The Press-Dispatch
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B-4 Sports Wednesday, September 11, 2019 The Press-Dispatch "The girls followed suit af- ter the boys race," Pike Cen- tral coach Josh Roach said. "All eight of our runners were packed within 20 seconds of each other after the first mile. They kept the pack as close as they could through- out. This was probably one of the most fun races I've ever watched the girls run. There was so much competi- tion among themselves and camaraderie as they moved through the pack." All eight of Pike Central's athletes ran their best time of the season, and three of them set their personal record. Libby Stone and Quinlan Teague continued their ad- mirable season with 19th and 23rd-place finishes, re- spectively. Stone finished the course in 21 minutes and 42 seconds while Teague took 21:53. "Libby and Quinlan stayed together throughout the first two miles with everyone else right behind them," Roach said. "Those two pushed each other and reached times that they didn't reach until the end of the year last year." Lamey Johnson was 39th with a time of 22:58, Morgan Anderson was 47th in 23:06, Kennedy Willis was 51st with a time of 23:15, Jenna Mey- er was 56th in 23:25, Char- lotte Dudenhoeffer was 58th in 23:32 and Shelby Vaughn was 82nd in 25:07. "Laney Johnson followed them and beat her personal record by almost a minute," Roach said. "She continues her great start to the year with these huge improve- ments and is really showing herself and all of us what she has within her. Morgan An- derson continues to make big strides as well as she ran a time faster than her best time from last year by almost two minutes. Kennedy Willis rounded out the top five. She ran about two minutes faster than her first race, showing that she is settling in and fig- uring out the distance race. Jenna, Charlotte and Shelby rounded out the team putting up their best times this year as well." Edgewood's Annalyssa Crain finished first out of 124 runners with a time of 17:38. Pike Central also had two athletes compete in the ju- nior varsity meet, won by Co- lumbus North's Sydney Mor- lok with a time of 19:41. Lexie Neese ran a personal record of 25:59 to finish 57th and Morgan Sallee was 74th in 28:25 for the Chargers. "Lexie is a cheerleading captain," Roach said. "There- fore, she did not come up Fri- day night with us, and met us in the morning after cheer- ing Friday night. This means she got up at about 4:30 to get to Columbus. Yet she didn't complain once all day and pushed herself to a new per- sonal record in the race. My favorite part of Lexie's race was a stretch at the finish in which we told her to straight- en her arm swing and make it as big as possible. This is something we tell our ath- letes, to get them swinging their arms. At that level of exhaustion, our brain thinks we are swinging them bigger than we are so we tell them to swing them as big as they feel like they can. I've had multi- ple athletes tell me they feel awkward trying it, but Lex- ie didn't flinch and just did exactly what we asked. And when she did this, she took off. Her goal was to get un- der 26 and she just got there. If she had been too cool to try what we asked, she wouldn't have gotten that goal. "Morgan Sallee also had a good race. Sometimes the kids expect to improve ev- erything and forget the im- provement in the consistency that they show. Morgan may not have set another person- al record but she definitely showed consistent improve- ment." PIKE CENTRAL FOURTH AT ALAN HOPEWELL INVITE The Chargers also com- peted at the Alan Hopewell Class Invite on Thursday, Sept. 5 at Gibson Southern High School. South Knox finished first in the senior and junior divi- sion with a score of 17. They were followed by Castle (19), Gibson Southern (30), Pike Central (33), Mount Vernon (34) and Tecumseh (50). Mount Carmel (Ill.), Boon- ville, Heritage Hills, Evans- ville Harrison, Evansville Central, Evansville Chris- tian, F.J. Reitz, Signature School, North Posey and South Spencer had runners compete, but did not record a team score. "The weather was nice and cool come race time and ev- eryone was very thrilled to get to run in this tempera- ture," Roach said. "Knowing we had another race coming on Saturday, every athlete bought into running with a more controlled effort to- day. We told them that it's okay to find moments within the race to really push them- selves but to be smart about it and not gas themselves out early in the race, doing it to where they would have to push themselves the rest of the race. They stayed way more consistent with the ef- fort they had throughout the whole race as a result, and that led to some great times. Almost all athletes put up their best time of the year and five of them set person- al records." South Knox's Mykayla Couchenour won the race of 45 total runners in 19:59. Stone was Pike Central's top finisher. She placed fourth with a time of 21:48. She was followed