ECI Weekly Recap
We will post reviews of some local meets in ECI that feature several ECI teams, or have a large impact on ECI individual and team rankings.
2022
Regional Weekend
Here's a quick rundown on who out of ECI advanced to next weekend's Semi-State round:
Girls
Teams
Monroe Central (4th at the Delta Regional; advances to New Haven Semi-State)
Yorktown (5th at Delta Regional; advances to New Haven Semi-State)
New Castle (5th at Rushville Regional; advances to Shelbyville Semi-State)
Individuals
Nicki Southerland (Delta)
Charlee Gibson (Blue River)
Faith Norris (Daleville)
Kendyl Thrasher (Wapahani)
Sydney McFarren (Burris)
Olivia Bohanon (Delta)
Allie Black (Randolph Southern)
Brynn Wright (Cowan)
Allison Clamme (Blackford)
Boys
Wapahani (3rd at Delta Regional; advances to New Haven Semi-State)
Yorktown (5th at Delta Regional; advances to New Haven Semi-State)
Individuals
Eli Chamberlain (Monroe Central)
Clay Batio (Delta)
James Crull (Blue River)
Jackson Bradley (Cowan)
Aidan Moystner (Winchester)
Gabe Reynolds (Muncie Central)
Congrats to all of the ECI teams and individuals who advanced in what all likelihood is the last IHSAA Cross-Country Semi-State weekend ever. Next weeks meets will be very interesting for ECI Runner nation as several individuals will be hoping to punch their ticket to the state meet and at least one team will hope to become the first ECI school in decades to make it to the IHSAA State Meet. ECI Runner will have an in-depth Semi-State Preview in the upcoming days.
Week 7
This past Saturday saw most of ECI run in their respective conference championships with the Mid-Eastern Conference Meet hosting the most ECI schools on the day with Blue River, Cowan, Daleville, Monroe Central, Randolph Southern, Shenandoah, Union, Wapahani and Wes-Del all competing at Blue River High School.
Girls
The girls' team race was dominated by the Monroe Central Golden Bears, who won the meet for the third year in a row. The Bears were led by junior Addison Coe who placed 4th overall in a time of 21:00. The Lady Bears and Coe, who is now coming off her two best meets of the year with her also being the individual champion in the Randolph County Meet last Tuesday, running a winning time (and PR) of 20:41, are definitely going into this weekend's Delta Sectional with a lot of forward momentum where they will be without a doubt be seeking a Sectional title. The individual champion was Blue River's Charlee Gibson who posted a winning time of 19:52. Gibson, who has won SEVEN different invites this season will definitely be one to as the tournament progresses and state qualifying tickets to Lavern Gibson are being punched. Here is the list of all of the All-MEC runners from Saturday:
1st Charlee Gibson (Blue River)
2nd Kendyl Thrasher (Wapahani)
3rd Haileigh Allen (Randolph Southern)
4th Addison Coe (Monroe Central)
5th Brynn Wright (Cowan)
6th Avery Thomas (Monroe Central)
7th Allie Black (Randolph Southern)
8th Katie Osborne (Monroe Central)
9th Lilyan Guffey (Blue River)
10th Karly Puckett (Monroe Central)
11th Maddie Felton (Wapahani)
12th Sydney Fellers (Blue River)
Complete results can be found here: www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/207795/results/all
Boys
The boys' team race was decided early as Wapahani's lead pack asserted itself from the opening gun to claim the conference's top prize by placing it's five top runners in the All-Conference top 12. Leading the way for the Raiders was junior, Nick Cook who ran a winning time of 16:22 on the Blue River course.
Here is the list of all of the All-MEC runners from Saturday:
1st Nick Cook (Wapahani)
2nd Preston Markley (Eastern Hancock)
3rd Brandon Metz (Eastern Hancock)
4th Eli Chamberlain (Monroe Central)
5th Payton Baker (Wapahani)
6th Colton Boggs (Wapahani)
7th Jon Shrock (Wapahani)
8th Caden Landis (Monroe Central)
9th Jackson Bradley (Cowan)
10th James Crull (Blue River)
11th Gavin Ashby (Cowan)
12th Mason Tomboni (Wapahani)
Complete results can be found here: www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/207795/results/all
Week 6
Huntington University hosted the featured ECI meet of the week with Cowan, Daleville, Monroe Central, Yorktown, Muncie Central, Blackford, Union City, Wes-Del and Wapahani all running on the semi-state course for the New Haven Classic. The meet featured three different divisions with Cowan, Daleville, Blackford, Union City, Wes-Del and Monroe Central competing in the Division "A" small school race, Yorktown competing in the "AA" medium school race and Wapahani and Muncie Central competing in the "AAA" big school race.
Girls
ECI schools found plenty of competition in Huntington on Saturday as many Indiana teams with New Haven Semi-State aspirations attended the meet. The best overall time of the day came from Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher who torched through most of the 300+ runner field in the big school race to cross the finish line in 20:16. Thrasher, who is now getting into the low 20's on a regular basis, seems primed for a big finish to her senior season in the weeks ahead. The best team performance on the day came from the Monroe Central Golden Bears who finished 4th in the small school division. Monroe Central was led by Junior Addison Coe who had a breakout race with a season best time of 21:10. Here are the top 10 best times out of ECI across the three divisions:
20:16 Kendyl Thrasher (Wapahani)
20:42 Faith Norris (Daleville)
21:10 Addison Coe (Monroe Central)
21:23 Aurilla Moulton (Yorktown)
21:31 Ali Smith (Yorktown)
21:36 Tori Oliver (Yorktown)
21:41 Brynn Wright (Cowan)
21:44.70 Maddie Felton (Wapahani)
21:44.91 Rachael Stagge (Yorktown)
21:46 Avery Thomas (Monroe Central)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Delta's Nicki Southerland won a pair of races this week including the Connersville Invite (winning time of 18:51) and her home Eagle Invite (winning time of 17:56.)
Boys
The top placing boys team of the day were the Cowan Blackhawks who placed 3rd in the Small School Division at the New Haven Classic. Cowan is led this year by freshmen Jackson Bradley, who ran a 17:59 on Saturday. Cowan hasn't advanced to the Regional as a team since 2016 but definitely seems to be piecing things together to come into this year's Delta Sectional with expectations for a top five regional qualifying spot. Individually, the best race of the day was ran by Wapahani's Nick Cook. Cook ran a PR of 16:08 on the New Haven Semi-State course, certainly making a statement of his own state qualifying aspirations in the weeks ahead. Here are the top 10 boys times from the New Haven Classic:
16:08 Nick Cook (Wapahani)
17:16 Jon Shrock (Wapahani)
17:18 Eli Chamberlain (Monroe Central)
17:20 Colton Boggs (Wapahani)
17:23 Payton Baker (Wapahani)
17:28 Conner Walser (Union City)
17:35 Caden Landis (Monroe Central)
17:38 Johnathon Loney (Yorktown)
17:52 Gabe Reynolds (Muncie Central)
17:59 Jackson Bradley (Cowan)
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Delta won their home Eagle Invite at Taylor University on Saturday, Delta's own Clay Batio won the race with a winning time of 17:23.
Week 5
This year's Jim Leffler Invitational, hosted by Yorktown High School, had a whole new feel to it as it was the first cross-country race ever ran at Munsee Farms. The Munsee Farms course featured all sorts of different terrain, multiple creek crossings and even an uphill finish, giving all the vibes of a "true" cross-country course that the true blue-bloods of the sport can appreciate. Running on the new course from ECI was Jay County, Cowan, Wes-Del, Muncie Burris, Muncie Central, New Castle, Wapahani, Daleville, Shenandoah and Yorktown.
Girls
The girls team race featured ECI's top two ranked teams in Yorktown and New Castle. While it was Lawrence North who took home the hardware, New Castle was tops for ECI finishing in 2nd over Yorktown in 3rd. Leading the charge for the Lady Trojans were the trio of Lydia Harvey (4th), Anyah Amman (6th) and Sylvie Terrell (9th) who all continue to improve as the season progresses. Leading the way for Yorktown (who was without the services of senior runner, Rachael Stagge) was fellow senior Alison Smith who finished in 8th. The individual race for the top spot was among familiar foes in Daleville's Faith Norris (1st) and Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher (2nd), both of which seem to be finding themselves up front in every race they are at. Norris' winning time of 20:08 was another PR and school record for her on the season. Other top ten finishes were Muncie Burris' Sydney McFarren (7th) and Cowan's Brynn Wright (10th.)
Full Results can be found here: www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/209468/results/all
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Delta's Nicki Southerland was the individual winner in the Championship Division Race at Flashrock, Southerland ran a winning time of 17:27.
- Charlee Gibson won a pair of races this week at the Muncie Burris and South Adams Invites. Blue River was also the team champions at the Muncie Burris Phil Clay Invite.
- Lydia Harvey won her own invite earlier this week and New Castle also were the team champions as well.
- The Monroe Central girls won the Muncie Central Bearcat Invite on Tuesday.
- Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher was the individual winner at the Muncie Central Bearcat Invite on Tuesday. Thrasher ran a winning time of 20:08.
Boys
The boys race was dominated by the Wapahani Raiders who continued their impressive season by cramming their "rat pack" to the front at the very beginning the race and not letting off the gas. Leading the way, with another race win under his belt, was Wapahani's Nick Cook, who posted a winning time of 16:27. Behind Cook, were teammates Payton Baker (3rd), Colton Boggs (4th) and Jon Shrock (5th.) Freshman Mason Tomboni rounded out the Raider top 5 with a 12th place finish. Other ECI runners in the top 10 were Cowan's Jackson Bradley (6th), Yorktown's Jonathon Loney (8th) with Muncie Central's Gabe Reynolds 11th place finish just missing the top ten.
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Monroe Central's Eli Chamberlain was the individual winner at the South Adams Invite. Chamberlain had a winning time of 17:47.
- Muncie Burris' team was victorious at their home Burris "Phil Clay" Invite. The Owls' Henry Cooper was the winner of the race in a time of 18:08.
- Wapahani posted a perfect score at the Muncie Central Invite. Nick Cook was the individual winner.
Week 4
The ECI premiere meet this Saturday was at Randolph Southern where ECI schools Muncie Central, Monroe Central, Blue River, Muncie Burris, Winchester, Jay County, New Castle and Union all traveled to Lynn, Indiana in relatively pleasant mid-September weather.
Girls
The girls team race was won by the Lady Trojans of New Castle who continue to improve as the year is progressing. New Castle is led by sophomore Lydia Harvey, whose 3rd place finish as well as teammates Anyah Amman's 6th place finish was enough front running to allow New Castle to come home with some championship hardware. Speaking of front running, some of the top individual talent from ECI were in this race and it did not disappoint. Winning the individual race was Blue River's Charlee Gibson, who continued her winning ways by posting a winning time of 20:19. Behind Gibson was the Randolph Southern duo of Haileigh Allen and Allie Black. Both Allen and Black have been creeping up the ECI Top 25 Rankings all season and are definitely threats to be an individual champion in the Randolph County Meet in a couple of weeks. Other top ten finishers for the girls were Union's Lilly Pierce, Muncie Burris' Sydney McFarren and Monroe Central's Addison Coe.
Full Results can be found here: www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/211194/results/all
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- The Yorktown Girls won the Delaware County Meet on Tuesday.
- Delta's Nicki Southerland was the individual winner of the Delaware County Meet running a meet record time of 17:52.
- The Blackford girls team won their home invite on Saturday. Blackford's Allie Clamme was the winner of the race with a time of 21:46.
- Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher was the individual winner in the Grey Division Race at the Wildcat Invite. Thrasher's winning time of 20:08 was a PR and was also her first career cross-country win.
Boys
It was Muncie Central that flexed some muscle at Randolph Southern on Saturday with a convincing first place finish (40 points) over 2nd place Monroe Central (57.) The Bearcats were led by a trio of runners in the top 10 including Gabe Reynolds, Daelin Green and Hayden Bradford. The best individual ECI finish on the day was by Monroe Central's Eli Chamberlain whose time of 17:28 was the fastest time he's ran all season. Another impressive race on the day was by Union City's Conner Walser, who also ran a season best time of 17:46 in his 3rd place individual finish. Walser, a junior, has been a common name in the ECI Rankings most of his high school career and appears to be getting himself in top form for a chance to punch himself a ticket to Semi-State next month. Other top ten finishers on the boys side were New Castle's Harrison Calloway, Monroe Central's Caden Landis and Blue River's James Crull.
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- The Wapahani boys won the Delaware County Invite on Tuesday. The Raiders placed five runners in the top 10 including individual winner Nick Cook who had a winning time of 16:38.
Week 3
Week three saw some of ECI's best travel to IWU this weekend for the Marion Invite where expectations are pretty clear.... run fast times. ECI teams Delta, New Castle, Muncie Central, Monroe Central and Monroe Central took part in the event, which consisted of six different varsity races on Saturday morning/afternoon.
Girls
Some races are good races. Some races are statement races. Correction....some races are STATEMENT races and that is exactly what Delta's Nicki Southerland did by not only winning the Elite Race at the Marion Inv. but by doing so while setting the new course record as well. For perspective, IWU hosts multiple invitationals every year as well as hosting an IHSAA Sectional and Regional meet. IWU is known for being a fast course. So fast that top-level talent from across the state of Indiana will travel great distances just to run a race there. And now, Nicki Southerland can add having the IWU course record on her already lengthly resume.
On the team side of things, Monroe Central was the best performing team on the day finishing 3rd in the Gold (small school) Division. Below is the ten best ECI times from IWU:
17:15 Nicki Southerland (Delta)
20:42 Lydia Harvey (New Castle)
21:40 Sydney McFarren (Burris)
21:57 Anyah Amman (New Castle)
22:04 Katie Osborne (Monroe Central)
22:05 Karly Puckett (Monroe Central)
22:05 Avery Thomas (Monroe Central)
22:09 Samantha Fowler (Muncie Central)
22:10 Addison Coe (Monroe Central)
22:10 Savannah Kernel (New Castle)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Blue River’s Charlee Gibson continued her winning streak as she took first again this season at the Union City Invite on Saturday.
- Daleville's Faith Norris was the individual champion at the Landes Invite on Thursday.
Boys
The best finishing boys team on the day were the Muncie Burris Owls who bested ECI rival by Monroe Central by one-point in the Gold Division at IWU to finish fourth as a team. Burris is led this year by veteran runner Henry Cooper who paced the Owls with a season-best time of 17:43. Below are the top ten ECI boys' times from IWU on Saturday:
17:07 Clay Batio (Delta)
17:28 Caden Clark (Delta)
17:34 Eli Chamberlain (Monroe Central)
17:37 Gabe Reynolds (Muncie Central)
17:43 Henry Cooper (Muncie Burris)
17:54 Caden Landis (Monroe Central)
17:55 Harry Callaway (New Castle)
18:17 Lane Dance (Monroe Central)
18:24 Ryne Wagner (Muncie Burris)
18:24 Chet Clark (Muncie Central)
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Cowan's boys team continues to impress as they were victorious at a quad-meet earlier this week that featured perennial area powerhouses in Monroe Central and Hagerstown and finished 2nd at the Union City Inv. on Saturday, only three points behind first place Rushville. Behind freshman runner Jackson Bradley, these Blackhawks are rapidly improving and are definitely a team on the move as the ECI XC season continues.
Week 2
Week two saw ECI teams scattered across multiple meets in Indiana. The meet that had the most local flavor was the Wapahani Invite hosted at Wapahani High School. The meet featured Wapahani, Monroe Central, Winchester, Shenandoah, Daleville, Union and Union City from of the ECI region.
Girls
The race for the individual crown featured two of ECI's best in Daleville's Faith Norris and Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher. Norris was able to distance herself from Thrasher in the second half of the race posting a winning time of 20:19, lowering her own school record and establishing the course record at the new course at Wapahani High School. Thrasher, who finished in second, came across the line at 20:34, setting a new personal best. Behind Thrasher, was Union's Lilly Pierce (3rd) who continued her impressive season thus far and finishing 4th was Thrasher's teammate Maddie Felton who also set a PR at the friendly confines of her home course. After Felton was where the team race was decided with Monroe Central taking four of the next six spots. Leading the charge for the "Bear Pack" was freshman Avery Thomas (5th), junior Katie Osborne (6th), senior Karly Puckett (9th) and junior Addison Coe (10th.) The Bears used their quartet of runners in the top ten to take top team honors over second place Wapahani in a 34-44 team score.
Full Results can be found here: www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/207698/results
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Blue River’s Charlee Gibson won the Small School division at the Rushville Classic on Saturday. Gibson broke the 20 minute barrier for the first time in her running career, posting a time of 19:55.
- Delta's Nicki Southerland was the individual winner at the Oak Hill Invite on Saturday.
- Yorktown's girls finished 2nd in a loaded field at the Arabian Roundup on Wednesday, edging out rivals Pendleton Heights (3rd) and New Castle (4th.)
Boys
The boys race was dominated by Wapahani who was coming off an impressive runner-up performance at the Arabian Roundup earlier this week. The race was won by junior Nick Cook who used a massive surge in the last 100 meters to pass Lapel's Cameron Smith to take the victory in a time of 16:27. Behind Cook was the rest of his rat pack with Colton Boggs (4th), Payton Baker (6th), Mason Tomboni (8th) and Jon Shrock (1oth) all finishing in the top ten. Other top local finishers were Monroe Central's Caden Landis (7th), Winchester's Aidan Moystner (11th), Monroe Central's Lane Dance (12th) and Eli Chamberlain (13th) and Shenandoah's Sam Hinshaw (14th.)
Full Results here: www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/207698/results
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Delta's Clay Batio (8th) and Caden Clark (9th) both posted top 10 finishes at the Oak Hill Invite on Saturday.
- Cowan's Jackson Bradley finished 2nd at the Rushville Classic on Saturday to continue his impressive freshman campaign. Bradley's time of 17:37 is currently the third fastest time ran across ECI this season
Week 1
Week one is in the books and it looks like we are well on our way to a very competitive season across ECI. There were two showcase meets this weekend that featured most of the ECI teams in the County Clash at Taylor University and the Meister Memorial Invite hosted by Monroe Central and early season statements were made in each one.
Girls
At Monroe Central, the Bears relied on tight-knit pack running to claim the team title at their home invite with Katie Osborne (7th), Avery Thomas (8th), Karly Puckett (11th), Addison Coe (12th) and Kelsie Thomas (19th) all posting solid runs in their season debuts. Individually, the race was dominated by Daleville’s Faith Norris who won by over a minute with a winning time of 20:47. Norris, in two races this young season, has already broken Daleville’s 5K record twice (and our first ECI Runner bold prediction of the year is that this record is not done being broken by Norris this season.) Other Top ECI performances out of the Meister included Blackford’s Allison Clamme’s runner up finish, Muncie Burris’ Sydney McFarren (3rd), Union’s Lily Pierce (4th), Randolph Southern’s Haileigh Allen (5th), Cowan’s Brynn Wright (6th) and Blackford’s Chloe Wicker (10th.)
Full Results here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/209440/results
The other meet on the ECI docket was the County Clash hosted by Taylor University which also saw many strong ECI performances. On the team side of things, the Yorktown team showed why they are the defending Delta Sectional Champions with a solid team performance that featured six Lady Tigers breaking the 24-minute mark in their season opener including Rachael Stagge, Ali Smith, Tori Oliver, Aurilia Moulton, Alysha Crouch and Ally Romano. The Tigers finished 3rd overall, narrowly behind Pendleton Heights for 2nd but at the same time almost 40 points ahead of the next ECI foe (Delta who finished 4th.) The individual title went to Delta’s Nicki Southerland whose winning time of 17:46 will once again solidify her on the short list of state-title favorites come tournament time.
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Blue River’s Charlee Gibson won her home invite last weekend and was runner-up at the Jeremy Wright Invite at Shelbyville.
- The Blackford girls team won the Blue River Early Bird Invite last Saturday.
- The Muncie Central girls team won the Ethan Cheesman Invite at Union this past Tuesday.
Boys
The boys race at the Meister saw Monroe Central (2nd place overall) narrowly edge out Cowan (3rd) and Muncie Burris (4th) for early season ECI bragging rights. Near the top of the field for the Bears were the familiar names of Eli Chamberlain (7th) and Caden Landis (9th) as well as a breakout run from sophomore Lane Dance, whose :43 second PR of 18:47 was good enough for 10th place overall. Individually, the top ECI finish was from Cowan freshman Jackson Bradley (remember this name) who finished 4th overall with an impressive time of 17:58. Other top finishers were Muncie Burris’ Henry Cooper (6th), Blackford’s Donavan Osborn (8th) and Union City’s Conner Walser (13th.)
Full Results here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/209440/results
At the County Clash at Taylor, the highest finishing ECI team of the day were the Muncie Central Bearcats who finished second overall; just one point better than the Yorktown Tigers on the day. Central was led by the quartet of Daelin Green, Chet Clark, Gabe Reynolds and Hayden Bradford who figure to be in the mix of the ECI individual rankings all season long. Leading the way for Yorktown was Johnathon Loney, whose PR run of 17:49 was good enough for the second best time in all of ECI in this young season.
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Muncie Central won the Ethan Cheesman Invite at Union on Tuesday with Gabe Reynolds being the individual winner
- Wapahani’s Nick Cook ran the fastest time in ECI this weekend with his second place finish at the Jeremy Wright Invite in Shelbyville, finishing with a time of 16:45.
2021
Week 9---REGIONAL WEEKEND
Tickets for next weekend’s Semi-State were punched across ECI on wet and muddy courses on Saturday. Most of ECI ran at the Delta Regional while New Castle ran at the Rushville Regional and Blackford was at the Marion Regional. Here’s a look at who advanced out of ECI to the Semi-State round in the IHSAA single class cross-country tournament:
Blackford: The Blackford girls team placed 8th in the Marion Regional to miss out on moving on as a team but sophomores Chloe Wicker (17th) and Allison Clamme (18th) both qualified for semi-state out of the Marion Regional.
Blue River Valley: The Lady Vikings had two individuals qualify for next weekend’s semi-state at Huntington including Charlee Fellers (12th) and Sydney Fellers (17th.) The Lady Viking team placed 7th overall while the boys placed 10th.
Cowan: Junior Brynn Wright punched her ticket to semi-state with a 20th place finish in the Delta Regional. The Cowan girls team placed 9th overall.
Daleville: Faith Norris placed 19th in Delta Regional to advance to next week’s semi-state at Huntington.
Delta: Nicki Southerland won the Delta Regional on Saturday with a winning time of 18:48 to help pace the Lady Eagles to a 4th place team finish to punch their tickets to semi-state. Senior Makayla Robles also had a very impressive race on the girls side placing 5th overall.
Jay County: Senior Lindy Wood was the lone Patriot to advance out of the Delta Regional for Jay County. Wood placed 22nd overall.
Monroe Central: The Monroe Central boys had the best ECI team finish on the day placing 3rd in the Delta Regional. On this day, it was senior Carter Miller who led the charge for the Bears placing 10th overall with teammate Tucker Burris close behind in 16th place. On the girls side, the Lady Bears just missed advancing as a team finishing in 6th but saw sophomore Addison Coe (16th) advance to semi-state for the 2nd consecutive year.
Muncie Burris: Michael Canfield paced the Owls placing 22nd overall at the Delta Regional to punch his ticket to next weekend’s semi-state. The Burris boys team placed 8th on the day.
Muncie Central: The Bearcat boys’ squad finished 7th overall to miss qualifying as a team but saw freshman phenom Hayden Bradford advance with 24th place individual finish and along teammate Gabe Reynolds who finished 29th.
New Castle: New Castle had four individuals qualify for semi-state out of the Rushville Regional including Andrew Fewell (9th) and Skyler Dickey (22nd) on the boys side and Lydia Harvey (6th) and Ella Garvin (21st) on the girls side. The New Castle girls also finished 7th on the day.
Randolph Southern: Senior Olivia Keesling was the lone Semi-State qualifier for Randolph Southern. Keesling finished 6th overall in a time of 21:03 (:23 seconds faster than she ran on the same course at sectional a week ago.)
Wapahani: The Wapahani boys advanced to the New Haven Semi-State for the eighth time in nine years on Saturday by finishing 4th at the Delta Regional. The Raiders were led by sophomore Nick Cook who placed 12th and senior Brandon Ellis who placed 15th.
Wes-Del: Wes-Del had a trio of runners advance to next week’s New Haven Semi-State including senior Luke Butler (30th) on the boys side and senior Jaci Knott (27th) and Emerson Justin (28th) on the girls side. The Wes-Del girls finished 8th as a team as well.
Winchester: The breakout season for junior Aiden Moystner continued on Saturday as he placed 26th to punch his ticket to the New Haven Semi-State.
Yorktown: The Yorktown Tigers were the only ECI school to see both their boys and girls teams advance to the semi-state round with each team placing 5th. Leading the way for the boys, as he has all year, was senior Luke Harber whose 9th place finish was the best ECI finish at the Delta Regional. Leading the Lady Tiger charge on the girls side was junior Allison Smith who placed 23rd overall.
Week 8---SECTIONAL WEEKEND
Every team in ECI has at least one individual advancing to next week’s Regional round so instead of our traditional recap format, this week we are going to be doing a Sectional run-down on every ECI team. Congrats to everyone who advanced!
Blackford: The Blackford girls team continued their impressive season with a 4th place team finish at sectional to advance to next week’s Marion Regional. On the boys side, the Bruins just missed qualifying to Regional as a team placing 6th. Individually, Donavon Osborn, Darius Osborn and Keaton Walker all advanced to regional for Blackford.
Blue River Valley: Both the boys and girls Viking Squads finished 4th at the Pendleton Sectional to move on to next week’s Delta Regional. On the boys side, junior Gabe Sayre ran one of the best races of his season finishing 23rd in a time of 18:41. For the girls, freshman Charlee Gibson finished 6th overall followed by teammate Sydney Fellers who finished 13th to lead the girls team.
Cowan: Cowan’s boys team had three individual advance to next week’s Regional including Gavin Ashby, Logan Walker and Perrin Belcher. The Lady Blackhawks grabbed the 5th and last ticket to Regional to advance as a team. The Cowan girls were led by Brynn Wright who finished 4th overall.
Daleville: The Broncos had a trio of individuals advance out of Sectionals including Noah Colvin on the boys side and Olivia Covert and Faith Norris on the girls side. The best individual finish on the day for Daleville was Faith Norris who placed 5th overall.
Delta: Clay Batio placed 7th and Caden Clark finished in 27th to both advance for the Eagles on the boys side of the Sectional. On the girls side, Delta placed 2nd as a team and had the top two individuals overall with Nicki Southerland winning the Delta Sectional in a time of 18:52 with senior teammate Makalya Robles placing 2nd.
Jay County: Senior Lindy Wood was the lone Patriot to advance out of the Delta Sectional for Jay County. Wood placed 6th overall in a time of 22:14.
Monroe Central: Both Monroe Central teams advance out of the Delta Sectional with the boys placing 2nd and the girls 3rd. On the boys side, Tucker Burris and Carter Miller paced the Bears finishing 4th and 6th overall. For the girls, sophomore Addison Coe finished 10th to lead the way for Monroe Central.
Muncie Burris: The Muncie Burris boys team finished 5th at the Delta Sectional to advance to next week’s Regional as a team. Michael Canfield paced the Owls placing 17th overall.
