (182 points), Barr-Reeve (193 points) and Princeton (197 points). Also advancing as individ- uals to semi-state are Krieg; Evansville North junior Dean Schmidt; Evansville Mater Dei senior Tanner Schickel; Evansville Mater Dei sopho- more Dawson Schroeder; Vin- cennes Lincoln junior Park- er Mullins; Washington ju- nior Isaac Gray; Barr-Reeve junior Bryce Murphy; and Mount Vernon (Posey) soph- omore Braden Dike. Huff said that he and Cham- bers are both looking forward to competing again at the semi-state meet. "Last year, everyone told me how you've got to start out fast, start out fast, be- cause you can't pass people," Huff said. "But that's not the case. We've both ran it before, so I think we're going to be a little smarter on how we race this time." Roach agreed. "Now they're setting their mindset to getting better to where it's not going to take a miracle to try to advance to state," Roach said. "Even with Huff getting hurt, he's a kid that's never going to quit. You could have probably cut his leg off and he still would have tried to finish the race." While only Chambers and Huff will be competing during the semi-state meet, Roach said that their teammates will be supporting them. "These boys are so close that I'll bet you, coming down to it, every boy will be at prac- tice, pushing those two, all week long," Roach said. "They want to see them succeed as badly as they wanted to be there, too. They're just as hap- py that those two went as they would have been if they'd got- ten to go. They're just upset, on the other side, that they didn't get to go as well." Pike Central High School junior Sam Theising competes in the IHSA A Region 16 Boys' Cross Country Regional Meet held on Saturday, Oct. 13, at Prides Creek Park. Theising placed 81st out of 88 runners with a personal re- cord time of 19:21. Ed Cahill photo The Pike Central High School girls' cross country team does a victory leap after placing fifth in the IHSA A Region 16 Meet on Saturday, Oct. 13, at Prides Creek Park, to advance to the semi-state meet on Saturday, Oct. 20, at Brown County's Eagle Park. Pictured are, left to right: Morgan Anderson, Er- in Craig, Quinlan Teague, Laney Johnson, Jenna Meyer, Charlotte Dudenhoeffer, Lauren Young, Libby Stone and Morgan Sallee. Not pictured: Madison Peer and Shelby Vaughn. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School junior Nate Woolery competes in the IHSA A Region 16 Boys' Cross Country Regional Meet held on Saturday, Oct. 13, at Prides Creek Park. Woolery placed 24th out of 88 runners with a personal re- cord time of 17:19. Ed Cahill photo