by Meyer at 19th in 24:12, Dudenhoeffer at 20th in 24:13 and Neese at 31st in 26:55. "Libby worked up to the front of the pack in this race really well," Roach said. "We love to see those single dig- it numbers at the front of our pack. Jenna Meyer and Char- lotte Dudenhoeffer to round- ed out our scoring in this race. Jenna knocked close to a minute off of her best time so far this year in this race. Lexie finished up the pack strong as she continues to learn how much she can push herself." The Chargers finished sixth out of nine teams in the freshmen and sophomore di- vision. South Knox also had the individual winner in this race with Ava Like claiming gold in 20 :05. Teague was 12th in 22:53, Johnson was 25th in 24:09, Anderson was 27th in 24:18 and Sallee was 39th in 26:36. "Our last race of the day continued the trend and had two runners set new per- sonal records," Roach said. "Morgan Anderson has had a great start to the season and was voted our week one performer of the week on the girls' side. She continued that start with a new personal re- cord today. Morgan Sallee al- so set a new personal record over a time she didn't get until the end of the season last season. Quinlan ran her best time so far this year and it feels like she will be near- ing a new personal best very shortly. Laney Johnson also continued a great start to her season improving on her best time this year and is only 18 seconds off of a new person- al best." CHARGERS FALL TO WARRIORS Pike Central began the week with a dual meet loss to North Daviess. The Warriors finished the meet with a team score of 25, while the Chargers were 30. "We ran Tuesday's dual race as more of a JV race be- cause of our races on Thurs- day and Saturday," Roach said. "It was a very hot day and a very small meet. It's very challenging to run in those conditions. We gave all the kids certain goals with- in the race that we feel will make them better for our up- coming races. Everyone did a great job of staying to those goals." Anderson was the team's highest finisher. She was fourth in 26:57. She was fol- lowed by Willis at fifth in 27:37, Vaughn at sixth in 29:22, Neese at seventh at 29:47 and Sallee at eighth in 30 :19. Pike Central hosted a four-way meet at Prides Creek Golf Course with South Knox, North Daviess and Washington Catholic on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The Chargers will also compete at the Heritage Hills Invite at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14. kids will remember for a long time. "There was a very fun at- mosphere surrounding this race. A lot of fans, a lot of schools, beautiful weather, music playing by the tents. Our boys were saying this was the best race they have been to before the race even started. That carried over in- to the actual race." Nate Woolery continues to be Pike Central's top per- former. He finished the 14th out of 162 total runners with a time of 17:26. "Nate got off to a great start," Roach said. "I think he ran his first mile in about 5:40 and every mile after he just got faster. We talk about him negative splitting his race all the time. This is where you run the second half faster than the first half. Again, this gives him a huge competitive edge as he is get- ting stronger as the field is getting weaker. He made his way up the field very intelli- gently and had a great finish. He is learning his limits as he still feels he has more to give after the race." Peyton Chanley cut nearly 30 seconds from his personal record and finished the race 84th with a time of 17:26. Roach said Chanley ran an- other great race. Ethan Gorby, Trent Zim- merman and A J Hill were Pike Central's next highest finishers. Gorby also set his personal record with a 102nd- place finish in 19:52. Zimmerman finished 105th in 19:54 and Hill was 108th in 19:57. "Ethan Gorby, Trent Zim- merman and A J Hill have tak- en to the added competition with Peyton [Chanley] com- ing in so strong," Roach said. " These three have started to compete against themselves within the race and it's push- ing them to higher levels. Ethan [Gorby] is an extreme- ly hard worker and with these three competing, they are all working extremely hard to- gether." Dallas Reutepohler set his personal record with a 118th- place finish in 20 :31 and Sam Thiesing finished the race 153rd with a time of 22:51. "Dallas also competes with these three whenever he can," Roach said. "He is still adjusting to these races but he is taking it in stride and making big gains of his own as he set a personal record to- day by almost two minutes. Sam had two races in under 23 minutes and consistent improvement is setting him up to make more big jumps soon too." Noblesville claimed the ju- nior varsity meet with a score of 28. The Millers' Kolby Ka- zmierski won the race in 16:44. Noah Russell (139th) and Lane Potts (190th) compet- ed for Pike Central. They fin- ished with time of 21:04 and 24:36, respectively. Russell set his personal