Muncie Central: The Bearcat boys’ squad finished 4th overall to advance to next week’s Delta Regional. Freshman phenom Hayden Bradford led the way for Muncie Central with a 3rd place individual finish. There were also two girls to advance as individuals for the Bearcats including Delaney Strange and Samantha Fowler.
New Castle: The New Castle girls team was the team sectional runner up to advance out of the Connersville Sectional. Ella Garvin of New Castle was the individual sectional champion running the race in a time of 21:22. Garvin’s teammate Lydia Harvey also had a strong run for the girls’ squad finishing 4th overall. The New Castle boys just missed qualifying as a team placing 6th, but individuals Andrew Fewell and Skyler Dickey will both advance to next week’s Rushville Regional.
Randolph Southern: Senior Olivia Keesling was the lone Regional qualifier for Randolph Southern. Keesling finished 3rd overall in a time of 21:26.
Shenandoah: The Shenandoah’s girls eked out a one point advantage over rival Alexandria to take the 5th and last regional bound spot in the Pendleton Sectional. Freshman Kayci Hill was the top finishing Raider placing 17th overall.
Union: Lilly Pierce advanced to next week’s Delta Regional with a 16th place finish on Saturday at sectional.
Union City: Freshman Ava Jefferies grabbed the last individual spot out of the Delta Sectional. Jefferies finished 21st in a time of 24:08 on Saturday.
Wapahani: The Wapahani boys teams won their 4th sectional in school history at the Delta Sectional on Saturday. The Raiders were paced by a solid top five that all finished in the top 14 individually including Nick Cook (2nd), Brandon Ellis (5th), Payton Baker (8th), Colton Boggs (9th) and Drayden Gates (14th). The Wapahani girls just missed qualifying as a team placing 6th but had two individuals advance to regional including Kendyl Thrasher and Maddie Felton.
Wes-Del: The Wes-Del girls placed 4th as a team to advance to next week’s Delta Regional. The girls were led by junior Emerson Justin who finished 13th overall. The Wes-Del boys team placed 6th as a team to fall just short of qualifying as a team but had Luke Butler and Dawson Clark both advance as individuals.
Winchester: The Winchester boys team had two individuals advance to next week’s Delta Regional including Aidan Moystner and Brock Hays. Moystner paced the Falcons as he continued his impressive season with a 10th place finish.
Yorktown: The Yorktown Tigers girls team celebrated a sectional championship on Saturday with three girls placing in the top 10 including Grace Huisman (7th), Alison Smith (8th) and Rachael Stagge (10th). The boys teams also advanced to next week’s Delta Regional with a 3rd place finish. In the boys race, senior Luke Harber was the individual winner posting a time of 17:23 in the swamplands of the Barn Academy.
Week 7---CONFERENCE WEEKEND
Boys
For the last couple of seasons the MEC Championship has came down to Monroe Central and Wapahani (Wapahani won by 4 points over Monroe Central in 2019 and the Bears claimed first over the Raiders in 2020 via tie-breaker) and this year followed suit as well. Up front was Wapahani’s Nick Cook who captured the individual MEC crown in a time of 16:50. Not far behind the Raider sophomore were the Monroe Central duo of Tucker Burris and Carter Miller who finished 2nd and 3rd. Next up was the senior duo of Brandon Ellis and Drayden Gates who finished 4th and 5th followed by another Bear and senior, Kyler Shumaker finishing 6th. After Colton Boggs of Wapahani finished 7th an out-of-ECI Eastern Hancock runner finished 8th before the rest of the top 12 ALL-MEC runners came thru the finish line including Monroe Central’s Eli Chamberlain in 9th, Wapahani’s Payton Baker in 10th, Wes-Del’s Luke Butler in 11th and Shenandoah’s Sam Hinshaw in 12th. In the team standings, it was Wapahani’s day as they finished 1st with an accumulated team score of 27 over Monroe Central’s 34.
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
Girls
In the girl’s MEC race, a cluster of girls went to Blue River Saturday morning hoping for top individual honors but it was Randolph Southern’s Olivia Keesling who came thru the finish line first in a time of 20:18. Following Keesling was Blue River freshman Charlee Gibson who finished 2nd and Union’s Lilly Pierce continued her rapid ascent through the ECI rankings with a 3rd place finish. Next up was Addison Coe who finished 4th to pace the team champion Monroe Central Bears squad who finished 1st with a team score of 61.. Coe’s teammate, Katie Osborne finished 7th to also be a key contributor to Monroe Central’s win. Other All MEC runners included Cowan’s Brynn Wright (5th), Blue River’s Sydney Fellers (6th), Shenandoah’s Kayci Hill (8th), Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher (10th) and Daleville’s Abby and Olivia Covert finished 11th and 12th. On the team side, After Monroe Central’s 61 was Wes-Del who finished in 2nd with a score of 75.
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
Boys
For the last couple of seasons the MEC Championship has came down to Monroe Central and Wapahani (Wapahani won by 4 points over Monroe Central in 2019 and the Bears claimed first over the Raiders in 2020 via tie-breaker) and this year followed suit as well. Up front was Wapahani’s Nick Cook who captured the individual MEC crown in a time of 16:50. Not far behind the Raider sophomore were the Monroe Central duo of Tucker Burris and Carter Miller who finished 2nd and 3rd. Next up was the senior duo of Brandon Ellis and Drayden Gates who finished 4th and 5th followed by another Bear and senior, Kyler Shumaker finishing 6th. After Colton Boggs of Wapahani finished 7th an out-of-ECI Eastern Hancock runner finished 8th before the rest of the top 12 ALL-MEC runners came thru the finish line including Monroe Central’s Eli Chamberlain in 9th, Wapahani’s Payton Baker in 10th, Wes-Del’s Luke Butler in 11th and Shenandoah’s Sam Hinshaw in 12th. In the team standings, it was Wapahani’s day as they finished 1st with an accumulated team score of 27 over Monroe Central’s 34.
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Yorktown's Luke Harber finished 3rd in the HHC Meet in a time of 16:49. Yorktown was the top finishing team in the HHC with a 3rd place team finish. Other top finishers from the HHC were New Castle’s Skyler Dickey (14th), Clay Batio of Delta (15th), Yorktown’s Ryan Bade (16th) and Delta’s Caden Clark (20th)
- Muncie Central finished 4th in the NCC Meet with Hayden Bradford finishing 6th overall in a time of 17:06. Also, Gabe Reynolds, Princeton Young and LJ Strange all went sub 18-minutes for the Bearcats.
- Winchester’s Aidyn Moistner finished 5th at the TEC Meet in a time of 17:50 to lead Winchester to a 4th place team finish.
- Monroe Central’s boys teams captured the Randolph County Championship on Tuesday. The Bears’ Tucker Burris was the individual Randolph County Champion.
Girls
In the girl’s MEC race, a cluster of girls went to Blue River Saturday morning hoping for top individual honors but it was Randolph Southern’s Olivia Keesling who came thru the finish line first in a time of 20:18. Following Keesling was Blue River freshman Charlee Gibson who finished 2nd and Union’s Lilly Pierce continued her rapid ascent through the ECI rankings with a 3rd place finish. Next up was Addison Coe who finished 4th to pace the team champion Monroe Central Bears squad who finished 1st with a team score of 61.. Coe’s teammate, Katie Osborne finished 7th to also be a key contributor to Monroe Central’s win. Other All MEC runners included Cowan’s Brynn Wright (5th), Blue River’s Sydney Fellers (6th), Shenandoah’s Kayci Hill (8th), Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher (10th) and Daleville’s Abby and Olivia Covert finished 11th and 12th. On the team side, After Monroe Central’s 61 was Wes-Del who finished in 2nd with a score of 75.
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Delta’s Nick Southerland won the HHC Meet in a time of of 18:12. Sutherland teammate Makalya Roble’s also has a good race finishing 6th overall. Other top ECI runners out of the HHC were New Castle’s Lydia Harvey (7th) and Ella Garvin (12th) and the Yorktown trio of Allison Smith (14th), Grace Husiman (17th) and Addison Stagge (18th.)
- Yorktown’s girls were the best finishing team in ECI at the HHC coming in 4th place (114 points) over Delta’s 5th place finish (121 points) and New Castle placing 6th (126 points.)
- Muncie Central’s Delaney Strange finished 10th at the NCC Meet in a time of 21:06.
- Union City’s Ava Jefferies finished 12th and Winchester’s Ryanne Lacy finished 13th at Saturday’s TEC Meet. Winchester was the top finishing ECI team placing 3rd overall.
- Monroe Central’s girls team captured the Randolph County title on Tuesday. Randolph Southern’s Olivia Keesling was the individual Randolph County Champion.
Week 6
Boys
There were a pair of notable meets that featured ECI teams this week at the Delta and New Haven Invites and just for fun, ECI Runner is covering them both. First at the Academy Barn, ECI teams Blue River, Jay County, Union City, Delta, Winchester and Shenandoah all competed in the Delta Invite. The top ECI finisher in the boys race was Clay Batio of Delta was battled the swamps of the former Muncie Sportsplex to a 3rd place finish in a time of 18:19. Union City sophomore Conner Walser continued his impressive season with a top 5 finish as well. On the team side, Blue River was the top ECI finishing team with a 3rd place finish. Led by Gabe Sayre, who finished 14th overall, the Vikings seem to be gearing themselves up for a possible 2nd consecutive Regional berth in the weeks ahead.
At New Haven (or Huntington University to get technical), Monroe Central, Cowan, Blackford, Daleville, Wes-Del, Yorktown, Muncie Central and Wapahani all competed across three different divisions in the 50+ school field. To summize, Yorktown's Luke Harber finished with the best overall time in ECI, running a 16:54 and placing 2nd in the AA Race. The Monroe Central Bears had the best team finish of the day, winning the A Race by placing 5 in the top 20 overall. The top 10 times ran at the running rapids at the New Haven Invite were:
1. 16:54 Luke Harber-Yorktown
2. 17:12 Tucker Burris-Monroe Central
3. 17:13 Nick Cook-Wapahani
4. 17:22 Carter Miller-Monroe Central
5. 17:38 Brandon Ellis-Wapahani
6. 17:49 Hayden Bradford-Muncie Central
7. 17:58 Colton Boggs- Wapahani
8. 18:03 Eli Chamberlain-Monroe Central
9. 18:07 Kyler Shumaker-Monroe Central
10. 18:19 Sam Brumley-Yorktown
Girls
In the girls race at the Delta Invitational, it was Delta's own Makayla Robles who was the individual winner, running a time of 21:13 on the soggy course. Following Robles was Blue River's Charlee Gibson who finished with with Jay County's Lindy Wood (7th) and Shenandoah's Anna Buskirk (8th) also finishing in the top 10 as well. On the team side, Delta was the top finishing ECI team, finishing 3rd with a team score of 102. Not too far behind the Lady Eagles were Shenandoah (4th place with 113 points) and Blue River (5th with 114 points.) Both Shenandoah and Blue River will have plenty of time to get familiar with each other as they will be competing for top and advancing spots at the MEC Meet and in the IHSAA tournament in the weeks ahead.
At New Haven, it was Monroe Central's Addison Coe who out kicked Daleville's Faith Norris in the Division A Race to post an ECI best time of 21:22.8 to better the Bronco harrier by .3 of a second. (And while we're here, lets look ahead at this Girls' MEC meet for next week. As it stands now, Blue River's Charlee Gibson, Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling, Monroe Central's Addison Coe, Daleville's Faith Norris and Cowan's Brynn Wright all have a realistic shot to take the individual MEC title. That's 5 different girls from 5 different schools that can be an individual conference champ. Just insane!) Now, back to New Haven, it was Monroe Central's girls who posted the best team finish, placing 5th in the Division A race with Yorktown placing 6th in the Division AA race and Wes-Del placing 7th in the Division A race. The top 10 times from New Haven were:
1. 21:22 Addison Coe- Monroe Central
2. 21:23 Faith Norris- Daleville
3. 21:44 Brynn Wright- Cowan
4. 22:05 Ali Smith- Yorktown
5. 22:13.6 Rachael Stagge- Yorktown
6. 22:13.7 Chloe Wicker- Blackford
7. 22:23 Katie Osborn- Monroe Central
8. 22:30 Emmy Justin-Wes-Del
9. 22:37 Kendyl Thrasher- Wapahani
10. 22:49 Grace Huisman- Yorktown
Boys
There were a pair of notable meets that featured ECI teams this week at the Delta and New Haven Invites and just for fun, ECI Runner is covering them both. First at the Academy Barn, ECI teams Blue River, Jay County, Union City, Delta, Winchester and Shenandoah all competed in the Delta Invite. The top ECI finisher in the boys race was Clay Batio of Delta was battled the swamps of the former Muncie Sportsplex to a 3rd place finish in a time of 18:19. Union City sophomore Conner Walser continued his impressive season with a top 5 finish as well. On the team side, Blue River was the top ECI finishing team with a 3rd place finish. Led by Gabe Sayre, who finished 14th overall, the Vikings seem to be gearing themselves up for a possible 2nd consecutive Regional berth in the weeks ahead.
At New Haven (or Huntington University to get technical), Monroe Central, Cowan, Blackford, Daleville, Wes-Del, Yorktown, Muncie Central and Wapahani all competed across three different divisions in the 50+ school field. To summize, Yorktown's Luke Harber finished with the best overall time in ECI, running a 16:54 and placing 2nd in the AA Race. The Monroe Central Bears had the best team finish of the day, winning the A Race by placing 5 in the top 20 overall. The top 10 times ran at the running rapids at the New Haven Invite were:
1. 16:54 Luke Harber-Yorktown
2. 17:12 Tucker Burris-Monroe Central
3. 17:13 Nick Cook-Wapahani
4. 17:22 Carter Miller-Monroe Central
5. 17:38 Brandon Ellis-Wapahani
6. 17:49 Hayden Bradford-Muncie Central
7. 17:58 Colton Boggs- Wapahani
8. 18:03 Eli Chamberlain-Monroe Central
9. 18:07 Kyler Shumaker-Monroe Central
10. 18:19 Sam Brumley-Yorktown
Girls
In the girls race at the Delta Invitational, it was Delta's own Makayla Robles who was the individual winner, running a time of 21:13 on the soggy course. Following Robles was Blue River's Charlee Gibson who finished with with Jay County's Lindy Wood (7th) and Shenandoah's Anna Buskirk (8th) also finishing in the top 10 as well. On the team side, Delta was the top finishing ECI team, finishing 3rd with a team score of 102. Not too far behind the Lady Eagles were Shenandoah (4th place with 113 points) and Blue River (5th with 114 points.) Both Shenandoah and Blue River will have plenty of time to get familiar with each other as they will be competing for top and advancing spots at the MEC Meet and in the IHSAA tournament in the weeks ahead.
At New Haven, it was Monroe Central's Addison Coe who out kicked Daleville's Faith Norris in the Division A Race to post an ECI best time of 21:22.8 to better the Bronco harrier by .3 of a second. (And while we're here, lets look ahead at this Girls' MEC meet for next week. As it stands now, Blue River's Charlee Gibson, Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling, Monroe Central's Addison Coe, Daleville's Faith Norris and Cowan's Brynn Wright all have a realistic shot to take the individual MEC title. That's 5 different girls from 5 different schools that can be an individual conference champ. Just insane!) Now, back to New Haven, it was Monroe Central's girls who posted the best team finish, placing 5th in the Division A race with Yorktown placing 6th in the Division AA race and Wes-Del placing 7th in the Division A race. The top 10 times from New Haven were:
1. 21:22 Addison Coe- Monroe Central
2. 21:23 Faith Norris- Daleville
3. 21:44 Brynn Wright- Cowan
4. 22:05 Ali Smith- Yorktown
5. 22:13.6 Rachael Stagge- Yorktown
6. 22:13.7 Chloe Wicker- Blackford
7. 22:23 Katie Osborn- Monroe Central
8. 22:30 Emmy Justin-Wes-Del
9. 22:37 Kendyl Thrasher- Wapahani
10. 22:49 Grace Huisman- Yorktown
Week 5
Boys
This Saturday saw Yorktown's Jim Leffler Invite as this week's ECI Runner premiere meet with Muncie Central, Wapahani, Yorktown, Muncie Burris, Daleville, Wes-Del, Cowan, Jay County, Shenandoah and New Castle all competing on the soggy ground at the Academy Barn. Leading the way individually on the boys side was New Castle's Andrew Fewell who used a big start to fuel his runner-up 2nd place overall finish. Following Fewell was Wapahani's NIck Cook in 3rd, and Fewell's teammate Skyler Dickey in 4th. Also in the top 10 were Yorktown's Luke Harber in 5th, Muncie Central's Hayden Bradford in 6th, Muncie Burris' Michael Canfield in 9th and Wapahani's Brandon Ellis in 10th. On the team side, Muncie Central broke out their best meet of the year to finish an ECI best 2nd place. Behind Bradford's 6th place finish were strong runs by Gabe Reynolds (who finished 16th), and by the trio of Princeton Young, Jonathon Jones and Daelin Green who proved to be the best 3-5 out of ECI in the meet. Following Central was Wapahani placing 3rd and Yorktown in 4th.
Full Results can be found here: results.raceroster.com/en-US/results/unstructured/4bruxm572afmer7f?id=unstructured_3375
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
In the girls race, it was New Castle's Ella Garvin who led a plethora of quality ECI runners in the Jim Leffler Invite taking 3rd place overall. Next up out of ECI was Daleville's Faith Norris who continued her stellar season with a 4th place finish with Garvin's teammate Lydia Harvey placing 6th. We are just getting started covering this meet though as Harvey's 6th place finish marks the first spot out of 14 in a row that were filled by ECI runners with plenty of potential conference and post-season implications in the balance. So here we go.....In 7th was Jay County's Lindy Wood followed by Cowan frontrunner Brynn Wright in 8th. Next up was the Yorktown trio of Grace Huisman, Rachael Stagge and Ali Smith finishing 9th-11th. Anna Buskirk from Shenandoah finished 12th with Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher making her season debut (fresh from a foot injury) placing 13th. New Castle's 3rd runner Savannah Kernel secured the 14th spot and Cowan's Lauren Smith ran a good race to place 15th. Shenandoah's number two runner Kayci Hill came in next in 16th and Olivia Covert of Daleville was next in line to place 17th with Muncie Central's Delaney Strange placing 18th. Ending the streak of ECI runners was New Castle's 4th runner Sydney Matthews who finished 19th.
The team race was the tale of two different stories. At the top of the pile for ECI were the New Castle Trojans who used a team score of 59 to edge out Yorktown's 65 points to claim 2nd place over the 3rd place Tigers. Behind these two teams were a quintet of teams who were separated by just 9 points for 4th-8th spots. Once the final scores were tallied (or computer generated) it was Shenandoah who placed 4th over Cowan and Wapahani who tied for 5th (Cowan got the 6th runner tie-breaker nod over the Raiders) with Jay County finishing 7th and Wes-Del 8th. If this race proved anything on the girls team side, it is that there will definitely be a lot of teams (the most that we can think of in quite some time) that will have a realistic expectation to have post-season team advancements into the regional and semi-state in the weeks ahead.
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
Boys
This Saturday saw Yorktown's Jim Leffler Invite as this week's ECI Runner premiere meet with Muncie Central, Wapahani, Yorktown, Muncie Burris, Daleville, Wes-Del, Cowan, Jay County, Shenandoah and New Castle all competing on the soggy ground at the Academy Barn. Leading the way individually on the boys side was New Castle's Andrew Fewell who used a big start to fuel his runner-up 2nd place overall finish. Following Fewell was Wapahani's NIck Cook in 3rd, and Fewell's teammate Skyler Dickey in 4th. Also in the top 10 were Yorktown's Luke Harber in 5th, Muncie Central's Hayden Bradford in 6th, Muncie Burris' Michael Canfield in 9th and Wapahani's Brandon Ellis in 10th. On the team side, Muncie Central broke out their best meet of the year to finish an ECI best 2nd place. Behind Bradford's 6th place finish were strong runs by Gabe Reynolds (who finished 16th), and by the trio of Princeton Young, Jonathon Jones and Daelin Green who proved to be the best 3-5 out of ECI in the meet. Following Central was Wapahani placing 3rd and Yorktown in 4th.
Full Results can be found here: results.raceroster.com/en-US/results/unstructured/4bruxm572afmer7f?id=unstructured_3375
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Yorktown's Luke Harber won the Muncie Central Invite on Tuesday.
- New Castle's Andrew Fewell and Skyler Dickey went 1-2 at the New Castle Invite on Wednesday.
- Muncie Burris' Michael Canfield won his home invite on Wednesday. The Blue River boys won the Burris Invite as a team.
- The Monroe Central boys won the South Adams Invite on Saturday with the Bears' own Tucker Burris finishing 1st overall.
- Delta's Clay Batio finished 12th in a time of 17:24 at the Flashrock Invite on Saturday
In the girls race, it was New Castle's Ella Garvin who led a plethora of quality ECI runners in the Jim Leffler Invite taking 3rd place overall. Next up out of ECI was Daleville's Faith Norris who continued her stellar season with a 4th place finish with Garvin's teammate Lydia Harvey placing 6th. We are just getting started covering this meet though as Harvey's 6th place finish marks the first spot out of 14 in a row that were filled by ECI runners with plenty of potential conference and post-season implications in the balance. So here we go.....In 7th was Jay County's Lindy Wood followed by Cowan frontrunner Brynn Wright in 8th. Next up was the Yorktown trio of Grace Huisman, Rachael Stagge and Ali Smith finishing 9th-11th. Anna Buskirk from Shenandoah finished 12th with Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher making her season debut (fresh from a foot injury) placing 13th. New Castle's 3rd runner Savannah Kernel secured the 14th spot and Cowan's Lauren Smith ran a good race to place 15th. Shenandoah's number two runner Kayci Hill came in next in 16th and Olivia Covert of Daleville was next in line to place 17th with Muncie Central's Delaney Strange placing 18th. Ending the streak of ECI runners was New Castle's 4th runner Sydney Matthews who finished 19th.
The team race was the tale of two different stories. At the top of the pile for ECI were the New Castle Trojans who used a team score of 59 to edge out Yorktown's 65 points to claim 2nd place over the 3rd place Tigers. Behind these two teams were a quintet of teams who were separated by just 9 points for 4th-8th spots. Once the final scores were tallied (or computer generated) it was Shenandoah who placed 4th over Cowan and Wapahani who tied for 5th (Cowan got the 6th runner tie-breaker nod over the Raiders) with Jay County finishing 7th and Wes-Del 8th. If this race proved anything on the girls team side, it is that there will definitely be a lot of teams (the most that we can think of in quite some time) that will have a realistic expectation to have post-season team advancements into the regional and semi-state in the weeks ahead.
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Ali Smith, Rachael Stagge, and Grace Huisman went 1-2-3 at the Muncie Central Invite on Tuesday. Yorktown's team won the invite.
- New Castle's Lydia Harvey won the New Castle Invite on Wednesday.
- Blue River's Charlee Gibson won the Muncie Burris Invite on Wednesday. Blue River's girls won the invite.
- Delta's Makayla Robles finished 3rd at the Flashrock Invite on Saturday in a time of 20:28.
- Blue River's Charlee Gibson was the top ECI finisher at the South Adams Inv, running a time of 20:30 in her 2nd place finish. Monroe Central was the top ECI team at the South Adams Inv. placing 4th.
Week 4
Boys
Week four was another fast one on the courses across ECI as the season is definitely in high gear and as competitive as ever. This week's feature meet was at the Randolph Southern Invitational where ECI teams Monroe Central, Muncie Central, New Castle, Blue River, Muncie Burris, Winchester, Cowan, Union City, Jay County, Wes-Del and Shenandoah all competed. In the team contest, it was a runaway victory for the Monroe Central Bears who recorded only 36 points in the 14 team field. Other notable top ECI team finishers were Muncie Central in 3rd (90 points), New Castle 4th (151 points) and Blue River 5th (194 points.) Up front for Monroe Central was the familiar duo of Tucker Burris (1st) and Carter Miller (3rd.) Burris paced the race with a winning time of 16:57, breaking the 17 minute barrier for the first time this season. Trading spots with the top two Bears was the New Castle tandem of Andrew Fewell and Skyler Dickey who finished 2nd and 4th respectively. Union City's Conner Walser also continued his impressive season with a 6th place finish in a PR of 17:35. Other top ten finishes out of ECI include Monroe Central's Kyler Shumaker (7th), Muncie Central's Hayden Bradford (8th) and Muncie Burris' Michael Canfield (10th.)
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
In the girls race, the top finishing ECI team was Monroe Central who finished 2nd with 71 points. After the Bears, ECI teams (all from the MEC) were packed tight in the front of the field with Shenandoah placing 3rd (142 points), Blue River 4th (147 points) and Wes-Del 6th (149 points.) These four MEC schools will definitely get to know each other more in the coming weeks as conference, and tournament season is now less than a handful of weeks away. Individually, Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling was the top ECI finisher placing 2nd in a time of 20:34. Blue River freshmen Charlee Gibson also continued her accent in the ECI rankings this week with a 3rd place finish in a time of 21:00. Other top ten ECI finishers were Addison Coe of Monroe Central (5th), Cowan's Brynn Wright (6th), Jay County's Lindy Wood (7th), Blue River's Sydney Fellers (9th) and Muncie Central's Delaney Strange (10th.)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
Boys
Week four was another fast one on the courses across ECI as the season is definitely in high gear and as competitive as ever. This week's feature meet was at the Randolph Southern Invitational where ECI teams Monroe Central, Muncie Central, New Castle, Blue River, Muncie Burris, Winchester, Cowan, Union City, Jay County, Wes-Del and Shenandoah all competed. In the team contest, it was a runaway victory for the Monroe Central Bears who recorded only 36 points in the 14 team field. Other notable top ECI team finishers were Muncie Central in 3rd (90 points), New Castle 4th (151 points) and Blue River 5th (194 points.) Up front for Monroe Central was the familiar duo of Tucker Burris (1st) and Carter Miller (3rd.) Burris paced the race with a winning time of 16:57, breaking the 17 minute barrier for the first time this season. Trading spots with the top two Bears was the New Castle tandem of Andrew Fewell and Skyler Dickey who finished 2nd and 4th respectively. Union City's Conner Walser also continued his impressive season with a 6th place finish in a PR of 17:35. Other top ten finishes out of ECI include Monroe Central's Kyler Shumaker (7th), Muncie Central's Hayden Bradford (8th) and Muncie Burris' Michael Canfield (10th.)
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Yorktown's Luke Harber won the Delaware County Meet on Tuesday and ran an ECI best time this year of 16:22 at the Wildcat Inv. on Saturday in a 13th place finish in the Elite Race. Yorktown finished 2nd at the County Meet and 15th at the Wildcat Inv. as a team this week.
- Wapahani's Boys won the Delaware County meet on Tuesday and finished 11th in the Elite Race at the Wildcat Inv. on Saturday. Nick Cook led the Raiders in both races, most notably running a PR of 16:24 in a 15th place finish at IWU.
- Ethan Colvin (18:31) and Noah Colvin (18:50) both ran their best races of the year to help pace Daleville to a 14th place finish in the Grey Division Race at the Wildcat Inv.
- Delta's Clay Batio finished 6th in a time of 17:16 at the Maconaquah Inv. to lead Delta to an 11th place team finish.
- Blackford Donavan Osborn placed 21st at Maconaquah in a time of 17:52. Blackford did not have enough runners for a team score.
