The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1477088
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, August 24, 2022 C-5 Good Luck! Good Luck! to all to all Pike Central Pike Central SPORTS SPORTS TEAMS! TEAMS! 292 W. Main Street PETERSBURG 812-354-8404 Petersburg Hours: Tuesday and ursday, 8am - 5pm Jasper Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 8am - 5pm Friday, 7am - 2pm Most insurances accepted Accepting New Patients Adults & Children Let's Go Chargers! 2134 E MAIN STREET, PETERSBURG | SMASHED to SHINY Get back in the game with Pike Collision. Trust your vehicle to us for quality auto body repair and paint services. Don't settle for less! Call 812-380-7453 Girls XC has quality, lacks quantity By Andy Heuring Press-Dispatch Sports sports@pressdispatch.net Pike Central girls cross countr y team has one of the elite cross countr y runners in the state leading the way for them and some solid run- ners to go with her. But num- bers may hur t them in team events. Xaver y Weisman last year as a freshman became the first Pike Central athlete for boys or girls to qualify for the Indiana state finals in cross countr y. She star ted the year strong and just kept getting better. "Xaver y is definitely an elite runner," said Charger Coach Randy Graham. "She is ver y self-motivated and works extremely hard, does ever ything that is asked of her and works hard in the summer. With cross countr y that is a lot of it," said Gra- ham. Weisman ran strong all last season, but when she got into the state tournament she just kept meeting the challenge. She won the sectional with a time of 19:23. The next week she placed four th in the re- gional running an 18:55, which was 25 seconds faster than her school record time on the Prides Creek course. Pike Central as a team qual- ified for the semi-state at Brown County. There she ran an even faster 18:48 to place 12th and became the first Pike Central athlete to make the cross countr y state finals. In the state finals, running on a course that has hosted NCAA finals, she ran a 19:38 to place 41st and was the highest placing freshman at the meet. Needless to say, the expec- tations for this year are high. Weisman isn't disappoint- ing. She placed fifth in the Valley Kickof f meet last weekend. It featured nearly 50 of the better cross countr y programs around the state. She ran a time of 19:42 in the heat and first meet of the year just four seconds of f her time in the state finals last year. Pike Central lost Quinlan Teague and Morgan Ander- son to graduation. Teague had an outstanding career for the Chargers and is running cross countr y for St. Mar y of the Woods this fall. "We return four of our top five runners from last year's semi-state qualifying team," said Graham. Senior Kennedy Willis placed 16th in the sectional, 26th in the regional and 137th in the semi-state last year for the Chargers. They also return sopho- more Anna Whitehead who as a freshman was just a few seconds behind Willis last year. She placed 21st in the sectional, 30th in the regional and 140th in the semi-state. Graham said Whitehead didn't run during the sum- mer before her freshman sea- son and had a good season for them. This year she ran all summer and has already shown significant improve- ment. In the first meet of the season at the State Champion- ship Course she placed 66th out of 328 in a time of 21:55. "She had a great first meet of the year," said Graham. "She and Kennedy were back and for th last year and we expect Kennedy to be right there with Anna this year." Kaylyn Warner is another sophomore Graham expects good things from her this year. "She put it together last year by the tournament and we think she will do that again this year," said Graham. Freshman Kylee Weathers had a good middle school season last year. "It is just a matter of her getting used to running the pace and lon- ger distance in a high school meet," said Graham. Ashlyn Kirk is running for the first time. "She is exceed- ing my expectations in prac- tice, going above what I have asked and seems to enjoy it. We really don't know what she can do yet but we are ex- cited to have a sixth runner." Graham said he thinks the girls are going to have a strong pack. "We want to make sure with our numbers we stay healthy. But I feel like the kids we have are quality kids. They all work hard. I expect as the Fall goes along we will be pretty competitive. We want to be healthy and make an- other run to the semi-state," said Graham. Pike Central 2022 girls cross country team members are: (l to r) Manager Taylor Oswalt, Anna Whitehead, Ashlynn Kirk, Kaylyn Warner, Kylee Weathers, Xavery Weisman and Kennedy Willis. Kennedy Willis