record by a minute. "[Russell] keeps pushing and taking himself to times even he can be surprised with at times," Roach said. "Lane Potts completed his first race this year coming off his injury. We are very proud of him battling through and finishing with a very good time for his first race of the year." CHARGERS 7TH AT ALAN HOPEWELL CLASS INVITATIONAL Pike Central also com- peted at the 12-team Alan Hopewell Class Invitation- al at Gibson Southern High School on Thursday, Sept. 5. Castle won the senior and junior boys team competition with a score of 14. They were followed by South Knox (16), Gibson Southern (31), Heri- tage Hills (47), Mount Ver- non (66) and Evansville Har- rison (67). Pike Central finished sev- enth with a score of 71. The Chargers finished ahead of Evansville Central (74), Evansville Bosse (90), Te- cumseh (91), South Spencer (119) and North Posey (132). Mount Carmel (Ill.), Boon- ville, Evansville Christian, F.J. Reitz, Signature School and Washington Catholic had runners compete, but did not record a team score. South Knox's Oliver Smith fin- ished the race first out of 70 athletes with a winning-time of 16:48. Woolery finished 11th in 17:55, Zimmerman placed 25th with a time of 20 :23 and Hill was 32nd in 20 :33. Other Charger runner who competed were Gorby (40th in 20 :40), Russell (49th in 22:07) and Theising (51st in 22:29). "Nate continues to im- prove while working to his strengths," Roach said. "He is such a joy to watch, not only on race day, but day in and day out at practice too. Things are clicking for him this season and even he is starting to see exactly what he is capable of. A J, Trent and Ethan pushed well in that next pack and they are trying their hardest to shrink the gaps towards the front. No- ah Russell and Sam Theising finished the pack out strong." Chanley and Reutepohler competed in the sophomore and freshmen division. Chan- ley placed 18h with a time of 19:42 and Reutepohler was 56th in 22:25. "Our freshman boys have had a grueling week and are responding to it well," Roach said. "We will spend a lot of time making sure they are recovered but they are lov- ing every minute of the chal- lenge they have been giv- en. Peyton Chanley just looks very natural out on the course. His mile splits stay very even. That's some- thing people work for a long time to achieve and he is nat- urally picking it up. It's excit- ing to see him take to run- ning so well. Dallas is hav- ing a great start to his year and staying very consistent day in and day out. We know another jump is coming for Dallas just by watching how consistent he is throughout the race." PCHS DEFEATS NORTH KNOX IN DUAL The Chargers started the week with a dual meet victo- ry over North Knox on Tues- day, Sept. 3. Pike Central finished the meet with a team score of 21, while North Knox had 34. Chanley won the meet in 21:56. Corby was second with a time of 22:57, Zim- merman was third in 22:57.3, Reutepohler was sixth with a time of 24:18 and Russell was ninth in 27:10. "We ran Tuesday's dual race as more of a JV race be- cause of our races on Thurs- day and Saturday," Roach said. "It was a very hot day and a very small meet. It's very challenging to run in those conditions. We gave all the kids certain goals with- in the race that we feel will make them better for our up- coming races. Everyone did a great job of staying to those goals. We are very happy for Peyton Chanley. We felt like he had a great shot to win so that was the big goal we gave him. I was out holding him back in some portions of the course because of the heat and just keeping him even with their number one. I told him to use the 3rd mile to pull away and he did in a big way." Pike Central hosted a four-way meet at Prides Creek Golf Course with South Knox, North Daviess and Washington Catholic on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The Chargers will also compete at the Heritage Hills Invite at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14. Newton's Custom Butchering - Retail Meat Frozen & Fresh Sylvia Raber - Chris & Naomi Raber Weekly & Monthly Specials Deer Get your own meat back! Pork • Beef • Turkey • Chicken Deboned Meat Only Bring it in! Fresh • Frozen Meats • Bakery Summer Sausage • Jerky 6396 E. Old US Highway 50, Montgomery, IN 47558 Mon.-Fri. 7am-5pm • Sat. 8am-1pm 812-486-3227 Pike Central's Libby Stone stands on the podium following the Alan Hopewell Class Invite at Gibson Southern on Thursday, Sept. 5. The Pike Central girls' cross country team stands for a photo. They are (l to r): Libby Stone, Kennedy Willis, Quinlan Teague, Laney Johnson, Morgan Anderson, Jenna Meyer, Charlotte Dudenhoeffer and Shelby Vaughn. Pike Central's Nate Woolery stands on the podium following the Columbus North Invite on Saturday, Sept. 7. The Chargers' Nate Woolery receives his medal following a 14th-place finish at Columbus North Invite on Saturday, Sept. 7. GIRLS' XC Continued from page 1 BOYS' XC Continued from page 1