In the girls race, the top finishing ECI team was Monroe Central who finished 2nd with 71 points. After the Bears, ECI teams (all from the MEC) were packed tight in the front of the field with Shenandoah placing 3rd (142 points), Blue River 4th (147 points) and Wes-Del 6th (149 points.) These four MEC schools will definitely get to know each other more in the coming weeks as conference, and tournament season is now less than a handful of weeks away. Individually, Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling was the top ECI finisher placing 2nd in a time of 20:34. Blue River freshmen Charlee Gibson also continued her accent in the ECI rankings this week with a 3rd place finish in a time of 21:00. Other top ten ECI finishers were Addison Coe of Monroe Central (5th), Cowan's Brynn Wright (6th), Jay County's Lindy Wood (7th), Blue River's Sydney Fellers (9th) and Muncie Central's Delaney Strange (10th.)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- The Yorktown Girls won the Delaware County Meet on Tuesday and placed 2nd in the Grey Division Race at the Wildcat Inv. on Saturday.
- Daleville's Faith Norris (5th), Yorktown's Grace Huisman (7th), Rachael Stagge (9th) and Ali Smith (11th), and Wapahani's Maddie Felton all placed in the top 20 in the Grey Division Race at the Wildcat Inv.
- Delta's Nick Southerland won a pair of races this week at the Delaware County Meet and the Maconaquah Inv. on Saturday. Southerland's time of 17:29.9 on Saturday also reset her already existing school record at Delta. Southerland's teammate, Makayla Robles also had an impressive weekend with a runner-up finish at the Delaware County Meet as well as going sub 20 minutes for the first time this season at Maconaquah in a time of 19:49.
- The Blackford girls continued their impressive season with a 4th place team finish at the Maconaquah Inv. The Bruins were led by Chloe Wicker who finished 15th in a time of 21:31.
Week 3
Boys
Week three saw cooler temps and some fast courses as ECI showed out in some impressive performances across the state. The feature meet of the week was at IWU for the Marion Inv. where the racetrack of a cross-country course hosted about 37 different divisions with 18,000 total runners on Saturday (exact numbers have been exaggerated to give the reader an idea of the size and complexity of the invite.) In the Elite Race (which was filled with semi-state and state caliber teams) were the Monroe Central Golden Bears who became the first team of 2021 to have four runners run in the 17's in the same meet with Tucker Burris, Carter Miller, Eli Chamberlain and Kyler Shumaker all achieving the mark. As a team, Monroe Central placed 11th overall.
The Purple Race saw Muncie Central, New Castle and Delta all competing with the Bearcats being the top overall team with a 6th place finish out of 15 schools. Led by Hayden Bradford (17th) and Gabe Reynolds (29th), Muncie Central has been the fastest improving boys team in the ECI so far this season and will definitely be one to keep an eye on in the week's ahead. The race also saw New Castle's Andrew Fewell finish 5th with an ECI best time of 16:37 in this young season. Other top finishes in this race were by Fewell's teammate, Skyler Dickey (12th), and the Delta duo of Clay Batio (14th) and Caden Clark (26th.) The Gold Race saw strong runs by Muncie Burris' Micael Canfield (12th) and Wes-Del's Luke Butler (16th.)
Full results can be found here: live.crossroadstiming.com/meets/441799
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
Girls
On the girls side, the ECI weekend was simply won by the Wes-Del Warriors, who had their best team performance in several years to capture 1st place in the Gold Race. Up front for Wes-Del were Emmy Justin (10th) and Jaci Knot (16th) who set the tone for a couple of rapidly improving freshmen in Kaitlyn Bannister (26th) and Samantha Ross (27th) and then there was senior anchorman Andrea Stoughton whose 37th place finish sealed the five point team win for the Warriors. Watch out for this Wes-Del team moving forward as they are setting themselves up for a lot of potential team success as this season progresses.
In the other races at IWU, Delta's Nikki Southerland won the Elite Race with a time of 17:28 with her teammate Makayla Robles narrowly missing the Sub 20 club running a 20:11 overall. Delta finished 13th as a team in the Elite Division. In the Purple Race, New Castle's Lydia Harvey continued her impressive season with a 3rd place finish in a time of 19:35.
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
Boys
Week three saw cooler temps and some fast courses as ECI showed out in some impressive performances across the state. The feature meet of the week was at IWU for the Marion Inv. where the racetrack of a cross-country course hosted about 37 different divisions with 18,000 total runners on Saturday (exact numbers have been exaggerated to give the reader an idea of the size and complexity of the invite.) In the Elite Race (which was filled with semi-state and state caliber teams) were the Monroe Central Golden Bears who became the first team of 2021 to have four runners run in the 17's in the same meet with Tucker Burris, Carter Miller, Eli Chamberlain and Kyler Shumaker all achieving the mark. As a team, Monroe Central placed 11th overall.
The Purple Race saw Muncie Central, New Castle and Delta all competing with the Bearcats being the top overall team with a 6th place finish out of 15 schools. Led by Hayden Bradford (17th) and Gabe Reynolds (29th), Muncie Central has been the fastest improving boys team in the ECI so far this season and will definitely be one to keep an eye on in the week's ahead. The race also saw New Castle's Andrew Fewell finish 5th with an ECI best time of 16:37 in this young season. Other top finishes in this race were by Fewell's teammate, Skyler Dickey (12th), and the Delta duo of Clay Batio (14th) and Caden Clark (26th.) The Gold Race saw strong runs by Muncie Burris' Micael Canfield (12th) and Wes-Del's Luke Butler (16th.)
Full results can be found here: live.crossroadstiming.com/meets/441799
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- Blue River finished 3rd, and Union City finished 4th at the Union City Inv. Top ten ECI finishers were Conner Walser (3rd) and Blue River's Gabe Sayre (5th.)
- Winchester and Blackford were at the Columbus North Classic on Saturday. Individually, Blackford's Donavan Osborn (17:37) Winchester's Aiden Moystner (17:41) both joined the 17's club with PRs according to the ECI Runner Historical Database.
Girls
On the girls side, the ECI weekend was simply won by the Wes-Del Warriors, who had their best team performance in several years to capture 1st place in the Gold Race. Up front for Wes-Del were Emmy Justin (10th) and Jaci Knot (16th) who set the tone for a couple of rapidly improving freshmen in Kaitlyn Bannister (26th) and Samantha Ross (27th) and then there was senior anchorman Andrea Stoughton whose 37th place finish sealed the five point team win for the Warriors. Watch out for this Wes-Del team moving forward as they are setting themselves up for a lot of potential team success as this season progresses.
In the other races at IWU, Delta's Nikki Southerland won the Elite Race with a time of 17:28 with her teammate Makayla Robles narrowly missing the Sub 20 club running a 20:11 overall. Delta finished 13th as a team in the Elite Division. In the Purple Race, New Castle's Lydia Harvey continued her impressive season with a 3rd place finish in a time of 19:35.
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling finished 1st at the Union City Inv. in a time of 21:03. Blue River's Charlee Gibson (3rd) Sydney Fellers (4th) also finished in the top 5.
- Blackford finished 10th to pace ECI in the Columbus North Classic. Chloe Wicker led the Bruins with a time of 21:20.
- Shenandoah's Anna Buskirk (5th) and Kayci Hill (7th) both went sub 22 minutes at the Hamilton Heights Inv. on Thursday.
Week 2
Boys
Week two is in the books where ECI schools competed in six different invites in two different states on Saturday. The meet that featured the most ECI flavor was the Wapahani Inv. at the Academy Barn (the former Muncie Sportsplex) where ECI schools Wapahani, Monroe Central, Shenandoah, Daleville, Cowan, Union, Union City, Winchester and Wes-Del all took on the high grass of the sectional/regional course. Top honors for the race went to Monroe Central's Tucker Burris who used a strong mid-race push to distance himself from Wapahani's Nick Cook, who finished in second. Following the script of the individual race, the Monroe Central boys also won the team title while Wapahani was runner up. Another team bright spot from Barn Academy was the Union City team who finished 3rd. Led by sophomore Conner Walser (who finished 7th individually) the Indians are stringing together some strong performances and will definetly have some big goals for the end of the season. Other top ten finishers on Saturday were Tucker Burris' teammates Carter Miller (4th), Eli Chamberlain (5th), and Kyler Shumaker (9th) and Wapahani's Brandon Ellis (6th) and Colton Boggs (8th.) Full results can be found here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=191248&show=all
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
Girls
The girls side of the Wapahani Invite also saw the Monroe Central Golden Bears take home the team trophy as well as producing the individual champ as sophomore sensation Addison Coe came across the finish line first. Saturday's race marked the first time Coe has won an individual invite, a feat that Coe probably hopes will be the first of many. Following the Bears was a Jaci Knot-less Wes-Del team who took second with Cowan and Wapahani (only being separated by a point) for 3rd and 4th place team finshes. Behind Coe were top 10 performances from Cowan's Brynn Wright (2nd), Monroe Central's Katie Osborne (3rd), Daleville's Faith Norris (4th), Shenandoah's Kayci Hill (5th), Wes-Del's Emmy Justin (7th), Wapahani's Maddie Felton (8th) and Union's Lilly Pierce (10th.)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
Week 1
Boys
Week one is in the books and it looks like we are well on our way to a very competitive season across ECI. There were two showcase meets this weekend that featured most of the ECI teams in the County Clash at Taylor University and the Meister Memorial Invite hosted by Monroe Central and early season statements were made in each one. At Monroe Central, the Bears reminded the ECI world why they are reigning back-to-back Delta Sectional champs with a dominating win in the eleven team field. Leading Monroe Central was ECI standout Tucker Burris who paced the field with a :28 win over 2nd place in a 17:08 time. Following Burris, were solid runs by Eli Chamberlain (4th) and Carter Miller (7th) who also placed in the top 10 for Monroe Central. Other impressive local flavor at the Meister were top 10 runs by Union City's sophomore Conner Walser (8th) and Blue River's junior Gabe Sayre (10th.) Both Walser and Sayre have been looking strong this week with each also posting top 5 honors at their "Early Bird" invites last week as well. Other ECI runners placing in the top 20 were Monroe Central's Kyler Shumaker (11th), Henry Cooper (14th) of Muncie Burris, Blackford's Donavan Osborne (16th), Winchester's Aiden Moystner (17th) and Cowan's Logan Walker (18th.)
Full Results here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=194309&show=all
The other meet on the ECI docket was the County Clash which also saw many strong ECI performances. On the team side of things, the Yorktown boys were narrowly able to take away the County Clash traveling trophy over Wapahani by placing three harriers including Luke Harber (1st), Wiley Close (5th) and Ryan Bade (8th) in the top 10. Wapahani was able to stay on the Tigers heals by strong runs by Nick Cook (2nd), Brandon Ellis (9th), Payton Baker (11th) and Colton Boggs (12th). The Yorktown/Wapahani matchup this season will definitely be something to pay attention to this year, especially with the Delaware County Meet only a couple of weeks away. Individually, as mentioned earlier Yorktown's Luke Harber won the meet out right with an eye-opening early season time of 16:49. Harber's run was great to see for a runner who is finally healthy after missing much of last year due to injury. Harber's run was also good enough to earn him a top spot in the Top spot in the ECI Individual Rankings, but for now, he's sharing that top spot with Monroe Central's Tucker Burris who dominated the ECI field all of last year. Luckily for us all, Harber and Burris are both slated to compete at the Arabian Roundup hosted by Pendleton Heights this Wednesday (Aug. 25th) to help us determine next week's ECI rankings. Other top 20 runners at the County Clash include Delta's Clay Batio (7th) and Caden Clark (17th), Wes-Del's Luke Butler (13th), Muncie Central's Princeton Young (14th) and Gabe Reynolds (20th) and Yorktown's Sam Brumley (16th).
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
Girls
The Meister saw the girls from Monroe Central take home the crown with four girls placing in the top 12 including Addison Coe (3rd), Katie Osborne (4th), Karly Puckett (8th) and Addison Puckett (12th). Leading the way individually for ECI was Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling whose time of 21:43 was good enough for a second place finish. Also, posting impressive team results were Cowan (2nd) and Blackford (3rd) who both figure to be in the ECI team rankings mix this season as well. Other top 20 finishers from the meet include the Cowan trio of Brynn Wright (5th), Lauren Smith (13th) and Ashlynn Keith (14th), Olivia (6th) and Abi (15th) Covert of Daleville, Blackford's Allie Clamme (10th), and Monroe Central's Morgan Ferguson (20th.)
Full Results here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=194309&show=all
Up front at the County Clash was Delta's Nicki Southerland who sought out the Taylor Course record, got the course record as well as top honors finishing the race in a record setting time of 18:13. Behind Southerland was her teammate Makayla Robles who placed second individually in a strong Eagle showing. Taking home the taveling trophy however were the Yorktown Tigers who completed the boy/girl sweep on the day by putting three runners in the top 10 including Grace Huisman (4th), Ali Smith (6th) and Rachael Stagge (7th.) The Delta/Yorktown rivalry appears to already be (to nobody's surprise) in full swing. Seeing how these teams go after one another will for sure be one of the biggest storylines in the ECI season. Other top 20 finishers at the County Clash were Wes-Del's Jaci Knott (12th), Muncie Central's Samantha Fowler (15th), and Wapahani's Maddie Felton (18th.)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
Boys
Week two is in the books where ECI schools competed in six different invites in two different states on Saturday. The meet that featured the most ECI flavor was the Wapahani Inv. at the Academy Barn (the former Muncie Sportsplex) where ECI schools Wapahani, Monroe Central, Shenandoah, Daleville, Cowan, Union, Union City, Winchester and Wes-Del all took on the high grass of the sectional/regional course. Top honors for the race went to Monroe Central's Tucker Burris who used a strong mid-race push to distance himself from Wapahani's Nick Cook, who finished in second. Following the script of the individual race, the Monroe Central boys also won the team title while Wapahani was runner up. Another team bright spot from Barn Academy was the Union City team who finished 3rd. Led by sophomore Conner Walser (who finished 7th individually) the Indians are stringing together some strong performances and will definetly have some big goals for the end of the season. Other top ten finishers on Saturday were Tucker Burris' teammates Carter Miller (4th), Eli Chamberlain (5th), and Kyler Shumaker (9th) and Wapahani's Brandon Ellis (6th) and Colton Boggs (8th.) Full results can be found here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=191248&show=all
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- New Castle's Andrew Fewell (7th), Muncie Burris' Michael Canfield (6th) and Henry Cooper (10th), and Blue River's Gabe Saye (6th) all finished in the top 10 in their respective divisions at the Rushville Inv.
- Wiley Close (18th) led Yorktown to a 5th place team finish at the Taylor Inv.
- Clay Batio (11th) and Caden Clark (12th) paced Delta to a 7th place finish at the Oak Hill Invitational
- Jay County had their season debut at the Celina Rotary Inv. with a 6th place team finish. The Patriots were led by Aaron Funkhouser who finished in 21st
- Wapahani won the Arabian Roundup at Pendleton Heights on Wednesday
Girls
The girls side of the Wapahani Invite also saw the Monroe Central Golden Bears take home the team trophy as well as producing the individual champ as sophomore sensation Addison Coe came across the finish line first. Saturday's race marked the first time Coe has won an individual invite, a feat that Coe probably hopes will be the first of many. Following the Bears was a Jaci Knot-less Wes-Del team who took second with Cowan and Wapahani (only being separated by a point) for 3rd and 4th place team finshes. Behind Coe were top 10 performances from Cowan's Brynn Wright (2nd), Monroe Central's Katie Osborne (3rd), Daleville's Faith Norris (4th), Shenandoah's Kayci Hill (5th), Wes-Del's Emmy Justin (7th), Wapahani's Maddie Felton (8th) and Union's Lilly Pierce (10th.)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- New Castle's Lydia Harvey won the Division I Race at the Rushville Inv. in a time of 20:25
- Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling finished 2nd in the Division III Race at the Rushville Inv.
- Grace Huisman (17th) led Yorktown to a 6th place team finish at the Taylor Inv.
- Nicki Southerland and Makayla Robes went 1-2 individually to propel Delta to a 4th place team finish at the Oak Hill Invitational
- Jay County had their season debut at the Celina Rotary Inv. The Patriots were led by Lindy Wood who finished in 4th
Week 1
Boys
Week one is in the books and it looks like we are well on our way to a very competitive season across ECI. There were two showcase meets this weekend that featured most of the ECI teams in the County Clash at Taylor University and the Meister Memorial Invite hosted by Monroe Central and early season statements were made in each one. At Monroe Central, the Bears reminded the ECI world why they are reigning back-to-back Delta Sectional champs with a dominating win in the eleven team field. Leading Monroe Central was ECI standout Tucker Burris who paced the field with a :28 win over 2nd place in a 17:08 time. Following Burris, were solid runs by Eli Chamberlain (4th) and Carter Miller (7th) who also placed in the top 10 for Monroe Central. Other impressive local flavor at the Meister were top 10 runs by Union City's sophomore Conner Walser (8th) and Blue River's junior Gabe Sayre (10th.) Both Walser and Sayre have been looking strong this week with each also posting top 5 honors at their "Early Bird" invites last week as well. Other ECI runners placing in the top 20 were Monroe Central's Kyler Shumaker (11th), Henry Cooper (14th) of Muncie Burris, Blackford's Donavan Osborne (16th), Winchester's Aiden Moystner (17th) and Cowan's Logan Walker (18th.)
Full Results here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=194309&show=all
The other meet on the ECI docket was the County Clash which also saw many strong ECI performances. On the team side of things, the Yorktown boys were narrowly able to take away the County Clash traveling trophy over Wapahani by placing three harriers including Luke Harber (1st), Wiley Close (5th) and Ryan Bade (8th) in the top 10. Wapahani was able to stay on the Tigers heals by strong runs by Nick Cook (2nd), Brandon Ellis (9th), Payton Baker (11th) and Colton Boggs (12th). The Yorktown/Wapahani matchup this season will definitely be something to pay attention to this year, especially with the Delaware County Meet only a couple of weeks away. Individually, as mentioned earlier Yorktown's Luke Harber won the meet out right with an eye-opening early season time of 16:49. Harber's run was great to see for a runner who is finally healthy after missing much of last year due to injury. Harber's run was also good enough to earn him a top spot in the Top spot in the ECI Individual Rankings, but for now, he's sharing that top spot with Monroe Central's Tucker Burris who dominated the ECI field all of last year. Luckily for us all, Harber and Burris are both slated to compete at the Arabian Roundup hosted by Pendleton Heights this Wednesday (Aug. 25th) to help us determine next week's ECI rankings. Other top 20 runners at the County Clash include Delta's Clay Batio (7th) and Caden Clark (17th), Wes-Del's Luke Butler (13th), Muncie Central's Princeton Young (14th) and Gabe Reynolds (20th) and Yorktown's Sam Brumley (16th).
Other Boys Highlights this week include:
- The Wapahani Boys team sweeping the Winchester Early Bird 4K on Wednesday
- New Castle's Andrew Fewell started his senior season campaign with a 5th individual place finish at Richmond's Hare and the Hounds Invitational
Girls
The Meister saw the girls from Monroe Central take home the crown with four girls placing in the top 12 including Addison Coe (3rd), Katie Osborne (4th), Karly Puckett (8th) and Addison Puckett (12th). Leading the way individually for ECI was Randolph Southern's Olivia Keesling whose time of 21:43 was good enough for a second place finish. Also, posting impressive team results were Cowan (2nd) and Blackford (3rd) who both figure to be in the ECI team rankings mix this season as well. Other top 20 finishers from the meet include the Cowan trio of Brynn Wright (5th), Lauren Smith (13th) and Ashlynn Keith (14th), Olivia (6th) and Abi (15th) Covert of Daleville, Blackford's Allie Clamme (10th), and Monroe Central's Morgan Ferguson (20th.)
Full Results here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=194309&show=all
Up front at the County Clash was Delta's Nicki Southerland who sought out the Taylor Course record, got the course record as well as top honors finishing the race in a record setting time of 18:13. Behind Southerland was her teammate Makayla Robles who placed second individually in a strong Eagle showing. Taking home the taveling trophy however were the Yorktown Tigers who completed the boy/girl sweep on the day by putting three runners in the top 10 including Grace Huisman (4th), Ali Smith (6th) and Rachael Stagge (7th.) The Delta/Yorktown rivalry appears to already be (to nobody's surprise) in full swing. Seeing how these teams go after one another will for sure be one of the biggest storylines in the ECI season. Other top 20 finishers at the County Clash were Wes-Del's Jaci Knott (12th), Muncie Central's Samantha Fowler (15th), and Wapahani's Maddie Felton (18th.)
Other Girls Highlights this week include:
- Wes-Del won the Ethan Cheesman Invite at Union on Tuesday
- Wapahani placed 1st at the Winchester 4K Invite on Wednesday (and Wapahani's Maddie Felton winning the race overall)
- Blackford won the Blue River Valley Early Bird Invite last Saturday
- New Castle's girls placing 3rd at the Richmond Hounds and the Hare Inv. on Saturday being led by sophomore Sydney Matthews who ran a 22:00 in a 6th place overall finished
- Shenandoah placed 2nd at the Blue River Valley Bird Invite last Saturday before their season was shut down because of the HS going virtual. Their season will resume shortly
2020
Delta Sectional (10/10/20)
Girls:
The first race of the day was the Girls. Any time you reach the Sectional round of the IHSAA tournament the nerves are going to be high. It is what most teams in the ECI area have been preparing for all season. But as the girls race began, all the nerves subsided and it was just another XC race. The Delta Eagles sent their dynamic duo straight to the front, as Nicki Southerland and Makayla Robles were in 1st and 2nd place from the gun to the finish line. As we mentioned in our Sectional preview, this was expected. The race for the team title would be decided behind them. The difference today seemed to be the fantastic race by Shannyn Cox who notched a huge sectional-sealing 5th place finish for the Eagles. This had to be especially sweet for Cox, who could not even help her Delta team a year ago in the Sectional round due to injury. After the Eagles and Yorktown Tigers secured 1-2 in the team race, it was a race for the final 3 remaining spots. As also predicted in our Sectional preview, the Monroe Central Bears led by the increasingly-impressive duo of Addison Coe and Katie Osborne grabbed the 3rd place team finish. While the Jay County Patriots, led by the great 3rd-place finish of Lydia Keihn secured a Regional birth by finishing 4th as a team. The craziness of the jostling for the 5th place (and last advancing) spot, wound up being snagged by the Cowan Lady Blackhawks! The Blackhawk frontrunners of Lauren Smith and Brynn Wright led the charge with a pair of top-10 finishes (6th and 7th). It will be a much tougher challenge in the Regional round, but ECIRunner is looking forward to watching all the action next week as local teams try to survive and advance through another round of the tournament.
TOP ECI FINISHERS:
1.Nicki Southerland DELT
2.Makayla Robles DELT
3.Lydia Keihn JAY
4.Elizabeth Reece YORK
5.Shannyn Cox DELT
6.Lauren Smith COW
7.Brynn Wright COW
8.Olivia Keesling RAND
9.Addison Coe MOCE
10.Katie Osbor MOCE
11.Sara Barnhizer YORK
12.Grace Huisman YORK
13.Ella Baldwin WIN
14.Kendyl Thrasher WAP
15.Lindy Wood JAY
16.Natalie Moulton YORK
17.Ashleigh Brelage DELT
18.Jaci Knott W-D
19.Emerson Justin W-D
20.Rachael Stagge YORK
Boys:
In the Boys race, it was another case of most eyes being on the top 2 teams. The Wapahani Raiders and the Monroe Central Golden Bears also had to have some nerves leading up to the start of the race as both squads knew they had a chance at a Sectional title. As the race started both teams went straight to the front to battle it out. In the early part of the race MC and Wap comprised 8 of the top 10 individual spots. As the race wore on, it became clear that the Monroe Central Bears, behind the 1-2 finish of Tucker Burris and Carter Miller had done enough to earn their 2nd straight Sectional championship with 36 team points. Wapahani finished in 2nd, close behind with 43 points. The Raiders were led by freshman Nick Cook in 3rd and Brandon Ellis in 7th. Behind those top 2 teams, The remaining 3 advancing spots would be decided. The Yorktown Tigers packed all 5 scoring runners inside the top 20 to claim the 3rd spot with 77 points. As the Delta Eagles and Daleville Broncos secured the final 2 advancing spots of 4th and 5th. Delta did so behind a strong top 2 of Clay Batio (4th) and Lucas Fox (10th). While the Broncos relied on front runner Khoa Weston getting a low stick of 17th and the rest of the Bronco scorers packing it up tight behind him. As usual it was a very exciting Delta Sectional meet, With many of the usual suspects showing up and having great performances as well as some new names popping up with amazing runs for their teams when they needed them most. It will be an exciting 2nd round next week at the Delta Regional.
TOP ECI FINISHERS
1.Tucker Burris MOCE
2.Carter Miller MOCE
3.Nick Cook WAP
4.Clay Batio DELT
5.Michael Canfield MUBU
6.Eli Chamberlain MOCE
7.Brandon Ellis WAP
8.Kyler Shumaker MOCE
9.Griffen Miller WAP
10.Lucas Fox DELT
11.Andrew Shrock WAP
12.Ryan Bade YORK
13.Colton Boggs WAP
14.Luke Butler W-D
15.Conner Walser UNCI
16.Gannon Crosser YORK
17.Khoa Weston DALE
18.Luke Harber YORK
19.Wiley Close YORK
20.Cole Whitehead YORK
Mid-Eastern Conference Meet (10/3/20)
The 2020 edition of the MEC Championship Meet was filled with impressive individual and team performances from many ECI schools. Taking home the hardware on the girls team side of things were the Monroe Central Bears who were able to use their strong 1-5 pack to set the tone of the meet winning with a team score of 49 points. Leading the Lady Bears was the freshmen duo of Addison Coe and Katie Osborne who finished 2nd and 5th followed by sophomore Karly Puckett who also received all-conference honors with her 11th place finish. Monroe Central was not the only team who ran well however as Wes-Del who scored 68 team points narrowly edged out 2nd place over Cowan who finished 3rd with 69 points; putting both squads in great spots to perhaps advance to Regionals at next week's Sectional meet. Both teams were led by a pair of all MEC runners with Wes-Del’s Emmy Justin and Jaci Knott who placed 8th and 9thoverall and then Cowan who had the overall individual winner in Lauren Smith who ran a time of 21:06 and sophomore Brynn Wright who busted out a :64 second PR to finish 3rd overall. Other top performances out of ECI included Randolph Southern’s Olivia Keesling who finished 4th, Blue River’s Sydney Fellers in 6th, Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher finished 7th and Olivia Covert of Daleville also made All-Conference with a 12th place finish.
Top ECI Finishes
COW Lauren Smith 21:06
MON Addison Coe 21:10
COW Brynn Wright 21:15
RS Olivia Keesling 21:17
MC Katie Osborne 21:29
BRV Sydney Fellers 21:30
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 21:36
WD Emmy Justin 21:51
WD Jaci Knott 21:53
MC Karly Puckett 22:02
DALE Olivia Covert 22:17
SHEN Hope Edwards 22:35
MC Gracie Baker 22:50
WAP Maddie Felton 23:11
COW McKenna Minton 23:24
The boys race was Cross-Country at its finest with the matchup up front between Wapahani and Monroe Central. Two of the best small schools in the state, dueling it out in perfect weather conditions at the end of the year as teams are beginning to peak is everything a cross-country fan can ask for and this meet did not disappoint. Up front from the time the gun went off were the Bears, who used PR’s by Tucker Burris and Carter Miller to finish 1-2 and set a tone that Monroe Central was not going to go away in this meet without a fight. Next up was the counterpunch by Wapahani who followed with a 3-5 finish by Brandon Ellis, Nick Cook and Andrew Shrock. The rest of the meet got wild as it was settled in a :16 second span as Monroe Central’s Kyler Shumaker placed 6th (another PR ran by the Bears), followed by Raider runner Griffen Miller in 7th and then the eldest Monroe Central Shumaker (Caden) in 9th followed then by a pair of sophomore 5th men in Wapahani’s Colton Boggs narrowly edging out Monroe Central’s Caden Landis for 10th and 11th. Just wow, and as mentioned in the previous run-on sentence we’re talking about a :16 second span where all of this happens and here’s your plot twist; we’re not done yet. We’re only 12 seconds into this so far and at this point in the race 5 Bears have crossed the line as well as 5 Raiders. What does each team have in common at this point? Both squads have 29 team points which means the winner of the MEC came down to the all important 6th man and on this day it was Monroe Central’s Eli Chamberlain whose 12th place all-conference finish narrowly edged Wapahani’s Landon Hutchens who finished 13th. What a race.
Top ECI Finishes
MONC Tucker Burris 16:16
MONC Carter Miller 16:31
WAP Brandon Ellis 17:25
WAP Nick Cook 17:27
WAP Andrew Shrock 17:37
MONC Kyler Shumaker 17:39
WAP Griffen Miller 17:44
MONC Caden Shumaker 17:47
WAP Colton Boggs 17:49
MONC Caden Landis 17:51
MONC Eli Chamberlain 17:55
WAP Landon Hutchens 18:04
WD Luke Butler 18:23
DALE Khoa Westin 18:48
COW Nathaniel Kirby 18:54
Top ECI Finishes
COW Lauren Smith 21:06
MON Addison Coe 21:10
COW Brynn Wright 21:15
RS Olivia Keesling 21:17
MC Katie Osborne 21:29
BRV Sydney Fellers 21:30
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 21:36
WD Emmy Justin 21:51
WD Jaci Knott 21:53
MC Karly Puckett 22:02
DALE Olivia Covert 22:17
SHEN Hope Edwards 22:35
MC Gracie Baker 22:50
WAP Maddie Felton 23:11
COW McKenna Minton 23:24
The boys race was Cross-Country at its finest with the matchup up front between Wapahani and Monroe Central. Two of the best small schools in the state, dueling it out in perfect weather conditions at the end of the year as teams are beginning to peak is everything a cross-country fan can ask for and this meet did not disappoint. Up front from the time the gun went off were the Bears, who used PR’s by Tucker Burris and Carter Miller to finish 1-2 and set a tone that Monroe Central was not going to go away in this meet without a fight. Next up was the counterpunch by Wapahani who followed with a 3-5 finish by Brandon Ellis, Nick Cook and Andrew Shrock. The rest of the meet got wild as it was settled in a :16 second span as Monroe Central’s Kyler Shumaker placed 6th (another PR ran by the Bears), followed by Raider runner Griffen Miller in 7th and then the eldest Monroe Central Shumaker (Caden) in 9th followed then by a pair of sophomore 5th men in Wapahani’s Colton Boggs narrowly edging out Monroe Central’s Caden Landis for 10th and 11th. Just wow, and as mentioned in the previous run-on sentence we’re talking about a :16 second span where all of this happens and here’s your plot twist; we’re not done yet. We’re only 12 seconds into this so far and at this point in the race 5 Bears have crossed the line as well as 5 Raiders. What does each team have in common at this point? Both squads have 29 team points which means the winner of the MEC came down to the all important 6th man and on this day it was Monroe Central’s Eli Chamberlain whose 12th place all-conference finish narrowly edged Wapahani’s Landon Hutchens who finished 13th. What a race.
Top ECI Finishes
MONC Tucker Burris 16:16
MONC Carter Miller 16:31
WAP Brandon Ellis 17:25
WAP Nick Cook 17:27
WAP Andrew Shrock 17:37
MONC Kyler Shumaker 17:39
WAP Griffen Miller 17:44
MONC Caden Shumaker 17:47
WAP Colton Boggs 17:49
MONC Caden Landis 17:51
MONC Eli Chamberlain 17:55
WAP Landon Hutchens 18:04
WD Luke Butler 18:23
DALE Khoa Westin 18:48
COW Nathaniel Kirby 18:54
New Haven Classic (9/26/20)
Several ECI girls teams headed to Huntington University on Saturday to get a preview of some possible Semi-State competition as well as the new Semi-State course for the 2020 season. While there were 3 divisions racing, and ECI teams sprinkled amongst them, A few things that stood out throughout the day. First off, The Delta girls put one of their best team races of the season, and look to be rounding into form at the right time of the season. Led again by Nicki Southerland (1st) and Makayla Robles (6th), they also had great runs from Ashleigh Brelage (20th) and Shannyn Cox (33rd) to finish 3rd in the AA race...and possibly re-establish the Lady eagles as the Sectional Favorites. The Monroe Central Bears also had a solid team performance, which earned them a 4th place finish in the A Division. The lady Bears had the fabulous freshmen duo Katie Osborne (13th) and Addison Coe (15th) finish in the top 15. While Wapahani Raider Kendyl Thrasher notched a top-20 finish by coming in 18th. The Yorktown Lady Tigers were also in the AA Division on the day and had Elizabeth Reece finish in 17th to lead the team.
Top ECI Times:
Nicki Southerland DELT 18:04
Makayla Robles DELT 20:16
Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:01
Ashleigh Brelage DELT 21:06
Grace Huisman YORK 21:27
Katie Osborne MOCE 21:43
Shannyn Cox DELT 21:47
Addison Coe MOCE 21:54
Kendyl Thrasher WAP 22:02
Sara Barnhizer YORK 22:09
Ali Smith YORK 22:11
Emerson Justin W-D 22:14
Karly Puckett MOCE 22:23
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:24
Jaci Knott W-D 22:34
The Boys from ECI also entered this meet with hopes of making a return trip in 4 weeks to compete in a Semi-State meet weekend. But, on this particular Saturday it was several of the usual suspects that had standout performances. The showdown most were looking forward to was the meeting of Wapahani and Monroe Central in the A Division of the New Haven Classic. Both teams ran extremely well, but it was the Wapahani Raiders that once again came out with the Invite hardware. They took home the trophy of Division A champs, led by Nick Cook (3rd) and Brandon Ellis (5th). The Top 2 Golden Bears ran just as well by Tucker Burris (2nd) and Carter Miller (4th) notching top-5 finishes as well. But the rest of the top 5 scoring runners for the Raiders continue to be the difference. In the AA Division Yorktown was the top finishing ECI team by coming in 7th in the 25-team field. But the Delta Eagles were close behind in 9th overall. Clay Batio of Delta was the only individual to achieve a top-15 finish in the AA Division.
Top ECI Finishers:
Tucker Burris MOCE 16:23
Nick Cook WAP 16:58
Carter Miller MOCE 17:12
Brandon Ellis WAP 17:18
Clay Batio DELT 17:31
Andrew Shrock WAP 17:40
Colton Boggs WAP 17:54
Landon Hutchens WAP 17:57
Caden Shumaker MOCE 17:58
Ryan Bade YORK 18:01
Caden Landis MOCE 18:01
Lucas Fox DELT 18:04
Eli Chamberlain MOCE 18:05
Luke Butler W-D 18:12
Gabe Reynolds MUCE 18:18
Yorktown "Jim Leffler" Invite (9/19/20)
In the Boy’s edition of the Yorktown “Jim Leffler” Invitational the Wapahani Raiders continued to flex on those inside and outside of the ECI area. They came out with the team championship over not only ECI schools like Yorktown, New Castle, and Muncie Central; but also over squads like Greenfield-Central and Lawrence North which are 4 to 8 times their size! The Raiders put these teams away early in the race by packing-up in the lead pack and driving to a team finish that saw 5 Raiders in the top 15 overall. It seems like there is a different Raider leading their squad each meet, and today it was Brandon Ellis that led the charge with a 4th place finish. The Yorktown Tigers were the 2nd ECI team in the final standings with a 4th place finish. The Tigers also competed well by placing 4 individuals in the top 20, led by Wiley Close in 12 and a breakout performance by Track-star-turned-XC-runner Cole Whitehead in 16th. The New Castle Trojans were close behind the Tigers in 5th place. The Trojans touted top-ten finisher Andrew Fewell, who finished 8th on the day. And the 6th-9th place teams were all ECI teams with Muncie Central, Muncie Burris, Daleville, and Jay County all enjoying top 10 team finishes. Top ECI finishers other than those mentioned above included Wapahani’s Nick Cook (5th), Griffen Miller (6th), and Andrew Shrock (10th). As well as Muncie Burris Owl Michael Canfield (9th).
Top ECI Finishers:
Brandon Ellis WAP 17:10
Nick Cook WAP 17:11
Griffen Miller WAP 17:14
Andrew Fewell NC 17:19
Michael Canfield MUBU 17:24
Andrew Shrock WAP 17:28
Wiley Close YORK 17:40
Colton Boggs WAP 17:48
Cole Whitehead YORK 17:52
Harry Callaway NC 17:55
In the girls race Yorktown led the way for all ECI in the team standings with a 2nd place finish by placing 6 in the top 20 overall. Leading the way for the Lady Tigers were ECI household names Elizabeth Reece and Grace Huisman who finished 5th and 6th respectively. Not too far behind were Sara Barnhizer (9th), Natalie Moulton (16th), Ali Smith (18th) and Rachael Stagge (20th). Even more impressive for the Tigers was that the Yorktown team only had a: 66 second spread between their 1-5 runners which could prove big as stakes rise in the meets ahead. Behind Yorktown was New Castle in 4th place with Wapahani placing in 6thwith a one-point edge over Wes-Del who finished 7th. Jay County, Cowan and Daleville all did not have 5 runners to receive a team score at this meet but figure to be very much in the mix from the team perspective to potentially advance to regional next month if they can solidify their squads. Individually, New Castle’s Sydney Matthews was the top ECI finisher with a 3rd place overall finish with a time of 20:24. Also in the top 20 in this very competitive field were Jay County’s Lydia Keihn (7th), Cowan’s Lauren Smith (9th), New Castle’s Lydia Harvey (12th), Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher (13th), Cowan’s Brynn Wright (14th), New Castle’s Ella Garvin, and Jay County’s Lindy Wood
Top ECI Finishes
NC Sydney Matthews 20:24
YORK Elizabeth Reece 21:13
YORK Grace Huisman 21:19
JAY Lydia Keihn 21:19
COW Lauren Smith 21:54
YORK Sara Barnhizer 21:37
NC Lydia Harvey 21:41
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 21:41
COW Brynn Wright 21:41
NC Ella Garvin 21:49
Top ECI Finishers:
Brandon Ellis WAP 17:10
Nick Cook WAP 17:11
Griffen Miller WAP 17:14
Andrew Fewell NC 17:19
Michael Canfield MUBU 17:24
Andrew Shrock WAP 17:28
Wiley Close YORK 17:40
Colton Boggs WAP 17:48
Cole Whitehead YORK 17:52
Harry Callaway NC 17:55
In the girls race Yorktown led the way for all ECI in the team standings with a 2nd place finish by placing 6 in the top 20 overall. Leading the way for the Lady Tigers were ECI household names Elizabeth Reece and Grace Huisman who finished 5th and 6th respectively. Not too far behind were Sara Barnhizer (9th), Natalie Moulton (16th), Ali Smith (18th) and Rachael Stagge (20th). Even more impressive for the Tigers was that the Yorktown team only had a: 66 second spread between their 1-5 runners which could prove big as stakes rise in the meets ahead. Behind Yorktown was New Castle in 4th place with Wapahani placing in 6thwith a one-point edge over Wes-Del who finished 7th. Jay County, Cowan and Daleville all did not have 5 runners to receive a team score at this meet but figure to be very much in the mix from the team perspective to potentially advance to regional next month if they can solidify their squads. Individually, New Castle’s Sydney Matthews was the top ECI finisher with a 3rd place overall finish with a time of 20:24. Also in the top 20 in this very competitive field were Jay County’s Lydia Keihn (7th), Cowan’s Lauren Smith (9th), New Castle’s Lydia Harvey (12th), Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher (13th), Cowan’s Brynn Wright (14th), New Castle’s Ella Garvin, and Jay County’s Lindy Wood
Top ECI Finishes
NC Sydney Matthews 20:24
YORK Elizabeth Reece 21:13
YORK Grace Huisman 21:19
JAY Lydia Keihn 21:19
COW Lauren Smith 21:54
YORK Sara Barnhizer 21:37
NC Lydia Harvey 21:41
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 21:41
COW Brynn Wright 21:41
NC Ella Garvin 21:49
Randolph Southern Invite (9/12/20)
Girls:
On the girl’s side of action on the day, The New Castle girls were the highest placing ECI team when all was said and done. A very positive sight for New Castle, as they have struggled to field a full team at a few early season meets this year. The Lady Trojans were led by led by the individual champion on the day, freshman Sydney Mathews. Mathews has had a tremendous freshman campaign and has worked her way up to the #2 spot in the ECI Runner Top 25 Individuals. Her teammates Lydia Harvey and Ella Garvin were not that far behind in 6th and 8th place overall. If the Trojans can continue to add to the front-running talent of Mathews, Harvey, and Garvin they could be a strong team in ECI coming down the stretch run of the season. Winchester’s Ella Baldwin was the overall individual runner-up in the meet. Baldwin has been a standout ECI individual the past 3 years and her senior season looks to be no different! Blue River Valley freshman Sydney Fellers had the 3rd best individual race on Saturday, placing 5th overall. Other impressive ECI performances turned in on the day were Randolph Southern’s Olivia Keesling, who finished 7th overall. Wes-Del’s developing duo of Jaci Knott and Emmy Justin, who seem to be developing a great teammate chemistry of pushing each other throughout races. They finished 10th and 11th overall. Shenandoah junior Hope Edwards finished 12th, and Union’s Lily Pierce finished 13th. Some other team finishes of note were: Wes-Del fighting hard to notch a 3rd place team finish, and Shenandoah finishing just 13 points behind the Warriors to claim 4th as a team.
Top ECI Times:
Sydney Mathews NC 20:49
Ella Baldwin WIN 21:14
Sydney Fellers BRV 22:01
Lydia Harvey NC 22:02
Olivia Keesling RAND 22:03
Ella Garvin NC 22:07
Jaci Knott W-D 23:05
Emmy Justin W-D 23:08
Hope Edwards SHEN 23:10
Lilly Pierce UNI 23:14
Delaney Strange MUCE 23:59
Maysa Corya WIN 24:21
Boys:
The Randolph Southern Invitational boys race consisted of 97 runners, and included 11 of the 18 ECI teams. ECI boys teams were dominant sweeping the top four team positions. Winning the boy’s race was a young and strong Muncie Central team lead by the duo of Sophomore Princeton Young and Freshman Gabriel Reynolds. The top runner for the ECI boys was New Castle's Junior Andrew Fewell who ran an exciting race battling back and forth for the number one position just coming up short to place second. The Muncie Burris duo of Michael Canfield and Josh Stephenson grabbed the 3 and 4 spots. Harry Callaway, a freshman from New Castle, caused a shakeup when he surged through a pack of Muncie Central runners crossing the line for the number 5 spot. Conner Walser of Union City hit a new PR and fought his way to the end finishing 6th overall.
TOP ECI Runners
Andrew Fewell New Castle 17:18.9
Michael Canfield Muncie Burris 17:32.4
Josh Stephenson Muncie Burris 18:13.0
Harry Callaway New Castle 18:20.5
Conner Walser Union City 18:30.8
Princeton Young Muncie Central 18:33.9
Gabriel Reynolds Muncie Central 18:38.3
Ethan Moore New Castle 18:38.6
Luke Butler Wes-Del 18:43.1
Adian Moystner Winchester 19:07.7
On the girl’s side of action on the day, The New Castle girls were the highest placing ECI team when all was said and done. A very positive sight for New Castle, as they have struggled to field a full team at a few early season meets this year. The Lady Trojans were led by led by the individual champion on the day, freshman Sydney Mathews. Mathews has had a tremendous freshman campaign and has worked her way up to the #2 spot in the ECI Runner Top 25 Individuals. Her teammates Lydia Harvey and Ella Garvin were not that far behind in 6th and 8th place overall. If the Trojans can continue to add to the front-running talent of Mathews, Harvey, and Garvin they could be a strong team in ECI coming down the stretch run of the season. Winchester’s Ella Baldwin was the overall individual runner-up in the meet. Baldwin has been a standout ECI individual the past 3 years and her senior season looks to be no different! Blue River Valley freshman Sydney Fellers had the 3rd best individual race on Saturday, placing 5th overall. Other impressive ECI performances turned in on the day were Randolph Southern’s Olivia Keesling, who finished 7th overall. Wes-Del’s developing duo of Jaci Knott and Emmy Justin, who seem to be developing a great teammate chemistry of pushing each other throughout races. They finished 10th and 11th overall. Shenandoah junior Hope Edwards finished 12th, and Union’s Lily Pierce finished 13th. Some other team finishes of note were: Wes-Del fighting hard to notch a 3rd place team finish, and Shenandoah finishing just 13 points behind the Warriors to claim 4th as a team.
Top ECI Times:
Sydney Mathews NC 20:49
Ella Baldwin WIN 21:14
Sydney Fellers BRV 22:01
Lydia Harvey NC 22:02
Olivia Keesling RAND 22:03
Ella Garvin NC 22:07
Jaci Knott W-D 23:05
Emmy Justin W-D 23:08
Hope Edwards SHEN 23:10
Lilly Pierce UNI 23:14
Delaney Strange MUCE 23:59
Maysa Corya WIN 24:21
Boys:
The Randolph Southern Invitational boys race consisted of 97 runners, and included 11 of the 18 ECI teams. ECI boys teams were dominant sweeping the top four team positions. Winning the boy’s race was a young and strong Muncie Central team lead by the duo of Sophomore Princeton Young and Freshman Gabriel Reynolds. The top runner for the ECI boys was New Castle's Junior Andrew Fewell who ran an exciting race battling back and forth for the number one position just coming up short to place second. The Muncie Burris duo of Michael Canfield and Josh Stephenson grabbed the 3 and 4 spots. Harry Callaway, a freshman from New Castle, caused a shakeup when he surged through a pack of Muncie Central runners crossing the line for the number 5 spot. Conner Walser of Union City hit a new PR and fought his way to the end finishing 6th overall.
TOP ECI Runners
Andrew Fewell New Castle 17:18.9
Michael Canfield Muncie Burris 17:32.4
Josh Stephenson Muncie Burris 18:13.0
Harry Callaway New Castle 18:20.5
Conner Walser Union City 18:30.8
Princeton Young Muncie Central 18:33.9
Gabriel Reynolds Muncie Central 18:38.3
Ethan Moore New Castle 18:38.6
Luke Butler Wes-Del 18:43.1
Adian Moystner Winchester 19:07.7
Delaware County Meet (9/8/20)
The Delaware County Meet this year brought together 3 of the Top 5 ECI teams on both the boys and girls side, which is always a great litmus test to see how some of the best in ECI stack up in early September.
GIRLS:
The Girls team race seemed on paper to be one of the tighter competitions on the day. The Yorktown Tigers and Delta Eagles are the top 2 teams in the ECI Runner Top 5 Team rankings and have already met once this season at Taylor University in the County Clash, with the Eagles taking the victory over the Tigers that day. As the race began, a familiar sight took place, Nicki Southerland surged to the front with ease. She would run dominantly from gun to tape to collect her first individual County Title. She did so, once again, in record-breaking fashion. She would shatter the old Delaware County record by over a minute! The team race that developed behind her was XC at its finest. The Tigers and Eagles jostled back-and-forth, tilting the points battle several times. Also, individuals from Cowan, Wapahani, and Daleville made pushes for a top-10 “All-County” distinction. Southerland’s Eagle teammate Makayla Robles made a strong push in the final stretch to secure a 1-2 finish for Delta. But, close behind Robles was Yorktown’s Grace Huisman in 3rd. For 4th place, Yorktown’s Elizabeth Reece surged ahead of Cowan’s Lauren Smith in the final meters to pick up enormous team points for the Tigers. Smith would finish 5th and Delta’s Shannyn Cox would be close behing in 6th. Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher would display a great kick of finishing speed to hold off Yorktown’s Sara Barnhizer for 7th place. Finishing out the All-County spots would be Barnhizer in 8th, Cowan’s Brynn Wright in 9th, and Yorktown’s Natalie Moulton in 10th. The team race truly came down to team depth as the Yorktown Tigers pulled off a 3 point edge of the Eagles for their 5th straight County title.
BOYS:
The Boys race was not as suspenseful as the previous girls race. As teams darted from the line after the gun fired, the Wapahani boys rushed to the front. All others scrambled to find positioning as the tone was being set early by the Raiders. As the race wore on, The Wap trio of Griffen Miller, Nick Cook, and Andrew Shrock held the pace strong at the front of the race. But, behind them things began to shake up a bit. Yorktown’s duo of Wiley Close and Ryan Bade began to navigate their way into the top 5, while Delta’s Clay Batio followed close behind. As the finish drew near, it was Wapahani freshman Nick Cook that took the individual honors, with teammates Griffen Miller and Andrew Shrock close behind in 2nd and 3rd. Yorktown’s Wiley Close and Ryan Bade held on for 4th and 5th, While Clay Batio finished 6th. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 All-County performers were another pair of Wapahani runners; Colton Boggs (7th) and Brandon Ellis (8th), as well as Batio’s teammate Lucas Fox in 9th. The fight for the final All-County spot was a great battle. Luke Butler of Wes-Del and Khoa Weston of Daleville both drew neck-and-neck with each other coming down the final stretch. In the end it was Weston who forced himself forward to grab the 10th place position. The team results were clear as the race finished, the Wapahani Raiders had won in convincing fashion, placing 5 in the top 10 and 7 in the top 20. The points for runner-up were much closer as Delta edged Yorktown by 3 points for 2nd place.
Top 10 "All-County" Girls:
Top 10 "All-County" Boys:
GIRLS:
The Girls team race seemed on paper to be one of the tighter competitions on the day. The Yorktown Tigers and Delta Eagles are the top 2 teams in the ECI Runner Top 5 Team rankings and have already met once this season at Taylor University in the County Clash, with the Eagles taking the victory over the Tigers that day. As the race began, a familiar sight took place, Nicki Southerland surged to the front with ease. She would run dominantly from gun to tape to collect her first individual County Title. She did so, once again, in record-breaking fashion. She would shatter the old Delaware County record by over a minute! The team race that developed behind her was XC at its finest. The Tigers and Eagles jostled back-and-forth, tilting the points battle several times. Also, individuals from Cowan, Wapahani, and Daleville made pushes for a top-10 “All-County” distinction. Southerland’s Eagle teammate Makayla Robles made a strong push in the final stretch to secure a 1-2 finish for Delta. But, close behind Robles was Yorktown’s Grace Huisman in 3rd. For 4th place, Yorktown’s Elizabeth Reece surged ahead of Cowan’s Lauren Smith in the final meters to pick up enormous team points for the Tigers. Smith would finish 5th and Delta’s Shannyn Cox would be close behing in 6th. Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher would display a great kick of finishing speed to hold off Yorktown’s Sara Barnhizer for 7th place. Finishing out the All-County spots would be Barnhizer in 8th, Cowan’s Brynn Wright in 9th, and Yorktown’s Natalie Moulton in 10th. The team race truly came down to team depth as the Yorktown Tigers pulled off a 3 point edge of the Eagles for their 5th straight County title.
BOYS:
The Boys race was not as suspenseful as the previous girls race. As teams darted from the line after the gun fired, the Wapahani boys rushed to the front. All others scrambled to find positioning as the tone was being set early by the Raiders. As the race wore on, The Wap trio of Griffen Miller, Nick Cook, and Andrew Shrock held the pace strong at the front of the race. But, behind them things began to shake up a bit. Yorktown’s duo of Wiley Close and Ryan Bade began to navigate their way into the top 5, while Delta’s Clay Batio followed close behind. As the finish drew near, it was Wapahani freshman Nick Cook that took the individual honors, with teammates Griffen Miller and Andrew Shrock close behind in 2nd and 3rd. Yorktown’s Wiley Close and Ryan Bade held on for 4th and 5th, While Clay Batio finished 6th. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 All-County performers were another pair of Wapahani runners; Colton Boggs (7th) and Brandon Ellis (8th), as well as Batio’s teammate Lucas Fox in 9th. The fight for the final All-County spot was a great battle. Luke Butler of Wes-Del and Khoa Weston of Daleville both drew neck-and-neck with each other coming down the final stretch. In the end it was Weston who forced himself forward to grab the 10th place position. The team results were clear as the race finished, the Wapahani Raiders had won in convincing fashion, placing 5 in the top 10 and 7 in the top 20. The points for runner-up were much closer as Delta edged Yorktown by 3 points for 2nd place.
Top 10 "All-County" Girls:
- Nicki Southerland Delta 18:47
- Makayla Robles Delta 21:16
- Grace Huisman York 21:18
- Elizabeth Reece York 21:43
- Lauren Smith Cowan 21:45
- Shannyn Cox Delta 21:46
- Kendyl Thrasher Wap 22:33
- Sara Barnhizer York 22:35
- Brynn Wright Cowan 22:52
- Natalie Moulton York 22:55
Top 10 "All-County" Boys:
- Nick Cook Wap 18:03
- Griffen Miller Wap 18:06
- Andrew Shrock Wap 18:11
- Wiley Close York 18:17
- Ryan Bade York 18:25
- Clay Batio Delt 18:28
- Colton Boggs Wap 18:32
- Brandon Ellis Wap 18:37
- Lucas Fox Delt 18:43
- Khoa Weston Dale 19:18
Several Labor Day Weekend Meets (9/5/20)
For the sake of covering as much ECI action as possible this weekend, we took a look at the wide range of XC action around the area this weekend. Mainly looking at the Union City Invite and Marion Invite.
GIRLS:
First off at the Marion Invite, Nicki Southerland exceeded expectations once again. She ran a blistering 17:35 to narrowly win the Marion Invitational individual title. That time currently ranks her in the top 5-10 in the NATION! Her Delta teammates had a lot of success as well, as many of them ran personal season-best times to help the Eagles to a 10th place team finish. The Monroe Central Girls also had themselves a day in the Gold Division Race. They stacked 4 in the top-20, led by Karly Puckett in 9th at 21:58. What may be even more impressive, is all 4 are freshman or sophomores! The Golden Bears are looking at a bright future! Also, Emerson Justin and Jaci Knott from Wes-del both finished in the top 31 of the Gold Race.
At the Union City Invite, The Cowan Lady Blackhawks had an amazing runner-up finish in the team standings. Led by Lauren Smith, who continues to run well and improve throughout her junior season. Smith won the individual title on the day, finishing in 21:59. Wapahani sophomore Kendyl Thrasher notched a top 3 finish individually as well, finishing 3rd in 22:26. Wapahani's team finished 4th on the day.
Boys:
The boy's side of action on the day was highlighted by a couple of Invite wins by ECI teams. First off, the Monroe Central Golden Bears look to be returning to their 2019 Sectional Championship form. They won the Gold Division of the Marion Invitational by an impressive 77 point over the field!!! They were led by a school-record-breaking performance, as Tucker Burris pulled off a trifecta of an invite win, personal best time, and school record! His time of 16:27 is the fastest time of anyone in ECI this season. The Golden Bears went on to pack-up 5 more runners in the top 15 to run away with the invite team title. Muncie Burris's Michael Canfield and Josh Stephenson also raised many eyebrows in the race by finishing 6th and 8th respectively. Meanwhile, in the Purple Division race, Delta's Clay Batio was the lone ECI finisher in the top 20. Finishing 13th in 17:23.
The other invite win on the day went to the Wapahani Raiders, who took the Union City Invitational in equally dominating fashion. The Raiders packed 6 in the top-10 overall!!! For an unbelievable team score of only 20 points! The Raiders were led by junior Brandon Ellis in 2nd place, running 18:08 at the slower-than-blazing-fast-grass-track-of-Marion Union City course. He was followed closely by teammates Shrock, Miller, Cook, and Boggs in 3rd-6th place. There was also an impressive performance turned in by freshman Conner Walser of Union City in 7th.
The Wapahani-Monroe Central Boys match-up will be a thrilling one to watch throughout this season in ECI! Only time will tell how the story gets written come tournament time. But, as of now these 2 boy's teams are some of the best small school programs the state of Indiana has to offer.
GIRLS:
First off at the Marion Invite, Nicki Southerland exceeded expectations once again. She ran a blistering 17:35 to narrowly win the Marion Invitational individual title. That time currently ranks her in the top 5-10 in the NATION! Her Delta teammates had a lot of success as well, as many of them ran personal season-best times to help the Eagles to a 10th place team finish. The Monroe Central Girls also had themselves a day in the Gold Division Race. They stacked 4 in the top-20, led by Karly Puckett in 9th at 21:58. What may be even more impressive, is all 4 are freshman or sophomores! The Golden Bears are looking at a bright future! Also, Emerson Justin and Jaci Knott from Wes-del both finished in the top 31 of the Gold Race.
At the Union City Invite, The Cowan Lady Blackhawks had an amazing runner-up finish in the team standings. Led by Lauren Smith, who continues to run well and improve throughout her junior season. Smith won the individual title on the day, finishing in 21:59. Wapahani sophomore Kendyl Thrasher notched a top 3 finish individually as well, finishing 3rd in 22:26. Wapahani's team finished 4th on the day.
Boys:
The boy's side of action on the day was highlighted by a couple of Invite wins by ECI teams. First off, the Monroe Central Golden Bears look to be returning to their 2019 Sectional Championship form. They won the Gold Division of the Marion Invitational by an impressive 77 point over the field!!! They were led by a school-record-breaking performance, as Tucker Burris pulled off a trifecta of an invite win, personal best time, and school record! His time of 16:27 is the fastest time of anyone in ECI this season. The Golden Bears went on to pack-up 5 more runners in the top 15 to run away with the invite team title. Muncie Burris's Michael Canfield and Josh Stephenson also raised many eyebrows in the race by finishing 6th and 8th respectively. Meanwhile, in the Purple Division race, Delta's Clay Batio was the lone ECI finisher in the top 20. Finishing 13th in 17:23.
The other invite win on the day went to the Wapahani Raiders, who took the Union City Invitational in equally dominating fashion. The Raiders packed 6 in the top-10 overall!!! For an unbelievable team score of only 20 points! The Raiders were led by junior Brandon Ellis in 2nd place, running 18:08 at the slower-than-blazing-fast-grass-track-of-Marion Union City course. He was followed closely by teammates Shrock, Miller, Cook, and Boggs in 3rd-6th place. There was also an impressive performance turned in by freshman Conner Walser of Union City in 7th.
The Wapahani-Monroe Central Boys match-up will be a thrilling one to watch throughout this season in ECI! Only time will tell how the story gets written come tournament time. But, as of now these 2 boy's teams are some of the best small school programs the state of Indiana has to offer.
Wapahani Invitational at Muncie Sportsplex (8/29/20)
The girl’s race featured a standout performance from Winchester’s Ella Baldwin upfront. Baldwin took control of the girl’s race from the start and never looked back as she finished with a winning time of 21:44. On the team side of things, pack running was the name of the game for Monroe Central and they were able to use that strategy to a team title. The quartet of Bears that finished in the top 10 included Karly Pucket, Addison Coe, Katie Obsborn and Gracie Baker. Cowan’s Lauren Smith, Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher, Daleville’s Olivia Covert and Union’s Lilly Pierce also all had strong performances, each finishing in the top 10.
Top ECI Finishes
WIN Ella Baldwin 21:44
COW Lauren Smith 22:40
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 22:54
MONC Karly Puckett 23:12
MONC Addison Coe 23:23
DALE Olivia Covert 23:47
MONC Katie Osborn 23:53
MONC Gracie Baker 23:59
UNION Lilly Pierce 24:02
WAP Lilly Neal 24:10
The boys race featured several strong performances from ECI runners, most notably from the Wapahani and Monroe Central squads who figure to be going back and forth against each other all season long. On this day it was Wapahani who was able to pack it’s 1-5 runners together to come out victorious in their home invite. On the individual side of things it was Monroe Central’s Tucker Burris who ran away with top honors cruising in with a winning time of 17:14
Top ECI Finishes
MONC Tucker Burris 17:14
WAP Brandon Ellis 18:01
WAP Andrew Shrock 18:22
WAP Nick Cook 18:25
WAP Griffen Miller 18:28
WAP Colton Boggs 18:30
MONC Carter Miller 18:39
MONC Eli Chamberlin 18:44
UC Conner Walser 18:47
MONC Kyler Shumaker 18:56
Top ECI Finishes
WIN Ella Baldwin 21:44
COW Lauren Smith 22:40
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 22:54
MONC Karly Puckett 23:12
MONC Addison Coe 23:23
DALE Olivia Covert 23:47
MONC Katie Osborn 23:53
MONC Gracie Baker 23:59
UNION Lilly Pierce 24:02
WAP Lilly Neal 24:10
The boys race featured several strong performances from ECI runners, most notably from the Wapahani and Monroe Central squads who figure to be going back and forth against each other all season long. On this day it was Wapahani who was able to pack it’s 1-5 runners together to come out victorious in their home invite. On the individual side of things it was Monroe Central’s Tucker Burris who ran away with top honors cruising in with a winning time of 17:14
Top ECI Finishes
MONC Tucker Burris 17:14
WAP Brandon Ellis 18:01
WAP Andrew Shrock 18:22
WAP Nick Cook 18:25
WAP Griffen Miller 18:28
WAP Colton Boggs 18:30
MONC Carter Miller 18:39
MONC Eli Chamberlin 18:44
UC Conner Walser 18:47
MONC Kyler Shumaker 18:56
County Clash at Taylor University (8/22/20)
The girls started off the action at the 2020 County Clash Meet at 9:00am. And before 9:01am had arrived, Nicki Southerland had made it very clear who the top girl in ECI may be for the foreseeable future. The Delta freshman phenom went straight to the front and never looked back. Finishing in a Course Record time of 18:15. The team raced proved to be much tighter than the individual race. The Delta Lady Eagles and Yorktown Lady Tigers both had very strong showings in leading Delaware County to the County crown. Delta walked away with the traveling trophy and placing 3 in the top 10 overall (individual champ Southerland, Makayla Robles, 4th and Shannan Cox, 5th). While the Tigers had 2 in the top 10, Elizabeth Reece as the individual runner-up, and Grace Huisman in 7th. The only other top-10 finisher from ECI was Wapahani's Kendyl Thrasher in 10th. Other top-20 medalists included Yorktown's Sara Barnhizer (14th), Ali Smith (15th), and Natalie Moulton (18th). As well as Delta's Ashleigh Brelage (16th), and Muncie Central's Delaney Strange (20th).
Top ECI Finishers:
Nicki Southerland 18:15
Elizabeth Reece 20:58
Makayla Robles 21:19
Shannyn Cox 21:21
Grace Huisman 21:33
Kendyl Thrasher 22:13
Sara Barnhizer 22:33
Ali Smith 22:33
Ashleigh Brelage 22:48
Natalie Moulton 23:00
Top ECI Finishers:
Nicki Southerland 18:15
Elizabeth Reece 20:58
Makayla Robles 21:19
Shannyn Cox 21:21
Grace Huisman 21:33
Kendyl Thrasher 22:13
Sara Barnhizer 22:33
Ali Smith 22:33
Ashleigh Brelage 22:48
Natalie Moulton 23:00
The boys side of the County Clash saw Delaware County prevail over Madison and Grant counties with Wapahani taking home the traveling trophy as well as winning the meet outright. Leading the way for the Raiders was senior Griffen Miller who finished 1st overall, making it his first individual win in his high school career. Not too far behind Miller were Andrew Shrock (3rd place) and Brandon Ellis (6th place). Colton Boggs (11th place) and Nick Cook (15th place) rounded out a strong Raider performance. Also, contributing to the Delaware County win was an impressive 7th place performance from Yorktown’s Wiley Close (who set almost a 2 minute PR in his season debut!) Wiley’s Yorktown teammates Ryan Bade and Cole Whitehead as well as Muncie Central’s Gabriel Reynolds and Delta’s Clay Batio and Lucas Fox also medaled in the top 20 overall.
Top ECI Finishes
WAP Griffen Miller 17:44
WAP Andrew Shrock 17:47
WAP Brandon Ellis 18:01
YORK Wiley Close 18:04
DELTA Clay Batio 18:06
YORK Ryan Bade 18:17
WAP Colton Boggs 18:18
YORK Cole Whitehead 18:33
DELTA Lucas Fox 18:38
WAP Nick Cook 18:42
Top ECI Finishes
WAP Griffen Miller 17:44
WAP Andrew Shrock 17:47
WAP Brandon Ellis 18:01
YORK Wiley Close 18:04
DELTA Clay Batio 18:06
YORK Ryan Bade 18:17
WAP Colton Boggs 18:18
YORK Cole Whitehead 18:33
DELTA Lucas Fox 18:38
WAP Nick Cook 18:42
DELTA SECTIONAL (10/12/19)
The Delta Sectional brings the majority of ECI Cross Country together to battle it out in the first round of the IHSAA postseason. What was up for grabs? Obviously the Sectional Championship and ECI team bragging rights, but also the Top 5 teams will advance on to the Delta Regional next Saturday.
Boys Race: As the race began it became clear very quickly that the team race would come down to Wapahani or Monroe Central. Both teams packed their entire top 7 in the front of the race. Both teams battled extremely hard to the finish, but today lightning in a bottle was caught by the Monroe Central Golden Bears, who would bring home the school's first ever Sectional Cross Country title. The Bears put an amazing 6 individuals in the top 20 spots. They were led by sophomore Tucker Burris in 4th as well as top-10 efforts by Caden Shumaker (8th) and Carter Miller (9th). Wapahani's team runner-up finish was spearheaded by 3 top-10 finishes as well. Brandon Ellis (6th), Griffen Miller (7th) and Andrew Shrock (10th). Yorktown's Matthew Mitsch brought home the individual title in dominate fashion, running alone for most of the race. Mitsch and teammate Luke Harber (5th) led Yorktown to an advancing 3rd place team finish. The Muncie Central Bearcats claimed 4th place and will advance to Regional. The Bearcats were led by individual runner-up Isaiah Strong. Finally, the last team advancing was the Delta Eagles who were led by Cody Bivens (12th) and Clay Batio (13th). Other strong individual performances were turned in by Cowan's Ezra Daniel Wright (3rd), Randolph Southern's Luke Richmond (16th) and Daleville's Eli Isom (19th)
Boys Race: As the race began it became clear very quickly that the team race would come down to Wapahani or Monroe Central. Both teams packed their entire top 7 in the front of the race. Both teams battled extremely hard to the finish, but today lightning in a bottle was caught by the Monroe Central Golden Bears, who would bring home the school's first ever Sectional Cross Country title. The Bears put an amazing 6 individuals in the top 20 spots. They were led by sophomore Tucker Burris in 4th as well as top-10 efforts by Caden Shumaker (8th) and Carter Miller (9th). Wapahani's team runner-up finish was spearheaded by 3 top-10 finishes as well. Brandon Ellis (6th), Griffen Miller (7th) and Andrew Shrock (10th). Yorktown's Matthew Mitsch brought home the individual title in dominate fashion, running alone for most of the race. Mitsch and teammate Luke Harber (5th) led Yorktown to an advancing 3rd place team finish. The Muncie Central Bearcats claimed 4th place and will advance to Regional. The Bearcats were led by individual runner-up Isaiah Strong. Finally, the last team advancing was the Delta Eagles who were led by Cody Bivens (12th) and Clay Batio (13th). Other strong individual performances were turned in by Cowan's Ezra Daniel Wright (3rd), Randolph Southern's Luke Richmond (16th) and Daleville's Eli Isom (19th)
BOYS TOP 20 FINISHERS:
1. Sr Matthew Mitsch 16:37.3 Yorktown
2. Sr Isaiah Strong 17:14.2 Muncie Central
3. Sr Ezra Daniel Wright 17:24.0 Cowan
4. So Tucker Burris 17:37.5 Monroe Central
5. So Luke Harber 17:40.3 Yorktown
6. So Brandon Ellis 17:48.5 Wapahani
7. Jr Griffen Miller 17:50.8 Wapahani
8. Jr Caden Shumaker 17:56.4 Monroe Central
9. So Carter Miller 18:01.5 Monroe Central
10. Jr Andrew Shrock 18:10.1 Wapahani
11. Fr Caden Landis 18:11.7 Monroe Central
12. So Cody Bivens 18:16.1 Delta
13. Fr Clay Batio 18:16.6 Delta
14. Fr Colton Boggs 18:19.4 Wapahani
15. Sr A.J. Martinez 18:23.2 Muncie Central
16. Sr Luke Richmond 18:24.8 Randolph Southern
17. Fr Gannon Crosser 18:36.0 Yorktown
18. Sr Chris Nunez 18:36.9 Monroe Central
19. Sr Eli Isom 18:37.5 Daleville
20. So Kyler Shumaker 18:38.6 Monroe Central
1. Sr Matthew Mitsch 16:37.3 Yorktown
2. Sr Isaiah Strong 17:14.2 Muncie Central
3. Sr Ezra Daniel Wright 17:24.0 Cowan
4. So Tucker Burris 17:37.5 Monroe Central
5. So Luke Harber 17:40.3 Yorktown
6. So Brandon Ellis 17:48.5 Wapahani
7. Jr Griffen Miller 17:50.8 Wapahani
8. Jr Caden Shumaker 17:56.4 Monroe Central
9. So Carter Miller 18:01.5 Monroe Central
10. Jr Andrew Shrock 18:10.1 Wapahani
11. Fr Caden Landis 18:11.7 Monroe Central
12. So Cody Bivens 18:16.1 Delta
13. Fr Clay Batio 18:16.6 Delta
14. Fr Colton Boggs 18:19.4 Wapahani
15. Sr A.J. Martinez 18:23.2 Muncie Central
16. Sr Luke Richmond 18:24.8 Randolph Southern
17. Fr Gannon Crosser 18:36.0 Yorktown
18. Sr Chris Nunez 18:36.9 Monroe Central
19. Sr Eli Isom 18:37.5 Daleville
20. So Kyler Shumaker 18:38.6 Monroe Central
GIRLS RACE: The Girl's race was not as suspenseful as the previous Boy's race at the Delta Sectional. The Yorktown Lady Tigers went to the front from the gun and never looked back. The Lady Tigers put 4 in the top 20 overall to win the team title by over 35 points. Senior Amberleigh Sorensen set the tone for the Tigers with a 2nd place overall finish. Teammates Elizabeth Reece and Sara Barnhizer were close behind in 9th and 10th, as well as Natalie Moulton (17th) who posted a top 20 finish as well. The team runner-ups, also advancing to the Delta Regional next week, were the Delta Eagles. The Eagles were paced by Makayla Robles 3rd place finish and Ashleigh Brelage in 7th. Only 5 points behind Delta was Jay County. The Patriots finished 3rd as a team and had 3 individuals in the top 20 - Lydia Keihn (5th), Sophia Fugiett (13th), and Raven Weaver (20th). Cowan had a great team race to secure the 4th place overall team at the Delta Sectional. The Blackhawks were led by Lauren Smith in 4th and McKenna Minton in 12th. The final team advancing were the Muncie Central Bearcats, who finished 5th as a team. Sophomore Paris Turner (16th) and Senior Jenna O'Donohue (19th) were top-20 finishers for the Bearcats. The individual Delta Sectional champion was none other than Leah Keesling from Randolph Southern. The Senior capped off an amazing 4 years where she was crowned Sectional champion 3 times, and runner-up once (to her sister Emma in 2017). Other great ECI individual runs posted at the Delta Sectional included Wapahani's Lexi Wulff (6th), Winchester's Ella Baldwin (8th), Muncie Burris's Emeline Thygerson (11th), Wes-Del's Jaci Knott (14th), and Randolph Southern's Harley Shinn (18th)
GIRLS TOP 20 FINISHERS:
1. Sr Leah Keesling 19:04.1 Randolph Southern
2. Sr Amberleigh Sorensen 19:46.2 Yorktown
3. So Makayla Robles 20:08.4 Delta
4. So Lauren Smith 20:21.0 Cowan
5. Fr Lydia Keihn 20:35.1 Jay County
6. Sr Lexi Wulff 20:38.3 Wapahani
7. Jr Ashleigh Brelage 20:52.7 Delta
8. Jr Ella Baldwin 20:56.0 Winchester Community
9. Jr Elizabeth Reece 21:11.8 Yorktown
10. Jr Sara Barnhizer 21:13.6 Yorktown
11. Sr Emeline Thygerson 21:28.5 Muncie Burris
12. Fr McKenna Minton 21:29.9 Cowan
13. Jr Sophia Fugiett 21:34.0 Jay County
14. So Jaci Knott 21:36.0 Wes-Del
15. Sr Gabby Beckham 21:46.4 Monroe Central
16. So Paris Turner 21:53.1 Muncie Central
17. Jr Natalie Moulton 21:59.0 Yorktown
18. Sr Harley Shinn 22:00.0 Randolph Southern
19. Sr Jenna O'Donohue 22:05.7 Muncie Central
20. So Raven Weaver 22:12.9 Jay County
1. Sr Leah Keesling 19:04.1 Randolph Southern
2. Sr Amberleigh Sorensen 19:46.2 Yorktown
3. So Makayla Robles 20:08.4 Delta
4. So Lauren Smith 20:21.0 Cowan
5. Fr Lydia Keihn 20:35.1 Jay County
6. Sr Lexi Wulff 20:38.3 Wapahani
7. Jr Ashleigh Brelage 20:52.7 Delta
8. Jr Ella Baldwin 20:56.0 Winchester Community
9. Jr Elizabeth Reece 21:11.8 Yorktown
10. Jr Sara Barnhizer 21:13.6 Yorktown
11. Sr Emeline Thygerson 21:28.5 Muncie Burris
12. Fr McKenna Minton 21:29.9 Cowan
13. Jr Sophia Fugiett 21:34.0 Jay County
14. So Jaci Knott 21:36.0 Wes-Del
15. Sr Gabby Beckham 21:46.4 Monroe Central
16. So Paris Turner 21:53.1 Muncie Central
17. Jr Natalie Moulton 21:59.0 Yorktown
18. Sr Harley Shinn 22:00.0 Randolph Southern
19. Sr Jenna O'Donohue 22:05.7 Muncie Central
20. So Raven Weaver 22:12.9 Jay County
Mid-Eastern Conference Meet (10/5/19)
The Mid-Eastern Conference Meet saw 9 ECI teams participate including Blue River Valley,Cowan, Daleville, Monroe Central, Randolph Southern, Shenandoah, Union, Wapahani, and Wes-Del.
Girls Race:
In the girls individual race, the top ECI ranked runner Leah Keesling of Randolph Southern ran a time of 19:11! We knew Cowan and Randolph Southern would be the top contenders for the MEC crown in which Cowan won their first MEC title since 2009! Shenandoah finished 3rd, with Monroe Central following in 4th place.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Leah Keesling Randolph S. 19:11
Lexi Wulff Wapahani 20:41
Lauren Smith Cowan 20:59
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 21:20
McKenna Minton Cowan 21:40
Harley Shinn Randolph S. 22:01
Autumn Rice Union 22:10
Audrey Shepler Daleville 22:18
Brynn Wright Cowan 22:19
Faith Hanson Monroe C. 22:20
Boys Race:
In the boys individual race, Ezra Daniel Wright of Cowan took the lead right away and kept it throughout the whole race, finishing in a PR time of 17:20! We all knew the boys team race would be headlined by Monroe Central and Wapahani, and it didn’t disappoint. Wapahani edged Monroe Central by only 4 points with season best times had by 2 out of the top 7 Wapahani runners, and 5 out of the top 7 Monroe Central boys. The IHSAA Sectional Meet will be a great test to see the competition between these two teams as well as Yorktown, Delta, and Muncie Central! Cowan placed 4th, followed by Shenandoah in 5th.
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 17:20
Brandon Ellis Wapahani 17:37
Josh Soden Shenandoah 17:49
Andrew Shrock Wapahani 18:01
Caden Shumaker Monroe Central 18:03
Tucker Burris Monroe Central 18:06
Carter Miller Monroe Central 18:07
Griffen Miller Wapahani 18:08
Colton Boggs Wapahani 18:09
Caden Landis Monroe Central 18:10
Girls Race:
In the girls individual race, the top ECI ranked runner Leah Keesling of Randolph Southern ran a time of 19:11! We knew Cowan and Randolph Southern would be the top contenders for the MEC crown in which Cowan won their first MEC title since 2009! Shenandoah finished 3rd, with Monroe Central following in 4th place.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Leah Keesling Randolph S. 19:11
Lexi Wulff Wapahani 20:41
Lauren Smith Cowan 20:59
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 21:20
McKenna Minton Cowan 21:40
Harley Shinn Randolph S. 22:01
Autumn Rice Union 22:10
Audrey Shepler Daleville 22:18
Brynn Wright Cowan 22:19
Faith Hanson Monroe C. 22:20
Boys Race:
In the boys individual race, Ezra Daniel Wright of Cowan took the lead right away and kept it throughout the whole race, finishing in a PR time of 17:20! We all knew the boys team race would be headlined by Monroe Central and Wapahani, and it didn’t disappoint. Wapahani edged Monroe Central by only 4 points with season best times had by 2 out of the top 7 Wapahani runners, and 5 out of the top 7 Monroe Central boys. The IHSAA Sectional Meet will be a great test to see the competition between these two teams as well as Yorktown, Delta, and Muncie Central! Cowan placed 4th, followed by Shenandoah in 5th.
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 17:20
Brandon Ellis Wapahani 17:37
Josh Soden Shenandoah 17:49
Andrew Shrock Wapahani 18:01
Caden Shumaker Monroe Central 18:03
Tucker Burris Monroe Central 18:06
Carter Miller Monroe Central 18:07
Griffen Miller Wapahani 18:08
Colton Boggs Wapahani 18:09
Caden Landis Monroe Central 18:10
Delta Eagle Invitational (9/28/19)
With twelve ECI teams traveling to the Muncie Sportsplex for the Eagle Invite on Saturday it gave several chances to preview upcoming conference and postseason meets in the week’s ahead.
Boys Race
Across two race divisions Blackford’s Drew Caldwell was the lone ECI runner to break the 18:00 barrier on a warm and humid morning. Along with teammate Brayden Roberts, Blackford’s squad also had the most impressive team showing placing 3rd in the Navy Division putting the Bruins in position to perhaps enter the ECI top 5 team rankings in the near future. In the Gold Division Cowan’s Ezra Daniel Wright continued his stellar season with a top ECI finishing time of 18:03. Shenandoah’s boys was the top ECI team in the Gold Division placing 5th paced by solid runs from senior’s Josh Soden and Borru Kishpaugh.
Top ECI Finishers
BLAC Drew Caldwell 17:58
COW Ezra Daniel Wright 18:03
BLAC Brayden Roberts 18:05
NC Skyler Dickey 18:13
SHEN Josh Soden 18:19
SHEN Borru Kishpaugh 18:19
BLAC Noah Kitterman 18:44
DEL Clay Batio 18:44
WIN Gage Patterson 18:50
DEL Sam Campbell 18:52
Girls Race
The girl’s Blue Division race saw two ECI powers in Delta and Jay County square off for a preview of what we will see in sectional, regional and perhaps semi-state races in the weeks ahead. On this day it would be Delta who came out on top using strong front running from Makayla Robles and Shannyn Cox as well as a developing 3-5 that has shown a lot of improvement over the last few weeks. Freshman phenom Lydia Harvey from New Castle had the best individual performance in the race with a 5th place finish in a time of 20:16. In the Gold Division, Cowan’s Lauren Smith was the top overall winner by just .8 seconds over the second place finisher. This continues a steak of good races by Smith who seems to be setting herself up for a lot of success in the next couple of weeks. And Smith’s upcoming success may just not be on the individual side of things either as her Cowan team had the top ECI finish in the Gold Division placing 3rd putting the Lady Blackhawks on short list of favorites for MEC Meet at Blue River next Saturday.
Top ECI Finishers
NC Lydia Harvey 20:16
DEL Makayla Robles 20:20
JAY Lydia Keihn 20:25
DEL Shannyn Cox 20:27
COW Lauren Smith 21:04
WIN Ella Baldwin 21:11
DEL Ashleigh Brelage 21:15
SHEN Stormie Fitch 21:29
COW McKenna Minton 21:38
JAY Sophia Fugiett 21:40
Boys Race
Across two race divisions Blackford’s Drew Caldwell was the lone ECI runner to break the 18:00 barrier on a warm and humid morning. Along with teammate Brayden Roberts, Blackford’s squad also had the most impressive team showing placing 3rd in the Navy Division putting the Bruins in position to perhaps enter the ECI top 5 team rankings in the near future. In the Gold Division Cowan’s Ezra Daniel Wright continued his stellar season with a top ECI finishing time of 18:03. Shenandoah’s boys was the top ECI team in the Gold Division placing 5th paced by solid runs from senior’s Josh Soden and Borru Kishpaugh.
Top ECI Finishers
BLAC Drew Caldwell 17:58
COW Ezra Daniel Wright 18:03
BLAC Brayden Roberts 18:05
NC Skyler Dickey 18:13
SHEN Josh Soden 18:19
SHEN Borru Kishpaugh 18:19
BLAC Noah Kitterman 18:44
DEL Clay Batio 18:44
WIN Gage Patterson 18:50
DEL Sam Campbell 18:52
Girls Race
The girl’s Blue Division race saw two ECI powers in Delta and Jay County square off for a preview of what we will see in sectional, regional and perhaps semi-state races in the weeks ahead. On this day it would be Delta who came out on top using strong front running from Makayla Robles and Shannyn Cox as well as a developing 3-5 that has shown a lot of improvement over the last few weeks. Freshman phenom Lydia Harvey from New Castle had the best individual performance in the race with a 5th place finish in a time of 20:16. In the Gold Division, Cowan’s Lauren Smith was the top overall winner by just .8 seconds over the second place finisher. This continues a steak of good races by Smith who seems to be setting herself up for a lot of success in the next couple of weeks. And Smith’s upcoming success may just not be on the individual side of things either as her Cowan team had the top ECI finish in the Gold Division placing 3rd putting the Lady Blackhawks on short list of favorites for MEC Meet at Blue River next Saturday.
Top ECI Finishers
NC Lydia Harvey 20:16
DEL Makayla Robles 20:20
JAY Lydia Keihn 20:25
DEL Shannyn Cox 20:27
COW Lauren Smith 21:04
WIN Ella Baldwin 21:11
DEL Ashleigh Brelage 21:15
SHEN Stormie Fitch 21:29
COW McKenna Minton 21:38
JAY Sophia Fugiett 21:40
New Haven Classic Invitational (9/28/19)
A total of 4 ECI teams trekked up to the Ft. Wayne area to run in the New Haven Classic Invitational. All teams were running on the same course that will serve as their Semi-State Course if they are fortunate enough to advance their teams or individuals to that level of the tournament in 4 weeks.
BOYS RACES:
The big news for ECI teams from the New Haven Classic came in the A Division, where Wapahani had a coming out party. They ran the type of team race that everybody in the area knew they were capable of running. With their entire top 5 posting season best times, they came away as Division A Champions. Monroe Central also ran in the A Division and had themselves break-out performance as well. With almost their entire top 5 running season best times as well, and the return of Carter Miller, a star freshman for the Golden Bears a year ago, returning to action. This is huge news for the Golden Bears who look to be a real Sectional contender now. As the Division AA and AAA races went off, the weather had warmed and times slowed a bit for Yorktown and Muncie Central. Both teams, though, had some impressive individuals, Matt Mitsch running 15:59, and Isaiah Strong running 16:50.
TOP 10 ECI TIMES:
Matt Mitsch YORK 15:59
Isaiah Strong MUCE 16:50
Brandon Ellis WAP 17:29
Andrew Shrock WAP 17:50
Caden Shumaker MOCE 17:55
Griffen Miller WAP 17:57
Tucker Burris MOCE 18:09
Caden Landis MOCE 18:13
Colton Boggs MOCE 18:14
Gannon Crosser YORK 18:18
GIRLS RACES:
On the Girls side of things, all 4 ECI Teams were in also in action at New Haven. Yorktown posted the best team finish of the day by getting 5th in the AA Division. Amberleigh Sorensen and Elizabeth Reece both had top 15 finishes in that race. Monroe Central and Wapahani both competed in the A Division, where Monroe Central finished 9th and Wapahani finished 13th. Those teams were led by Lexi Wulff's 10th place finish for Wapahani and Gabby Beckham's 12th place finish for the Golden Bears. The Muncie Central Bearcats competed in the AAA Division where they finished 12th, led by the 67th place finish of Paris Turner.
TOP 10 ECI TIMES:
Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 20:38
Elizabeth Reece YORK 20:46
Lexi Wulff WAP 21:11
Gabby Beckham MOCE 21:21
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:17
Sara Barnhizer YORK 22:19
Paris Turner MUCE 22:23
Karly Puckett MOCE 22:32
Ali Smith YORK 23:23
Jenna O’Donohue MUCE 23:26
BOYS RACES:
The big news for ECI teams from the New Haven Classic came in the A Division, where Wapahani had a coming out party. They ran the type of team race that everybody in the area knew they were capable of running. With their entire top 5 posting season best times, they came away as Division A Champions. Monroe Central also ran in the A Division and had themselves break-out performance as well. With almost their entire top 5 running season best times as well, and the return of Carter Miller, a star freshman for the Golden Bears a year ago, returning to action. This is huge news for the Golden Bears who look to be a real Sectional contender now. As the Division AA and AAA races went off, the weather had warmed and times slowed a bit for Yorktown and Muncie Central. Both teams, though, had some impressive individuals, Matt Mitsch running 15:59, and Isaiah Strong running 16:50.
TOP 10 ECI TIMES:
Matt Mitsch YORK 15:59
Isaiah Strong MUCE 16:50
Brandon Ellis WAP 17:29
Andrew Shrock WAP 17:50
Caden Shumaker MOCE 17:55
Griffen Miller WAP 17:57
Tucker Burris MOCE 18:09
Caden Landis MOCE 18:13
Colton Boggs MOCE 18:14
Gannon Crosser YORK 18:18
GIRLS RACES:
On the Girls side of things, all 4 ECI Teams were in also in action at New Haven. Yorktown posted the best team finish of the day by getting 5th in the AA Division. Amberleigh Sorensen and Elizabeth Reece both had top 15 finishes in that race. Monroe Central and Wapahani both competed in the A Division, where Monroe Central finished 9th and Wapahani finished 13th. Those teams were led by Lexi Wulff's 10th place finish for Wapahani and Gabby Beckham's 12th place finish for the Golden Bears. The Muncie Central Bearcats competed in the AAA Division where they finished 12th, led by the 67th place finish of Paris Turner.
TOP 10 ECI TIMES:
Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 20:38
Elizabeth Reece YORK 20:46
Lexi Wulff WAP 21:11
Gabby Beckham MOCE 21:21
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:17
Sara Barnhizer YORK 22:19
Paris Turner MUCE 22:23
Karly Puckett MOCE 22:32
Ali Smith YORK 23:23
Jenna O’Donohue MUCE 23:26
Yorktown "Jim Leffler" Invitational (9/21/19)
A majority of the ECI teams met in Yorktown on Saturday to do battle. With the Conference and Sectional championship weekends looming in the near future, this week was a great late season measuring stick for how the ECI teams are stacking up against each other. Also, with teams such as Jay County not competing in the ECI area much early in the season it provided a first glance at where they truly belong in the Top 5 ECI Team rankings.
Girls Race:
The Girl's race showed a lot of Green and Blue up front for the ECI teams as New Castle, Yorktown, and Jay County all had multiple runners in the top 25 early in the race. Wapahani's Lexi Wulff, and the Cowan duo of McKenna Minton and Lauren Smith were also in the front of the pack from the very beginning. As the race came to a conclusion, there were many spots in the top 25 that were jostling back and forth. When it was all said and done, Yorktown prevailed as the top ECI team with Amberleigh Sorensen posting a great time and finish of 20:01 to take 2nd place, which was the top ECI finish. Jay County made the largest splash of the day, showing that they may have the best top 4 runners in all of ECI. The Patriots finished in 3rd overall as a team. Muncie Central and Cowan were separated by a single point for 4th and 5th in the team standings.
Top 15 ECI Girl Finishes:
Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 20:01
Lydia Harvey NC 20:13
Lydia Keihn JAY 20:50
Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:06
Lexi Wulff WAP 21:11
Lauren Smith COW 21:48
Ella Garvin NC 21:58
McKenna Minton COW 22:05
Raven Weaver JAY 22:06
Sophia Fugiett JAY 22:06
Lindy Wood JAY 22:11
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:23
Stormie Fitch SHEN 22:25
Emeline Thygerson MUBU 22:48
Paris Turner MUCE 22:52
Boys Race:
The Boy's race featured 4 different ECI teams that received votes this past week in the ECI Top 5 Teams. Yorktown and Wapahani have been battling back and forth all year, and Muncie Central and New Castle have showed flashes of being teams that can compete with any ECI team on a given day. On this day, at Yorktown, Matt Mitsch continued his amazing season with another individual win. He finished the 5K course in a time of 16:10. Mitsch's performance led Yorktown to the top ECI team finish as well, by a narrow 2-points over Wapahani. Isaiah Strong led the Muncie Central Bearcats with a top 5 overall finish. and Andrew Fewell had a great race for the New Castle Trojans, finishing 7th overall.
Top 15 ECI Boys Finishes:
Matt Mitsch YORK 16:10
Isaiah Strong MUCE 17:07
Andrew Fewell NC 17:35
Luke Harber YORK 17:38
Ezra Daniel Wright COW 17:38
Skyler Dickey NC 17:52
Andrew Shrock WAP 17:58
Brandon Ellis WAP 18:05
Borru Kishpaugh SHEN 18:08
Colton Boggs WAP 18:15
Griffen Miller WAP 18:15
Gannon Crosser YORK 18:32
Ryan Bade YORK 18:38
Robert Thomma MUCE 18:47
Ayden Humbles NC 18:51
Girls Race:
The Girl's race showed a lot of Green and Blue up front for the ECI teams as New Castle, Yorktown, and Jay County all had multiple runners in the top 25 early in the race. Wapahani's Lexi Wulff, and the Cowan duo of McKenna Minton and Lauren Smith were also in the front of the pack from the very beginning. As the race came to a conclusion, there were many spots in the top 25 that were jostling back and forth. When it was all said and done, Yorktown prevailed as the top ECI team with Amberleigh Sorensen posting a great time and finish of 20:01 to take 2nd place, which was the top ECI finish. Jay County made the largest splash of the day, showing that they may have the best top 4 runners in all of ECI. The Patriots finished in 3rd overall as a team. Muncie Central and Cowan were separated by a single point for 4th and 5th in the team standings.
Top 15 ECI Girl Finishes:
Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 20:01
Lydia Harvey NC 20:13
Lydia Keihn JAY 20:50
Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:06
Lexi Wulff WAP 21:11
Lauren Smith COW 21:48
Ella Garvin NC 21:58
McKenna Minton COW 22:05
Raven Weaver JAY 22:06
Sophia Fugiett JAY 22:06
Lindy Wood JAY 22:11
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:23
Stormie Fitch SHEN 22:25
Emeline Thygerson MUBU 22:48
Paris Turner MUCE 22:52
Boys Race:
The Boy's race featured 4 different ECI teams that received votes this past week in the ECI Top 5 Teams. Yorktown and Wapahani have been battling back and forth all year, and Muncie Central and New Castle have showed flashes of being teams that can compete with any ECI team on a given day. On this day, at Yorktown, Matt Mitsch continued his amazing season with another individual win. He finished the 5K course in a time of 16:10. Mitsch's performance led Yorktown to the top ECI team finish as well, by a narrow 2-points over Wapahani. Isaiah Strong led the Muncie Central Bearcats with a top 5 overall finish. and Andrew Fewell had a great race for the New Castle Trojans, finishing 7th overall.
Top 15 ECI Boys Finishes:
Matt Mitsch YORK 16:10
Isaiah Strong MUCE 17:07
Andrew Fewell NC 17:35
Luke Harber YORK 17:38
Ezra Daniel Wright COW 17:38
Skyler Dickey NC 17:52
Andrew Shrock WAP 17:58
Brandon Ellis WAP 18:05
Borru Kishpaugh SHEN 18:08
Colton Boggs WAP 18:15
Griffen Miller WAP 18:15
Gannon Crosser YORK 18:32
Ryan Bade YORK 18:38
Robert Thomma MUCE 18:47
Ayden Humbles NC 18:51
Randolph Southern Invitational (9/14/19)
The Randolph Southern Invitational saw 9 ECI teams participate including Cowan, Monroe Central, Muncie Burris, Muncie Central, New Castle, Randolph Southern, Union, Winchester, and Yorktown. Since the cancellation of the Blackford Invitational this has become the go to meet.
Girls Race:
For the girls, the top ECI ranked runner on the top 25 list Leah Keesling of Randolph Southern ran a time of 19:33 on her home course! Freshman phenom Lydia Harvey of New Castle ran a blazing 20:07 to place second. The Muncie Central, Cowan, and Monroe Central teams all had great races. A very tightly packed ECI Team results were as follows: Muncie Central placed 2nd, Cowan 3rd, Monroe Central 4th, Yorktown 5th, and Randolph Southern 6th.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Leah Keesling Randolph S. 19:33
Lydia Harvey New Castle 20:07
Ella Baldwin Winchester 21:06
Lauren Smith Cowan 21:12
Amberleigh Sorenson Yorktown 21:16
Gabby Beckham Monroe C. 21:33
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 21:57
Paris Turner Muncie C. 21:59
Ella Garvin New Castle 22:00
McKenna Minton Cowan 22:23
Boys Race:
For the boys, the top ECI ranked runner on the top 25 list Matthew Mitsch of Yorktown ran a time of 16:39! Monroe Central had a great race from their top 3 runners to place 3rd six points away from Yorktown! Muncie Central placed 5th, and New Castle placed 6th.
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Matthew Mitsch Yorktown 16:39
Isaiah Strong Muncie C. 17:21
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 17:38
Luke Harber Yorktown 17:59
Andrew Fewell New Castle 18:13
Caden Shumaker Monroe C. 18:18
Tucker Burris Monroe C. 18:18
Skyler Dickey New Castle 18:21
Borru Kishpaugh Shenandoah 18:31
Josh Soden Shenandoah 18:38
Girls Race:
For the girls, the top ECI ranked runner on the top 25 list Leah Keesling of Randolph Southern ran a time of 19:33 on her home course! Freshman phenom Lydia Harvey of New Castle ran a blazing 20:07 to place second. The Muncie Central, Cowan, and Monroe Central teams all had great races. A very tightly packed ECI Team results were as follows: Muncie Central placed 2nd, Cowan 3rd, Monroe Central 4th, Yorktown 5th, and Randolph Southern 6th.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Leah Keesling Randolph S. 19:33
Lydia Harvey New Castle 20:07
Ella Baldwin Winchester 21:06
Lauren Smith Cowan 21:12
Amberleigh Sorenson Yorktown 21:16
Gabby Beckham Monroe C. 21:33
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 21:57
Paris Turner Muncie C. 21:59
Ella Garvin New Castle 22:00
McKenna Minton Cowan 22:23
Boys Race:
For the boys, the top ECI ranked runner on the top 25 list Matthew Mitsch of Yorktown ran a time of 16:39! Monroe Central had a great race from their top 3 runners to place 3rd six points away from Yorktown! Muncie Central placed 5th, and New Castle placed 6th.
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Matthew Mitsch Yorktown 16:39
Isaiah Strong Muncie C. 17:21
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 17:38
Luke Harber Yorktown 17:59
Andrew Fewell New Castle 18:13
Caden Shumaker Monroe C. 18:18
Tucker Burris Monroe C. 18:18
Skyler Dickey New Castle 18:21
Borru Kishpaugh Shenandoah 18:31
Josh Soden Shenandoah 18:38
Delaware County Meet (9/10/19)
The Delaware County Meet brought the top 2 teams in ECI together for both the boys and the girls races. On the Girl's side Yorktown and Delta would battle for county bragging rights, and on the Boy's side Yorktown and Wapahani would battle for ECI supremacy. Overall, the hot conditions at Cowan High School would serve as a struggle for all competitors. Especially after a very cool first few weeks of the XC season.
BOYS RACE:
As the gun fired for the Boy's race individuals from Yorktown and Wapahani went straight to the front. One predictable factor in this race is that Yorktown's Matthew Mitsch would dominate from start to finish. But, after Mitsch the strong pack of Wapahani would put the Raiders right in contention for the team title. As the race entered the final stages it looked to be dead-even between the Raiders and the Tigers for the team title. Both teams crammed 4 individuals in the top-10 overall. As the results started to trickle out it was the Yorktown Tigers who took a narrow one-point victory over the Raiders. It was truly a race where both teams were deserving of the Delaware County title. In the individual placings, Yorktown took the top 2 spots with Matthew Mitsch and Luke Harber, followed by an amazing 3rd place run from Cowan's Ezra Daniel Wright. Close on Wright's heels were the formidable Wapahani pack of Andrew Shrock, Brandon Ellis, and Colton Boggs.
TOP 10 BOYS INDIVIDUALS:
Matthew Mitsch YORK 16:44
Luke Harber YORK 18:05
Ezra Daniel Wright COW 18:19
Andrew Shrock WAP 18:33
Brandon Ellis WAP 18:38
Colton Boggs WAP 18:42
Ryan Bade YORK 18:47
Gannon Crosser YORK 19:13
Griffen Miller WAP 19:22
Cody Bivens DELT 19:46
GIRLS RACE:
In very similar fashion to the Boys race, the top contending Girls also went right to the front at the beginning of the race. Yorktown's Amberleigh Sorensen and Elizabeth Reece, Delta's Makayla Robles, Wapahani's Lexi Wulff, and Cowan's Lauren Smith made up the Top-5 for much of the early stages of the race. As the race entered the final kilometer many individuals made a surge to the front in an effort to claim a top-10 All-County spot. One individual that made such a surge was Robles, she took the lead going in to the 3rd K of the race and never relinquished it. Behind her, Yorktown piled up 7 runners in the top 18 to secure their 4th Delaware County Team Championship in a row.
TOP 10 GIRLS INDIVIDUALS:
Makayla Robles DELT 20:55
Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 21:14
Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:20
Shannyn Cox DELT 21:42
Lexi Wulff WAP 22:01
Ashleigh Brelage DELT 22:12
Lauren Smith COW 22:19
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:34
McKenna Minton COW 22:52
Kendyl Thrasher WAP 23:00
BOYS RACE:
As the gun fired for the Boy's race individuals from Yorktown and Wapahani went straight to the front. One predictable factor in this race is that Yorktown's Matthew Mitsch would dominate from start to finish. But, after Mitsch the strong pack of Wapahani would put the Raiders right in contention for the team title. As the race entered the final stages it looked to be dead-even between the Raiders and the Tigers for the team title. Both teams crammed 4 individuals in the top-10 overall. As the results started to trickle out it was the Yorktown Tigers who took a narrow one-point victory over the Raiders. It was truly a race where both teams were deserving of the Delaware County title. In the individual placings, Yorktown took the top 2 spots with Matthew Mitsch and Luke Harber, followed by an amazing 3rd place run from Cowan's Ezra Daniel Wright. Close on Wright's heels were the formidable Wapahani pack of Andrew Shrock, Brandon Ellis, and Colton Boggs.
TOP 10 BOYS INDIVIDUALS:
Matthew Mitsch YORK 16:44
Luke Harber YORK 18:05
Ezra Daniel Wright COW 18:19
Andrew Shrock WAP 18:33
Brandon Ellis WAP 18:38
Colton Boggs WAP 18:42
Ryan Bade YORK 18:47
Gannon Crosser YORK 19:13
Griffen Miller WAP 19:22
Cody Bivens DELT 19:46
GIRLS RACE:
In very similar fashion to the Boys race, the top contending Girls also went right to the front at the beginning of the race. Yorktown's Amberleigh Sorensen and Elizabeth Reece, Delta's Makayla Robles, Wapahani's Lexi Wulff, and Cowan's Lauren Smith made up the Top-5 for much of the early stages of the race. As the race entered the final kilometer many individuals made a surge to the front in an effort to claim a top-10 All-County spot. One individual that made such a surge was Robles, she took the lead going in to the 3rd K of the race and never relinquished it. Behind her, Yorktown piled up 7 runners in the top 18 to secure their 4th Delaware County Team Championship in a row.
TOP 10 GIRLS INDIVIDUALS:
Makayla Robles DELT 20:55
Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 21:14
Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:20
Shannyn Cox DELT 21:42
Lexi Wulff WAP 22:01
Ashleigh Brelage DELT 22:12
Lauren Smith COW 22:19
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:34
McKenna Minton COW 22:52
Kendyl Thrasher WAP 23:00
Marion Invitational (9/7/19)
Boys Races:
Throughout the day there were several ECI schools that raced the fast Marion Invitational course. In the Elite Boys race Yorktown and Muncie Central both competed and several individuals saw PR and SR times. Top ECI finishers were Matt Mitsch in 8th and Isaiah Strong in 40th. A couple New Castle runners also had stellar races later in the Gold Race as Andrew Fewell (5th) and Skyler Dickey (9th) both finished in the top 10.
Top ECI Boys Times:
Matt Mitsch YORK 15:48
Isaiah Strong MUCE 16:41
Luke Harber YORK 17:17
Andrew Fewell NC 17:55
Skyler Dickey NC 18:09
Cody Bivens DELT 18:32
Dylan Bradford MUCE 18:37
Gannon Crosser YORK 18:37
Robert Thomma MUCE 18:39
Josh Stephenson MUBU 18:47
Ryan Bade YORK 18:55
A.J. Martinez MUCE 19:01
Girls Races:
In the Girl's races at Marion on Saturday, Leah Keesling continued her winning ways by dominating the Red division race in 19:28. Most ECI competitors ran in the Gold Girls race, leading all ECI competitors in that race was freshman standout from New Castle Lydia Harvey, who finished 2nd overall. Also, in the Gold race Yorktown junior Elizabeth Reece (5th), Delta sophomore Makayla Robles (6th), and Delta freshman Shannyn Cox (8th) all posted top-10 finishes.
Top ECI Girls Times:
Leah Keesling RAND 19:28
Lydia Harvey NC 19:53
Elizabeth Reece YORK 20:43
Makayla Robles DELT 20:47
Shannyn Cox DELT 21:04
Paris Turner MUCE 21:46
Ashleigh Brelage DELT 21:48
Ella Garvin NC 21:53
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:22
Hannah Smith MUBU 22:25
Sara Barnhizer YORK 22:32
Emeline Thygerson MUBU 22:34
Throughout the day there were several ECI schools that raced the fast Marion Invitational course. In the Elite Boys race Yorktown and Muncie Central both competed and several individuals saw PR and SR times. Top ECI finishers were Matt Mitsch in 8th and Isaiah Strong in 40th. A couple New Castle runners also had stellar races later in the Gold Race as Andrew Fewell (5th) and Skyler Dickey (9th) both finished in the top 10.
Top ECI Boys Times:
Matt Mitsch YORK 15:48
Isaiah Strong MUCE 16:41
Luke Harber YORK 17:17
Andrew Fewell NC 17:55
Skyler Dickey NC 18:09
Cody Bivens DELT 18:32
Dylan Bradford MUCE 18:37
Gannon Crosser YORK 18:37
Robert Thomma MUCE 18:39
Josh Stephenson MUBU 18:47
Ryan Bade YORK 18:55
A.J. Martinez MUCE 19:01
Girls Races:
In the Girl's races at Marion on Saturday, Leah Keesling continued her winning ways by dominating the Red division race in 19:28. Most ECI competitors ran in the Gold Girls race, leading all ECI competitors in that race was freshman standout from New Castle Lydia Harvey, who finished 2nd overall. Also, in the Gold race Yorktown junior Elizabeth Reece (5th), Delta sophomore Makayla Robles (6th), and Delta freshman Shannyn Cox (8th) all posted top-10 finishes.
Top ECI Girls Times:
Leah Keesling RAND 19:28
Lydia Harvey NC 19:53
Elizabeth Reece YORK 20:43
Makayla Robles DELT 20:47
Shannyn Cox DELT 21:04
Paris Turner MUCE 21:46
Ashleigh Brelage DELT 21:48
Ella Garvin NC 21:53
Natalie Moulton YORK 22:22
Hannah Smith MUBU 22:25
Sara Barnhizer YORK 22:32
Emeline Thygerson MUBU 22:34
Wapahani 5K Invitational (9/3/19)
Wapahani 5K
Boys Race
The Wapahani Boys team placed 5 in the top 14 to secure a 1-point win over a very good Cambridge City Lincoln team in the Wapahani Inv. Leading the way for the Raiders was Junior Andrew Shrock who set a new personal best to finish second overall in a time of 17:51. Not too far behind Shrock were teammates Brandon Ellis and Griffen Miller who both were also in the top 10. On the individual side, Muncie’s Isaiah Strong dominated the meet from the start, coming into the finish line at a solid time of 17:13 on a very hilly course at Prairie Creek Reservoir. Strong’s teammate Robert Thomma was also in the top 10 overall by placing 10th and Daleville’s Eli Isom, Wes-Del’s Luke Butler, Winchester’s Gage Patterson, Shenandoah’s Josh Soden and Blackford’s Brayden Willams and Drew Caldwell all finished in the top 20.
ECI Team Scores
1. Wapahani 41
3. Muncie Central 68
4. Blackford 112
5. Shenandoah 127
6. Winchester 140
7. Daleville 182
8. Union City 227
Top ECI Finishers
MUNC Isaiah Strong 17:13
WAP Andrew Shrock 17:51
WAP Brandon Ellis 18:09
SHEN Borru Kishpaugh 18:18
WAP Griffen Miller 18:29
MUNC Robert Thomma 18:46
BLAC Brayden Roberts 18:48
WAP Colton Boggs 18:55
MUNC A.J. Martinez 19:02
WAP Joey Dickinson 19:03
Girls Race
The girl’s race saw Muncie Central pace two runners in the top six overall to help seal the victory for the Bearcats. Leading the charge was Central’s tandem of Paris Turner and Jenna O’Donohue who placed 5th and 6th. An improving Blackford squad placed second as a team with freshmen Cami Caldwell showcasing a very nice run to lead her team with a 4th place overall finish. On the individual side of things Lexi Wulff continued her big season by winning the race in a person best time of 20:35. Winchester front-runner Ella Baldwin also had a nice day with a 4th place finish. Wes-Del’s Jaci Knott, Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher, Shenandoah’s Stormie Finch and Union City’s Chloe Wyatt all secured top 10 finishes as well.
ECI Team Scores
1.Muncie Central 67
2.Blackford 84
3.Shenandoah 100
4.Wapahani 104
5.Wes-Del 107
7.Winchester 131
8.Daleville 136
Top ECI Finishers
WAP Lexi Wulff 20:35
WIN Ella Baldwin 21:28
BLAC Cami Caldwell 22:11
MUNC Paris Turner 22:26
MUNC Jenna O’Donohue 22:36
WES Jaci Knott 22:50
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 22:54
SHEN Stormie Finch 23:02
UNC Chloe Wyatt 23:08
UNION Autumn Rice 23:42
Boys Race
The Wapahani Boys team placed 5 in the top 14 to secure a 1-point win over a very good Cambridge City Lincoln team in the Wapahani Inv. Leading the way for the Raiders was Junior Andrew Shrock who set a new personal best to finish second overall in a time of 17:51. Not too far behind Shrock were teammates Brandon Ellis and Griffen Miller who both were also in the top 10. On the individual side, Muncie’s Isaiah Strong dominated the meet from the start, coming into the finish line at a solid time of 17:13 on a very hilly course at Prairie Creek Reservoir. Strong’s teammate Robert Thomma was also in the top 10 overall by placing 10th and Daleville’s Eli Isom, Wes-Del’s Luke Butler, Winchester’s Gage Patterson, Shenandoah’s Josh Soden and Blackford’s Brayden Willams and Drew Caldwell all finished in the top 20.
ECI Team Scores
1. Wapahani 41
3. Muncie Central 68
4. Blackford 112
5. Shenandoah 127
6. Winchester 140
7. Daleville 182
8. Union City 227
Top ECI Finishers
MUNC Isaiah Strong 17:13
WAP Andrew Shrock 17:51
WAP Brandon Ellis 18:09
SHEN Borru Kishpaugh 18:18
WAP Griffen Miller 18:29
MUNC Robert Thomma 18:46
BLAC Brayden Roberts 18:48
WAP Colton Boggs 18:55
MUNC A.J. Martinez 19:02
WAP Joey Dickinson 19:03
Girls Race
The girl’s race saw Muncie Central pace two runners in the top six overall to help seal the victory for the Bearcats. Leading the charge was Central’s tandem of Paris Turner and Jenna O’Donohue who placed 5th and 6th. An improving Blackford squad placed second as a team with freshmen Cami Caldwell showcasing a very nice run to lead her team with a 4th place overall finish. On the individual side of things Lexi Wulff continued her big season by winning the race in a person best time of 20:35. Winchester front-runner Ella Baldwin also had a nice day with a 4th place finish. Wes-Del’s Jaci Knott, Wapahani’s Kendyl Thrasher, Shenandoah’s Stormie Finch and Union City’s Chloe Wyatt all secured top 10 finishes as well.
ECI Team Scores
1.Muncie Central 67
2.Blackford 84
3.Shenandoah 100
4.Wapahani 104
5.Wes-Del 107
7.Winchester 131
8.Daleville 136
Top ECI Finishers
WAP Lexi Wulff 20:35
WIN Ella Baldwin 21:28
BLAC Cami Caldwell 22:11
MUNC Paris Turner 22:26
MUNC Jenna O’Donohue 22:36
WES Jaci Knott 22:50
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 22:54
SHEN Stormie Finch 23:02
UNC Chloe Wyatt 23:08
UNION Autumn Rice 23:42
Pendleton Heights Arabian Roundup (8/28/19)
The Arabian Roundup saw 9 ECI teams participate including Blue River Valley, Cowan, Monroe Central, New Castle, Shenandoah, Union City, Wapahani, Wes-Del, and Yorktown.
Girls Race:
For the girls, the top runner for ECI was senior Amberleigh Sorensen with a great time of 20:17 already beating her season best from last year! Two freshmen from New Castle (Lydia Harvey, and Ella Garvin) led the way with some very impressive times. Yorktown was the top ECI team placing 6th, with four runners making the top 10 ECI Girl’s list below. Lexi Wulff (Wapahani), Lauren Smith (Cowan), and Stormie Fitch (Shenandoah) continued their great start to their season!
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Amberleigh Sorensen Yorktown 20:17
Lydia Harvey New Castle 20:27
Elizabeth Reece Yorktown 20:58
Lexi Wulff Wapahani 21:32
Lauren Smith Cowan 22:15
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 22:18
Natalie Moulton Yorktown 22:43
Ella Garvin New Castle 22:47
Kendyl Thrasher Wapahani 23:14
Sara Barnhizer Yorktown 23:29
Boys Race:
For the boys, the top ECI runner returning for his first race of the season was senior Matthew Mitsch of Yorktown running a blazing time of 16:33 and coming in second place overall! Wapahani had a KILLER 1-2-3 punch running 18:38, 18:39, and 18:40! Only 3 seconds between them, craziness! Yorktown was the top ECI team placing 6th, followed by Wapahani in 8th. Ezra Daniel Wright (Cowan), Skyler Dickey (New Castle), and Caden Shumaker (Monroe Central) once again had great races!
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Matthew Mitsch Yorktown 16:33
Luke Harber Yorktown 18:05
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 18:26
Gannon Crosser Yorktown 18:29
Andrew Shrock Wapahani 18:38
Brandon Ellis Wapahani 18:39
Griffen Miller Wapahani 18:40
Skyler Dickey New Castle 18:42
Caden Shumaker Monroe C. 18:43
Ryan Bade Yorktown 18:44
Girls Race:
For the girls, the top runner for ECI was senior Amberleigh Sorensen with a great time of 20:17 already beating her season best from last year! Two freshmen from New Castle (Lydia Harvey, and Ella Garvin) led the way with some very impressive times. Yorktown was the top ECI team placing 6th, with four runners making the top 10 ECI Girl’s list below. Lexi Wulff (Wapahani), Lauren Smith (Cowan), and Stormie Fitch (Shenandoah) continued their great start to their season!
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Amberleigh Sorensen Yorktown 20:17
Lydia Harvey New Castle 20:27
Elizabeth Reece Yorktown 20:58
Lexi Wulff Wapahani 21:32
Lauren Smith Cowan 22:15
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 22:18
Natalie Moulton Yorktown 22:43
Ella Garvin New Castle 22:47
Kendyl Thrasher Wapahani 23:14
Sara Barnhizer Yorktown 23:29
Boys Race:
For the boys, the top ECI runner returning for his first race of the season was senior Matthew Mitsch of Yorktown running a blazing time of 16:33 and coming in second place overall! Wapahani had a KILLER 1-2-3 punch running 18:38, 18:39, and 18:40! Only 3 seconds between them, craziness! Yorktown was the top ECI team placing 6th, followed by Wapahani in 8th. Ezra Daniel Wright (Cowan), Skyler Dickey (New Castle), and Caden Shumaker (Monroe Central) once again had great races!
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Matthew Mitsch Yorktown 16:33
Luke Harber Yorktown 18:05
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 18:26
Gannon Crosser Yorktown 18:29
Andrew Shrock Wapahani 18:38
Brandon Ellis Wapahani 18:39
Griffen Miller Wapahani 18:40
Skyler Dickey New Castle 18:42
Caden Shumaker Monroe C. 18:43
Ryan Bade Yorktown 18:44
The Meister Family Memorial Run (8/24/19)
This year’s meet at the beautiful Monroe Central Jr.-Sr. High School course saw 9 ECI teams participate including Blackford, Blue River Valley, Cowan, Monroe Central, Muncie Burris, Randolph Southern, Union, Union City and Winchester.
Maria Mitchell of Hamilton Heights ran a new course record of 18:57 to win the meet. On the girl’s side Ella Baldwin of Winchester got off to a great start to her Junior year with a 2nd place finish in 21:13! Lauren Smith (Cowan), Cami Caldwell (Blackford), Hannah Smith (Muncie Burris), and Karly Puckett (Monroe Central) all placed in the top 20. Cowan was the top ECI team which placed 5th overall, followed by Blackford in 6th place.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Ella Baldwin Winchester 21:13
Lauren Smith Cowan 21:36
Cami Caldwell Blackford 22:41
Hannah Smith Muncie Burris 23:20
Karly Puckett Monroe Central 23:29
Emeline Thygerson Muncie Burris 23:37
McKenna Minton Cowan 23:38
Chloe Wyatt Union City 23:45
Savannah Kernel Blue River Valley 24:08
Autumn Rice Union 24:10
Luis Saldana of New Haven won the meet in a time of 16:50. On the boy’s side the top finisher was Caden Shumaker of Monroe Central placing 18th overall in 18:24, closely followed by fellow teammate Tucker Burris in 18:31. Brayden Roberts (Blackford), Ezra Daniel Wright (Cowan), Gabe Sayre (Blue River Valley) all placed in the top 25. Monroe Central was the top ECI team which placed 6th overall followed by Blackford in 7th.
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Caden Shumaker Monroe Central 18:24
Tucker Burris Monroe Central 18:31
Brayden Roberts Blackford 18:35
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 18:35
Gabe Sayre Blue River Valley 18:36
Caden Landis Monroe Central 19:06
Josh Stephenson Muncie Burris 19:13
Luke Richmond Randolph Southern 19:25
Drew Caldwell Blackford 19:26
Nathaniel Kirby Cowan 19:29
Maria Mitchell of Hamilton Heights ran a new course record of 18:57 to win the meet. On the girl’s side Ella Baldwin of Winchester got off to a great start to her Junior year with a 2nd place finish in 21:13! Lauren Smith (Cowan), Cami Caldwell (Blackford), Hannah Smith (Muncie Burris), and Karly Puckett (Monroe Central) all placed in the top 20. Cowan was the top ECI team which placed 5th overall, followed by Blackford in 6th place.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Ella Baldwin Winchester 21:13
Lauren Smith Cowan 21:36
Cami Caldwell Blackford 22:41
Hannah Smith Muncie Burris 23:20
Karly Puckett Monroe Central 23:29
Emeline Thygerson Muncie Burris 23:37
McKenna Minton Cowan 23:38
Chloe Wyatt Union City 23:45
Savannah Kernel Blue River Valley 24:08
Autumn Rice Union 24:10
Luis Saldana of New Haven won the meet in a time of 16:50. On the boy’s side the top finisher was Caden Shumaker of Monroe Central placing 18th overall in 18:24, closely followed by fellow teammate Tucker Burris in 18:31. Brayden Roberts (Blackford), Ezra Daniel Wright (Cowan), Gabe Sayre (Blue River Valley) all placed in the top 25. Monroe Central was the top ECI team which placed 6th overall followed by Blackford in 7th.
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Caden Shumaker Monroe Central 18:24
Tucker Burris Monroe Central 18:31
Brayden Roberts Blackford 18:35
Ezra Daniel Wright Cowan 18:35
Gabe Sayre Blue River Valley 18:36
Caden Landis Monroe Central 19:06
Josh Stephenson Muncie Burris 19:13
Luke Richmond Randolph Southern 19:25
Drew Caldwell Blackford 19:26
Nathaniel Kirby Cowan 19:29
County Clash at Taylor University (8/24/19)
Boys Race:
The boys race saw Delaware County run away with the County Clash Championship and Wapahani taking home the travelling trophy while placing three individuals in the top ten. Leading the charge for the Raiders were Sophomore Brandon Ellis (6th), and Junior’s Griffen Miller (9th) and Andrew Shrock (10th). The top individual finisher from ECI was Muncie Central’s Isaiah Strong who finished 2nd overall for the Bearcats. Delta’s Lucas Fox (3rd) and Yorktown’s Luke Harber (4th) also had top 10 runs on the day.
Delaware County Team Scores
1. Wapahani 38
2. Muncie Central 54
3. Delta 57
4. Yorktown 67
5. Daleville 132
Top ECI Finishers
MUNC Isaiah Strong 17:26
DEL Lucas Fox 17:50
YORK Luke Harber 17:52
WAP Brandon Ellis 17:58
WAP Griffen Miller 18:08
WAP Andrew Shrock 18:20
DEL Cody Bivens 18:34
MUNC Dylan Bradford 18:36
YORK Gannon Crosser 18:49
MUNC A.J. Martinez 19:00
Girls Race:
The Girl's race also saw Delaware County win top County honors, in blowout fashion. Delaware County took 9 of the first 11 spots in the race. The traveling trophy went to the Yorktown Lady Tigers after they placed 3 in the top 10, as well as taking 11th place overall to break the trophy tie with Delta. Amberleigh Sorensen (2nd), Elizabeth Reece (3rd), and Natalie Moulton (9th) were top 10 finishers for Yorktown. Makayla Robles (1st), Shannyn Cox (6th),Ashleigh Brelage (7th) were top 10 finishers for Delta. Also, Paris Turner from Muncie Central also turned in a top 10 finish by finishing 10th.
Delaware County Team Scores
1. Yorktown 33
2. Delta 50
3. Wapahani 97
4. Muncie Central 105
5. Wes-Del 114
6. Daleville 129
Top ECI Finishers
DELT Makayla Robles 20:23
YORK Amberleigh Sorensen 20:48
YORK Elizabeth Reece 21:02
WAP Lexi Wulff 21:06
DELT Shannyn Cox 21:52
DELT Ashleigh Brelage 22:07
YORK Natalie Moulton 22:31
MUNCE Paris Turner 22:35
YORK Sara Barnhizer 22:36
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 22:57
The boys race saw Delaware County run away with the County Clash Championship and Wapahani taking home the travelling trophy while placing three individuals in the top ten. Leading the charge for the Raiders were Sophomore Brandon Ellis (6th), and Junior’s Griffen Miller (9th) and Andrew Shrock (10th). The top individual finisher from ECI was Muncie Central’s Isaiah Strong who finished 2nd overall for the Bearcats. Delta’s Lucas Fox (3rd) and Yorktown’s Luke Harber (4th) also had top 10 runs on the day.
Delaware County Team Scores
1. Wapahani 38
2. Muncie Central 54
3. Delta 57
4. Yorktown 67
5. Daleville 132
Top ECI Finishers
MUNC Isaiah Strong 17:26
DEL Lucas Fox 17:50
YORK Luke Harber 17:52
WAP Brandon Ellis 17:58
WAP Griffen Miller 18:08
WAP Andrew Shrock 18:20
DEL Cody Bivens 18:34
MUNC Dylan Bradford 18:36
YORK Gannon Crosser 18:49
MUNC A.J. Martinez 19:00
Girls Race:
The Girl's race also saw Delaware County win top County honors, in blowout fashion. Delaware County took 9 of the first 11 spots in the race. The traveling trophy went to the Yorktown Lady Tigers after they placed 3 in the top 10, as well as taking 11th place overall to break the trophy tie with Delta. Amberleigh Sorensen (2nd), Elizabeth Reece (3rd), and Natalie Moulton (9th) were top 10 finishers for Yorktown. Makayla Robles (1st), Shannyn Cox (6th),Ashleigh Brelage (7th) were top 10 finishers for Delta. Also, Paris Turner from Muncie Central also turned in a top 10 finish by finishing 10th.
Delaware County Team Scores
1. Yorktown 33
2. Delta 50
3. Wapahani 97
4. Muncie Central 105
5. Wes-Del 114
6. Daleville 129
Top ECI Finishers
DELT Makayla Robles 20:23
YORK Amberleigh Sorensen 20:48
YORK Elizabeth Reece 21:02
WAP Lexi Wulff 21:06
DELT Shannyn Cox 21:52
DELT Ashleigh Brelage 22:07
YORK Natalie Moulton 22:31
MUNCE Paris Turner 22:35
YORK Sara Barnhizer 22:36
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 22:57
Winchester 4K Invite (8/21/19)
Boys Race:
A few ECI schools headed to Winchester on Wednesday night for a 4K to start their respective seasons. In the boys race there was strong pack running up front by the Wapahani squad that placed 3 of the top 4 race finishers (including overall winner Andrew Shrock), 5 in the top 10 and 7 in the top 15. Muncie Burris finished 2nd as a team in the meet led by Lunden Olinger’s 5th place finish. Wes Del’s Luke Butler and Winchester’s Gage Patterson had impressive starts to their seasons finishing 7th and 8th respectively.
ECI Team Scores:
1. Wapahani 22
2. Muncie Burris 64
4. Winchester 100
INC. Wes-Del
Top ECI Finishers
WAP Andrew Shrock 14:40
WAP Brandon Ellis 14:43
WAP Griffen Miller 15:15
BUR Lunden Olinger 15:19
WAP Colton Boggs 15:23
WES Luke Butler 15:24
WIN Gage Patterson 15:29
WAP Joey Dickinson 15:42
WAP Jon Shrock 15:42
BUR Max Davis 15:45
Girls Race:
The girl’s race saw the top 3 teams finish within 2 points of each other in a very competitive field. The Lady Raiders of Wapahani posted the best team score of all ECI teams with a 2nd place team finish overall. Wapahani’s Lexi Wulff was also the top ECI finisher with a 2nd place individual finish. Not to far behind Wulff was Winchester’s frontrunner Ella Baldwin who finished 3rd overall.
ECI Team Scores:
2. Wapahani 58
4. Wes-Del 67
5. Winchester 91
INC. Burris
Top ECI Finishers
WAP Lexi Wulff 17:14
WIN Ella Baldwin 17:28
BUR Emeline Thygerson 18:21
BUR Hannah Smith 18:25
WES Jaci Knott 18:44
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 18:49
WES Kamryn McGlothlin 20:02
WAP Khloe Felton 21:05
WES Andrea Stoughton 21:30
WES Aleigha Swift 22:03
A few ECI schools headed to Winchester on Wednesday night for a 4K to start their respective seasons. In the boys race there was strong pack running up front by the Wapahani squad that placed 3 of the top 4 race finishers (including overall winner Andrew Shrock), 5 in the top 10 and 7 in the top 15. Muncie Burris finished 2nd as a team in the meet led by Lunden Olinger’s 5th place finish. Wes Del’s Luke Butler and Winchester’s Gage Patterson had impressive starts to their seasons finishing 7th and 8th respectively.
ECI Team Scores:
1. Wapahani 22
2. Muncie Burris 64
4. Winchester 100
INC. Wes-Del
Top ECI Finishers
WAP Andrew Shrock 14:40
WAP Brandon Ellis 14:43
WAP Griffen Miller 15:15
BUR Lunden Olinger 15:19
WAP Colton Boggs 15:23
WES Luke Butler 15:24
WIN Gage Patterson 15:29
WAP Joey Dickinson 15:42
WAP Jon Shrock 15:42
BUR Max Davis 15:45
Girls Race:
The girl’s race saw the top 3 teams finish within 2 points of each other in a very competitive field. The Lady Raiders of Wapahani posted the best team score of all ECI teams with a 2nd place team finish overall. Wapahani’s Lexi Wulff was also the top ECI finisher with a 2nd place individual finish. Not to far behind Wulff was Winchester’s frontrunner Ella Baldwin who finished 3rd overall.
ECI Team Scores:
2. Wapahani 58
4. Wes-Del 67
5. Winchester 91
INC. Burris
Top ECI Finishers
WAP Lexi Wulff 17:14
WIN Ella Baldwin 17:28
BUR Emeline Thygerson 18:21
BUR Hannah Smith 18:25
WES Jaci Knott 18:44
WAP Kendyl Thrasher 18:49
WES Kamryn McGlothlin 20:02
WAP Khloe Felton 21:05
WES Andrea Stoughton 21:30
WES Aleigha Swift 22:03
2018 XC Season
Mid-Eastern Conference Meet (9/29/18)
Girls Race
The Girls MEC Race was the tale of two dominating performances. One by front-runner Leah Keesling whose 19:34 (on a traditional slower Blue River course) was more than enough to give her the same MEC individual crown that her older sister Emma was able to win a season ago. And the second impressive performance was by the Wapahani Lady Raiders, who were led by the dynamic duo of Lexi Wulff (3rd) and Olivia Neal (4th) as well as solid runs by Jasmine Mountcastle, Sydney Cook and Carlie Boggs to cruise to a 40 point win for their first MEC title since 2007. Another outstanding performance was by Cowan’s Lauren Smith who continued her successful season by finishing 2nd overall and continues to set herself up for a serious run at a semi-state bid in the weeks ahead.
Top 10 ECI Girls Times
1. Leah Keesling RAND 19:34
2. Lauren Smith COW 21:10
3. Lexi Wulff WAP 21:47
4. Olivia Neal WAP 21:52
5. Madi Jenkins SHEN 22:06
6. Jaci Knott WESD 22:17
7. Autumn Rice UNION 22:28
8. Audrey Shepler DALE 22:38
9. Brooke Pritchett DALE 22:42
11. Jasmine Mountcastle WAP 22:53
Boys Race
The Monroe Central boys have relied on pack running for their success most of the season and that was evident on this day as they were able to place three Bears in the top 10 including Carter Miller (7th), Caden Shumaker (8th) and Dalton Winans (9th) to out pace the Wapahani Raiders for the MEC title. Monroe Central also saw solid runs from seniors Zane Kear and Riley Moulton to give the Bears the edge. Second place Wapahani was led by All Conference performances by Blake Ellis (4th) and a solid PR by Griffen Miller (6th). On the individual side of things Blue River’s Andrew Whittinger was able to outdistance the field for the win while Shenandoah’s front-runner Borru Kishpaugh used a nice second half race push to finish second.
Top 10 ECI Boys Times
1. Andrew Whitinger BRV 17:11
2. Borru Kishpaugh SHEN 17:43
4. Blake Ellis WAP 17:56
6. Griffen Miller WAP 18:16
7. Carter Miller MONC 18:19
8. Caden Shumaker MONC 18:23
9. Dalton Winans MONC 18:25
10. Joey Liles BRV 18:39
11. Luke Butler WESD 18:48
12. Preston White COW 18:49
The Girls MEC Race was the tale of two dominating performances. One by front-runner Leah Keesling whose 19:34 (on a traditional slower Blue River course) was more than enough to give her the same MEC individual crown that her older sister Emma was able to win a season ago. And the second impressive performance was by the Wapahani Lady Raiders, who were led by the dynamic duo of Lexi Wulff (3rd) and Olivia Neal (4th) as well as solid runs by Jasmine Mountcastle, Sydney Cook and Carlie Boggs to cruise to a 40 point win for their first MEC title since 2007. Another outstanding performance was by Cowan’s Lauren Smith who continued her successful season by finishing 2nd overall and continues to set herself up for a serious run at a semi-state bid in the weeks ahead.
Top 10 ECI Girls Times
1. Leah Keesling RAND 19:34
2. Lauren Smith COW 21:10
3. Lexi Wulff WAP 21:47
4. Olivia Neal WAP 21:52
5. Madi Jenkins SHEN 22:06
6. Jaci Knott WESD 22:17
7. Autumn Rice UNION 22:28
8. Audrey Shepler DALE 22:38
9. Brooke Pritchett DALE 22:42
11. Jasmine Mountcastle WAP 22:53
Boys Race
The Monroe Central boys have relied on pack running for their success most of the season and that was evident on this day as they were able to place three Bears in the top 10 including Carter Miller (7th), Caden Shumaker (8th) and Dalton Winans (9th) to out pace the Wapahani Raiders for the MEC title. Monroe Central also saw solid runs from seniors Zane Kear and Riley Moulton to give the Bears the edge. Second place Wapahani was led by All Conference performances by Blake Ellis (4th) and a solid PR by Griffen Miller (6th). On the individual side of things Blue River’s Andrew Whittinger was able to outdistance the field for the win while Shenandoah’s front-runner Borru Kishpaugh used a nice second half race push to finish second.
Top 10 ECI Boys Times
1. Andrew Whitinger BRV 17:11
2. Borru Kishpaugh SHEN 17:43
4. Blake Ellis WAP 17:56
6. Griffen Miller WAP 18:16
7. Carter Miller MONC 18:19
8. Caden Shumaker MONC 18:23
9. Dalton Winans MONC 18:25
10. Joey Liles BRV 18:39
11. Luke Butler WESD 18:48
12. Preston White COW 18:49
New Haven Classic (9/22/18)
Girls Race:
op Five teSeveral ECI Girl's teams traveled up to the New Haven Classic course, in hopes that they might return here in 4 weeks to compete at the New Haven Semi-State. The 4 ECI teams were spread out through 3 different divisions, but the weather and course conditions were primed for some fast racing no matter what division you competed in on this morning.
"A Race"
The Monroe Central Golden Bears and Wapahani Raiders both competed in the first ECI competition of the day. Wapahani was missing half of their frontrunning duo, with Lexi Wulff missing the meet. But, her teammate Olivia Neal had a solid race finishing 29th in 21:43 to lead the Raiders to a 13th place team finish. Raider teammate Jasmine Mountcastle, continued a really impressive season of continued improvement with a 48th place finish in 22:42. The top Golden Bear finisher was Madyson Davison in 80th, running 23:57. The Monroe Central squad also seemed to missing their top runner, Gabby Beckham for this contest, but still managed a 19th place team finish.
"AA Race"
The Yorktown Lady Tigers competed in the middle-sized AA race. The were led by Amberleigh Sorensen (14th) and Elizabeth Reece's (26th) medalist performances. The Tigers also received a PR performance from their #3 runner Sara Barnhizer, who finished in 52nd place with over a minute PR, finishing in 21:54.
"AAA Race"
The Large school division consisted of school with an enrollment of 1400 or more students. So, it was definitely going to be chalked full of great competition. And that is where the Muncie Central Lady Bearcats found themselves racing. The Bearcats were up to the task and used the great competition to post some impressive times. Janelle Woods-Barnes was the top finisher for Muncie Central, running a 21:09 and finishing in 51st place. The next bearcat to cross the line was Paris Turner in 97th. The Bearcats finished in 14th place as a team on the day.
Top 10 ECI Girls Times:
Boys Race:
Four of the top Five teams from last week’s ECI poll including Muncie Central, Yorktown, Monroe Central and Wapahani rolled into the New Haven Inv. this Saturday to compete in three different races for a nice little appetizer of what will be some very competitive races against each other in the weeks ahead. And with the aid of some much appreciated mild weather, these teams were able to turn in some of their best races of the year.
“A Race”
Monroe Central and Wapahani competed in the Small School “A Race” with Monroe Central finishing 5th and Wapahani 10th out of 25 complete teams. Monroe Central was able to get solid performances of their 1-4 who all finished within 15 seconds of each other ranging from 17:59-18:14 as they are definitely throwing their hat in the ring for a sectional crown in the weeks ahead. Wapahani’s Blake Ellis continued his steady improvement this year with a new PR of 17:21 which gave him an 11th place overall finish. However, Wapahani will definitely need more help from their 2-5 if they hope to compete with the Bears for the MEC Conference next week.
“AA Race”
The Yorktown boys ran in the Division AA race and finished 14th out of 16 teams sans Matt Mitsch who opted to run in the large school race. That said, the Tigers still saw some nice runs from Sean Weiss and Caleb Bonsack who both broke the 18 minute as they continue to set themselves up as a three headed monster up front come tournament season.
“AAA Race”
The large school race saw Muncie Central and Yorktown’s Matt Mitsch competing in what was a very fast race. Matt Mitsch continued his tear this season with a 16:07 time and a 8th place overall finish. Impressive, especially considering he was facing many of the same runners he will see next month as he makes a bid to qualify for the state meet. Muncie was led by Isaiah Bennett who placed 60th overall with a 17:07 time. The Bearcats finished 18th out of 19 teams but still seem to be very much in the mix of things once their top five runners set into place.
Individual Top 10 Times
1. Matt Mitsch YORK 16:07
2. Isaiah Bennett MUNC 17:07
3. Blake Ellis WAP 17:21
4. Sean Weiss YORK 17:51
5. Caleb Bonsack YORK 17:52
6. Carter Miller MONC 17:59
7. Dalton Winans MONC 18:00
8. Kavon Byrd MUNC 18:05
9. Zane Kear MONC 18:07
10. Kadin Shumaker MONC 18:14
op Five teSeveral ECI Girl's teams traveled up to the New Haven Classic course, in hopes that they might return here in 4 weeks to compete at the New Haven Semi-State. The 4 ECI teams were spread out through 3 different divisions, but the weather and course conditions were primed for some fast racing no matter what division you competed in on this morning.
"A Race"
The Monroe Central Golden Bears and Wapahani Raiders both competed in the first ECI competition of the day. Wapahani was missing half of their frontrunning duo, with Lexi Wulff missing the meet. But, her teammate Olivia Neal had a solid race finishing 29th in 21:43 to lead the Raiders to a 13th place team finish. Raider teammate Jasmine Mountcastle, continued a really impressive season of continued improvement with a 48th place finish in 22:42. The top Golden Bear finisher was Madyson Davison in 80th, running 23:57. The Monroe Central squad also seemed to missing their top runner, Gabby Beckham for this contest, but still managed a 19th place team finish.
"AA Race"
The Yorktown Lady Tigers competed in the middle-sized AA race. The were led by Amberleigh Sorensen (14th) and Elizabeth Reece's (26th) medalist performances. The Tigers also received a PR performance from their #3 runner Sara Barnhizer, who finished in 52nd place with over a minute PR, finishing in 21:54.
"AAA Race"
The Large school division consisted of school with an enrollment of 1400 or more students. So, it was definitely going to be chalked full of great competition. And that is where the Muncie Central Lady Bearcats found themselves racing. The Bearcats were up to the task and used the great competition to post some impressive times. Janelle Woods-Barnes was the top finisher for Muncie Central, running a 21:09 and finishing in 51st place. The next bearcat to cross the line was Paris Turner in 97th. The Bearcats finished in 14th place as a team on the day.
Top 10 ECI Girls Times:
- Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 20:21
- Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:09.6
- Janelle Woods-Barnes MUCE 21:09.6
- Olivia Neal WAP 21:43
- Sara Barnhizer YORK 21:54
- Jasmine Mountcastle WAP 22:42
- Paris Turner MUCE 22:47
- Jenna O'Donahue MUCE 23:16.3
- Sydney Cook WAP 23:16.4
- Kaitlynn Santino YORK 23:50
Boys Race:
Four of the top Five teams from last week’s ECI poll including Muncie Central, Yorktown, Monroe Central and Wapahani rolled into the New Haven Inv. this Saturday to compete in three different races for a nice little appetizer of what will be some very competitive races against each other in the weeks ahead. And with the aid of some much appreciated mild weather, these teams were able to turn in some of their best races of the year.
“A Race”
Monroe Central and Wapahani competed in the Small School “A Race” with Monroe Central finishing 5th and Wapahani 10th out of 25 complete teams. Monroe Central was able to get solid performances of their 1-4 who all finished within 15 seconds of each other ranging from 17:59-18:14 as they are definitely throwing their hat in the ring for a sectional crown in the weeks ahead. Wapahani’s Blake Ellis continued his steady improvement this year with a new PR of 17:21 which gave him an 11th place overall finish. However, Wapahani will definitely need more help from their 2-5 if they hope to compete with the Bears for the MEC Conference next week.
“AA Race”
The Yorktown boys ran in the Division AA race and finished 14th out of 16 teams sans Matt Mitsch who opted to run in the large school race. That said, the Tigers still saw some nice runs from Sean Weiss and Caleb Bonsack who both broke the 18 minute as they continue to set themselves up as a three headed monster up front come tournament season.
“AAA Race”
The large school race saw Muncie Central and Yorktown’s Matt Mitsch competing in what was a very fast race. Matt Mitsch continued his tear this season with a 16:07 time and a 8th place overall finish. Impressive, especially considering he was facing many of the same runners he will see next month as he makes a bid to qualify for the state meet. Muncie was led by Isaiah Bennett who placed 60th overall with a 17:07 time. The Bearcats finished 18th out of 19 teams but still seem to be very much in the mix of things once their top five runners set into place.
Individual Top 10 Times
1. Matt Mitsch YORK 16:07
2. Isaiah Bennett MUNC 17:07
3. Blake Ellis WAP 17:21
4. Sean Weiss YORK 17:51
5. Caleb Bonsack YORK 17:52
6. Carter Miller MONC 17:59
7. Dalton Winans MONC 18:00
8. Kavon Byrd MUNC 18:05
9. Zane Kear MONC 18:07
10. Kadin Shumaker MONC 18:14
Yorktown "Jim Leffler" Invitational (9/15/18)
9 ECI Teams rolled into the Muncie SportsPlex on Saturday morning to compete after many had meets rained out earlier in the week. For many teams this was also a nice preview of the Sectional and Regional site that many of these same teams will battle on less than a month from now.
On the Boy's side The Muncie Central Bearcats showed why they are the defending Sectional Champs. The Bearcats ran a strong team race to take 5th overall as a team and lead all ECI teams. They were led by 2 top-20 finishes with Isaiah Bennett finishing 7th and Kavan Byrd finishing 19th. The Yorktown Tigers were 9 points behind the Bearcats, in 6th place. They were led by the individual champ Matt Mitsch and Sean Weiss in 17th. Other top 10 finishers from ECI schools were Elliott Whiteside from Muncie Burris in 6th overall. Shenandoah's Borru Kishpaugh finished 8th overall, and Cowan's Daniel Wright finished in 10th.
In the Girl's race, the Yorktown Tiger Girls grinded out a 3rd place team finish. The Lady Tigers were led by a 4th place finish by Amberleigh Sorensen, which was the top finish of any ECI runner on the day. Elizabeth Reece also ran to a top 10 finish for Yorktown, finishing 8th overall. The Wapahani Lady Raiders were close behind the Tigers, 8 points back in 4th place. The Raiders were led by 2 top 20 finishers, Lexi Wulff in 11th and Olivia Neal in 16th. Other ECI finishers in the top 10 were Jay County's Sophia Fugiett, who had her best performance of the 2018 season by finishing 5th. And speaking of great performances, Lauren Smith from Cowan had an amazing run, finishing 6th overall.
Top 10 ECI Girls:
Top 10 ECI Boys:
On the Boy's side The Muncie Central Bearcats showed why they are the defending Sectional Champs. The Bearcats ran a strong team race to take 5th overall as a team and lead all ECI teams. They were led by 2 top-20 finishes with Isaiah Bennett finishing 7th and Kavan Byrd finishing 19th. The Yorktown Tigers were 9 points behind the Bearcats, in 6th place. They were led by the individual champ Matt Mitsch and Sean Weiss in 17th. Other top 10 finishers from ECI schools were Elliott Whiteside from Muncie Burris in 6th overall. Shenandoah's Borru Kishpaugh finished 8th overall, and Cowan's Daniel Wright finished in 10th.
In the Girl's race, the Yorktown Tiger Girls grinded out a 3rd place team finish. The Lady Tigers were led by a 4th place finish by Amberleigh Sorensen, which was the top finish of any ECI runner on the day. Elizabeth Reece also ran to a top 10 finish for Yorktown, finishing 8th overall. The Wapahani Lady Raiders were close behind the Tigers, 8 points back in 4th place. The Raiders were led by 2 top 20 finishers, Lexi Wulff in 11th and Olivia Neal in 16th. Other ECI finishers in the top 10 were Jay County's Sophia Fugiett, who had her best performance of the 2018 season by finishing 5th. And speaking of great performances, Lauren Smith from Cowan had an amazing run, finishing 6th overall.
Top 10 ECI Girls:
- Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 21:05
- Sophia Fugiett JAY 21:11
- Lauren Smith COW 21:25
- Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:42
- Lexi Wulff WAP 21:58
- Madi Jenkins SHEN 22:04
- Janelle Woods-Barnes MUCE 22:10
- Olivia Neal WAP 22:15
- Hannah Smith MUBU 22:22
- Audrey Shepler DALE 22:42
Top 10 ECI Boys:
- Matt Mitsch YORK 16:35
- Elliott Whiteside MUBU 17:27
- Isaiah Bennett MUCE 17:30
- Borru Kishpaugh SHEN 17:33
- Daniel Wright COW 17:43
- Blake Ellis WAP 17:50
- Sean Weiss YORK 17:58
- Kavan Byrd MUCE 17:58
- Caleb Bonsack YORK 18:15
- Britton Adkins NC 18:22
Delaware County Meet (9/4/18)
6 ECI teams rolled into the Delaware County Meet on a hot and humid Tuesday evening to battle it out for county bragging rights. The Boy's race featured 3 teams that have been in the ECIRunner Top 5 teams this year, while the Girl's race featured the 3 teams that are currently perched at the top of the Top 5 team rankings.
The girl's race sure looked to be a tight one on paper and it lived up to the billing as Delta, Yorktown and Wapahani have been very evenly matched this year. Yorktown pulled out the close win on this day as the Tigers outpaced the Eagles by 6 points to win the Delaware County trophy for the 3rd year in a row. The Tigers were led by junior Amberleigh Sorensen, who held off a charging Makayla Robles down the stretch to win the individual county title. The Tigers also had 3 other All-County top 10 finishers in Elizabeth Reece (3rd), Sara Barnhizer (8th), and Grace Huisman (9th). The Eagles had Ashleigh Brelage (4th) join her teammate Robles as a top-ten ALL-County finisher as well. The Wapahani Raiders finished 3rd place as a team behind the All-County Duo of Lexi Wulff (6th) and Olivia Neal (7th). Other top-10 All-County finishers were freshman Lauren Smith (5th), who had a fantastic race for the Cowan Blackhawks, and Daleville's Audrey Shepler (10th), another freshman that posted a great race in tough conditions.
On the Boy's side of things the Yorktown Tigers were victorious as well. Winning their first Delaware County championship since 2012. Also, marking the first time that one school has collected both Delaware County team titles in over 10 years. The Tigers were led by individual champion Matt Mitsch. But, he had Tiger teammates that were not too far behind with Caleb Bonsack and Sean Weiss taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. One other Tiger, senior Sam Willey, posted an All-County top-10 finish by crossing the line in 9th. The team runner-up was the Delta Eagles, making a pretty strong statement after dropping out of the ECIRunner Top 5 Teams poll this past weekend. The Eagles were led by Cody Brelage (6th) and Lucas Fox (7th). The Wapahani Raiders were only 8 points behind the Eagles, placing 3rd in the team race. They were led by Blake Ellis in 4th place overall. Other top-10 All-County Finishers were Daniel Wright (5th) and Preston White (8th) from the Cowan Blackhawks, who looked to have very strong races on their home course. And Khoa Weston from Daleville, who placed 10th overall.
Top 10 Girls ECI Times:
Top 10 Boys ECI Times:
The girl's race sure looked to be a tight one on paper and it lived up to the billing as Delta, Yorktown and Wapahani have been very evenly matched this year. Yorktown pulled out the close win on this day as the Tigers outpaced the Eagles by 6 points to win the Delaware County trophy for the 3rd year in a row. The Tigers were led by junior Amberleigh Sorensen, who held off a charging Makayla Robles down the stretch to win the individual county title. The Tigers also had 3 other All-County top 10 finishers in Elizabeth Reece (3rd), Sara Barnhizer (8th), and Grace Huisman (9th). The Eagles had Ashleigh Brelage (4th) join her teammate Robles as a top-ten ALL-County finisher as well. The Wapahani Raiders finished 3rd place as a team behind the All-County Duo of Lexi Wulff (6th) and Olivia Neal (7th). Other top-10 All-County finishers were freshman Lauren Smith (5th), who had a fantastic race for the Cowan Blackhawks, and Daleville's Audrey Shepler (10th), another freshman that posted a great race in tough conditions.
On the Boy's side of things the Yorktown Tigers were victorious as well. Winning their first Delaware County championship since 2012. Also, marking the first time that one school has collected both Delaware County team titles in over 10 years. The Tigers were led by individual champion Matt Mitsch. But, he had Tiger teammates that were not too far behind with Caleb Bonsack and Sean Weiss taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. One other Tiger, senior Sam Willey, posted an All-County top-10 finish by crossing the line in 9th. The team runner-up was the Delta Eagles, making a pretty strong statement after dropping out of the ECIRunner Top 5 Teams poll this past weekend. The Eagles were led by Cody Brelage (6th) and Lucas Fox (7th). The Wapahani Raiders were only 8 points behind the Eagles, placing 3rd in the team race. They were led by Blake Ellis in 4th place overall. Other top-10 All-County Finishers were Daniel Wright (5th) and Preston White (8th) from the Cowan Blackhawks, who looked to have very strong races on their home course. And Khoa Weston from Daleville, who placed 10th overall.
Top 10 Girls ECI Times:
- Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 21:17
- Makayla Robles DELT 21:20
- Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:58
- Ashleigh Brelage DELT 23:00
- Lauren Smith COW 23:03
- Lexi Wulff WAP 23:24
- Olivia Neal WAP 23:39
- Sara Barnhizer YORK 24:21
- Grace Huisman YORK 24:26
- Audrey Shepler DALE 24:38
Top 10 Boys ECI Times:
- Matt Mitsch YORK 17:31
- Caleb Bonsack YORK 18:12
- Sean Weiss YORK 18:16
- Blake Ellis WAP 18:22
- Daniel Wright COW 18:32
- Cody Brelage DELT 19:03
- Lucas Fox DELT 19:10
- Preston White COW 19:23
- Sam Willey YORK 19:46
- Khoa Weston DALE 19:52
Marion Invite (9/1/18)
Girls Race Recap:
Although many Girl’s ECI teams raced at the Marion Invitational on Saturday, very few were actually on the course at the same time. 6 different ECI teams competed in 4 different races, but when you start to put the times together, you start to see a lot of parity throughout the area.
In the Red Division Randolph Southern and Winchester started off the day with a race that was led from wire-to-wire by the Rebels Leah Keesling. The top ECI runner looked smooth as she won in a time of 19:46, the best time posted by an ECI female for the day. But, not far behind was another top ECI girl in Winchester’s Ella Baldwin. Baldwin finished 7th overall in 21:46. In the team race the Winchester ladies (8th) edged out Randolph Southern (9th) by 21 points.
Next up was the Elite race, which featured Yorktown. The Lady Tigers were in the race due to their 2nd place finish in their division race last year. But, after losing 5 seniors, this year’s Yorktown squad looked to be a bit too large of a stage. They finished 18th in the 18 team field. They were led by junior Amberleigh Sorensen in 83th place (21:24) and Elizabeth Reece in 97th (21:46).
In the Gold race the Delta Eagles paced their way to a 5th place overall finish. The Eagles top runner, Freshman Makayla Robles had a fantastic day, finishing 3rd overall and posting the 2nd best 5k time of the day by an ECI girl at 21:20. Her teammate, sophomore Ashleigh Brelage also medaled in the race by finishing 14th overall in a time of 22:31.
Finally, in the Purple division, the New Castle Trojans and Muncie Central Bearcats competed in noticeably warmer, late-day conditions. Muncie Central ended up finishing 7th overall in the team race, while the Trojans fell just short of fielding a full team. The Bearcats were led by Janelle Woods-Barnes who finished 11th overall in 22:18, teammate Paris Turner also medaled by finishing 32nd in 23:55. New Castle was paced by freshman Lily Saunders who finished 40th in a time of 24:31.
Top 15 ECI Girls Times:
7 ECI teams took to the flat course of the Marion Invitational at Indiana Wesleyan University. After most teams had meets cancelled for last weekend, several came in with several extra days since their last meets. Stepping to the line for the Red race were the smaller schools. Winchester and Randolph Southern were the ECI participants in this race. Winchester frontrunner Camden Abernathy led the way with a strong performance with a 4th place overall finish in a time of 17:09.5. The next ECI finishers were Camden’s teammates, Trenton Sanders and Gage Patterson in 37th and 38th places, respectively. Randolph Southern’s top finisher came in at 45th place, Luke Richmond, followed closely by teammate Joseph Hosbrookin 46th.
Next up for the varsity boy’s races was the Gold division, as temperatures started to raise from the cooler weather of the first race. Delta and Muncie Burris were the ECI participants in this race. Elliott Whiteside of Muncie Burris led the way for ECI individuals with a 4th place finish in a time of 17:15.9. The next ECI finisher was Delta’s top individual in 21st place, Cody Brelage.
In the final high school race of the day, Yorktown, Muncie Central and New Castle took to the course. Matthew Mitsch took to the lead early in the race and never relented, leading wire-to-wire in a personal best time of 16:30.9, cementing himself as the top ECI runner in the area. The next ECI runners, following Mitsch, were his teammates Caleb Bonsack (6th) and Sean Weiss (10th) and Muncie Central’s Isaiah Bennett (9th). New Castle’s top finisher was Britton Adkins in his season debut in 14th place.
Top 15 ECI Boys Times
Although many Girl’s ECI teams raced at the Marion Invitational on Saturday, very few were actually on the course at the same time. 6 different ECI teams competed in 4 different races, but when you start to put the times together, you start to see a lot of parity throughout the area.
In the Red Division Randolph Southern and Winchester started off the day with a race that was led from wire-to-wire by the Rebels Leah Keesling. The top ECI runner looked smooth as she won in a time of 19:46, the best time posted by an ECI female for the day. But, not far behind was another top ECI girl in Winchester’s Ella Baldwin. Baldwin finished 7th overall in 21:46. In the team race the Winchester ladies (8th) edged out Randolph Southern (9th) by 21 points.
Next up was the Elite race, which featured Yorktown. The Lady Tigers were in the race due to their 2nd place finish in their division race last year. But, after losing 5 seniors, this year’s Yorktown squad looked to be a bit too large of a stage. They finished 18th in the 18 team field. They were led by junior Amberleigh Sorensen in 83th place (21:24) and Elizabeth Reece in 97th (21:46).
In the Gold race the Delta Eagles paced their way to a 5th place overall finish. The Eagles top runner, Freshman Makayla Robles had a fantastic day, finishing 3rd overall and posting the 2nd best 5k time of the day by an ECI girl at 21:20. Her teammate, sophomore Ashleigh Brelage also medaled in the race by finishing 14th overall in a time of 22:31.
Finally, in the Purple division, the New Castle Trojans and Muncie Central Bearcats competed in noticeably warmer, late-day conditions. Muncie Central ended up finishing 7th overall in the team race, while the Trojans fell just short of fielding a full team. The Bearcats were led by Janelle Woods-Barnes who finished 11th overall in 22:18, teammate Paris Turner also medaled by finishing 32nd in 23:55. New Castle was paced by freshman Lily Saunders who finished 40th in a time of 24:31.
Top 15 ECI Girls Times:
- Leah Keesling RAND 19:46
- Makayla Robles DELT 21:20
- Amberleigh Sorensen YORK 21:24
- Ella Baldwin WIN 21:46
- Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:46
- Janelle Woods-Barnes MUCE 22:18
- Ashleigh Brelage DELT 22:31
- Paris Turner MUCE 23:55
- Sara Barnhizer YORK 24:03
- Lily Saunders NC 24:31
- Jenna O’Donahue MUCE 24:34
- Kaitlynn Santino YORK 24:34
- Ashley Rees WIN 24:44
- Skyann Cansler DELT 24:45
- Harley Shin RAND 24:53
7 ECI teams took to the flat course of the Marion Invitational at Indiana Wesleyan University. After most teams had meets cancelled for last weekend, several came in with several extra days since their last meets. Stepping to the line for the Red race were the smaller schools. Winchester and Randolph Southern were the ECI participants in this race. Winchester frontrunner Camden Abernathy led the way with a strong performance with a 4th place overall finish in a time of 17:09.5. The next ECI finishers were Camden’s teammates, Trenton Sanders and Gage Patterson in 37th and 38th places, respectively. Randolph Southern’s top finisher came in at 45th place, Luke Richmond, followed closely by teammate Joseph Hosbrookin 46th.
Next up for the varsity boy’s races was the Gold division, as temperatures started to raise from the cooler weather of the first race. Delta and Muncie Burris were the ECI participants in this race. Elliott Whiteside of Muncie Burris led the way for ECI individuals with a 4th place finish in a time of 17:15.9. The next ECI finisher was Delta’s top individual in 21st place, Cody Brelage.
In the final high school race of the day, Yorktown, Muncie Central and New Castle took to the course. Matthew Mitsch took to the lead early in the race and never relented, leading wire-to-wire in a personal best time of 16:30.9, cementing himself as the top ECI runner in the area. The next ECI runners, following Mitsch, were his teammates Caleb Bonsack (6th) and Sean Weiss (10th) and Muncie Central’s Isaiah Bennett (9th). New Castle’s top finisher was Britton Adkins in his season debut in 14th place.
Top 15 ECI Boys Times
- Matthew Mitsch YORK 16:30
- Camden Abernathy WIN 17:09
- Elliott Whiteside MUBU 17:15
- Caleb Bonsack YORK 18:05
- Isaiah Bennett MUCE 18:10
- Sean Weiss YORK 18:13
- Kavan Byrd MUCE 18:26
- Britton Adkins NC 18:31
- Cody Brelage DELT 18:33
- Lucas Fox DELT 18:48
- Jaycee Wilburn NC 18:49
- AJ Martinez MUCE 19:12
- Trenton Sanders WIN 19:12
- Cody Bivens DELT 19:14
- Gage Patterson WIN 19:21
Wapahani Invite (8/28/18)
The Wapahani Invite’s hilly terrain always makes it for a challenging course but Tuesday evening’s heat and humidity made it all the more challenging. That said, several ECI teams were eager to get back out on the course after many teams were rained out of their races this past weekend.
On the girls side, Wapahani showed out in a big way placing 5 in the top 12 overall with Lexi Wulff and Olivia Neal leading the way with 4th and 5th places respectively as they try to build momentum toward the Delaware county meet next week against very good Delta and Yorktown teams. Individually, Winchester’s Ella Baldwin continued her early season success with a great second half finish to the race to finish as the overall winner (as well as leading her team to a second place team finish) and Union City’s Reagan Hoggett paced Union City with a third place overall finish.
Top 10 ECI Girls Times
Ella Baldwin WIN 21:45
Reagan Hoggatt UCHS 21:49
Lexi Wulff WAP 22:17
Olivia Neal WAP 22:29
Madi Jenkins SHEN 22:45
Audrey Shepler DALE 23:35
Sydney Cook WAP 23:41
Jaci Knott WESD 24:24
Natalie Thurman BLACK 24:48
Jasmine Mountcastle WAP 25:14
The top boys team in the ECI area was the Wapahani Raiders who placed 2nd in the 11 school field. The Raiders were led by top 10 finishes from Blake Ellis (8th) and an emerging Andrew Shrock who finished 10th. The biggest surprise of the night however may have been the Winchester Falcons who were paced by Camden Abernathy’s second place overall finish (not a surprise there) but also saw an improving 2-5 that helped the Falcons to a 3rd place team finish. The season may be early but the Falcons must be eyeing a possible team regional birth by the season’s end if this group can continue to develop.
Top 10 ECI Boys Times
Camden Abernathy WIN 17:15
Borru Kishpaugh SHEN 17:45
Blake Ellis WAP 18:37
Andrew Shrock WAP 19:00
Dawson Mattox WESD 19:21
Trenton Sanders WIN 19:34
Eli Isom DALE 19:43
George Patterson WIN 19:51
Griffen Miller WAP 19:55
Nate Kimball SHEN 20:14
On the girls side, Wapahani showed out in a big way placing 5 in the top 12 overall with Lexi Wulff and Olivia Neal leading the way with 4th and 5th places respectively as they try to build momentum toward the Delaware county meet next week against very good Delta and Yorktown teams. Individually, Winchester’s Ella Baldwin continued her early season success with a great second half finish to the race to finish as the overall winner (as well as leading her team to a second place team finish) and Union City’s Reagan Hoggett paced Union City with a third place overall finish.
Top 10 ECI Girls Times
Ella Baldwin WIN 21:45
Reagan Hoggatt UCHS 21:49
Lexi Wulff WAP 22:17
Olivia Neal WAP 22:29
Madi Jenkins SHEN 22:45
Audrey Shepler DALE 23:35
Sydney Cook WAP 23:41
Jaci Knott WESD 24:24
Natalie Thurman BLACK 24:48
Jasmine Mountcastle WAP 25:14
The top boys team in the ECI area was the Wapahani Raiders who placed 2nd in the 11 school field. The Raiders were led by top 10 finishes from Blake Ellis (8th) and an emerging Andrew Shrock who finished 10th. The biggest surprise of the night however may have been the Winchester Falcons who were paced by Camden Abernathy’s second place overall finish (not a surprise there) but also saw an improving 2-5 that helped the Falcons to a 3rd place team finish. The season may be early but the Falcons must be eyeing a possible team regional birth by the season’s end if this group can continue to develop.
Top 10 ECI Boys Times
Camden Abernathy WIN 17:15
Borru Kishpaugh SHEN 17:45
Blake Ellis WAP 18:37
Andrew Shrock WAP 19:00
Dawson Mattox WESD 19:21
Trenton Sanders WIN 19:34
Eli Isom DALE 19:43
George Patterson WIN 19:51
Griffen Miller WAP 19:55
Nate Kimball SHEN 20:14
County Clash (8/18/18)
The County Clash Meet this year was held at the Muncie Sportsplex and as the participating teams rolled in on Saturday they were greeted by a very soggy course with ankle-deep water in several locations. But, even with those conditions several local ECI runners had very impressive early-season showings.
On the Girl's side, Yorktown's Elizabeth Reece (one of the few remaining members from last year's Regional Championship team) led not only her team, but all ECI runners as well with a 2nd place overall finish (21:54). A pair of young Delta runners were also in the top 10 overall, as freshman Makayla Robles and Ashleigh Brelage finished 5th and 6th respectively. The Eagles were not the only ECI team to place 2 in the top 10 however, as the Wapahani duo of Lexi Wulff and Olivia Neal finished right behind in 7th and 8th. Daleville's impressive sophomore Heather Paulter finished in 10th to round out the top 10 finishers in the girl's race from ECI. In the team contest the Delta Eagle made a strong early-season statement by winning the meet by a significant margin, 28 points, over Wapahani. The Raiders had to be happy with their runner-up finish though, as they are putting together a good squad of runners behind the proven duo of Wulff and Neal. Rounding out the top 5 team finishers were Yorktown in 4th and Muncie Central in 5th.
In the Boy's race, Yorktown's Matthew Mitsch showed off what looks to be a strong offseason of summer running by finishing in 2nd place overall behind Brennan Butch (a top 5 finisher in last year's State Meet) and ahead of Eastbrook's Ben Neideck (who just ran sub-16 less than a week ago). That looks to be a good sign for the Yorktown Junior. The Tigers also had 2 more individuals in the top 10 overall as seniors Caleb Bonsack (6th) and Sean Weiss (9th) also had strong first races in 2018. Muncie Central's Isaiah Bennett showed out on Saturday as well by finishing 5th overall and had the 2nd best run of ECI runners. Finally, Wapahani's Blake Ellis looks to lead a Raider team that lost the Herbst brothers to graduation, yet still look to be contenders in ECI this season. In the overall team race the Yorktown Tigers led all ECI teams with a 3rd place finish. But, Muncie Central and Wapahani were close behind in 4th and 5th in this early-season contest.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:54
Makayla Robles DELTA 22:33
Ashleigh Brelage DELTA 22:40
Lexi Wulff WAP 23:01
Olivia Neal WAP 23:03
Heather Paulter DALE 23:40
Sarah Whitesel DELTA 24:00
Janelle Woods-Barnes MUNCE 24:09
Brooke Pritchett DALE 24:13
Jenna O’Donahue MUNCE 24:17
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Matt Mitsch YORK 17:08
Isaiah Bennett MUNCE 18:11
Caleb Bonsack YORK 18:30
Blake Ellis WAP 18:34
Sean Weiss YORK 18:40
Lucas Fox DELTA 19:12
Cody Brelage DELTA 19:16
A.J. Martinez MUNCE 19:16
Robert Thomma MUNCE 19:20
Griffen Miller WAP 19:26
On the Girl's side, Yorktown's Elizabeth Reece (one of the few remaining members from last year's Regional Championship team) led not only her team, but all ECI runners as well with a 2nd place overall finish (21:54). A pair of young Delta runners were also in the top 10 overall, as freshman Makayla Robles and Ashleigh Brelage finished 5th and 6th respectively. The Eagles were not the only ECI team to place 2 in the top 10 however, as the Wapahani duo of Lexi Wulff and Olivia Neal finished right behind in 7th and 8th. Daleville's impressive sophomore Heather Paulter finished in 10th to round out the top 10 finishers in the girl's race from ECI. In the team contest the Delta Eagle made a strong early-season statement by winning the meet by a significant margin, 28 points, over Wapahani. The Raiders had to be happy with their runner-up finish though, as they are putting together a good squad of runners behind the proven duo of Wulff and Neal. Rounding out the top 5 team finishers were Yorktown in 4th and Muncie Central in 5th.
In the Boy's race, Yorktown's Matthew Mitsch showed off what looks to be a strong offseason of summer running by finishing in 2nd place overall behind Brennan Butch (a top 5 finisher in last year's State Meet) and ahead of Eastbrook's Ben Neideck (who just ran sub-16 less than a week ago). That looks to be a good sign for the Yorktown Junior. The Tigers also had 2 more individuals in the top 10 overall as seniors Caleb Bonsack (6th) and Sean Weiss (9th) also had strong first races in 2018. Muncie Central's Isaiah Bennett showed out on Saturday as well by finishing 5th overall and had the 2nd best run of ECI runners. Finally, Wapahani's Blake Ellis looks to lead a Raider team that lost the Herbst brothers to graduation, yet still look to be contenders in ECI this season. In the overall team race the Yorktown Tigers led all ECI teams with a 3rd place finish. But, Muncie Central and Wapahani were close behind in 4th and 5th in this early-season contest.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Elizabeth Reece YORK 21:54
Makayla Robles DELTA 22:33
Ashleigh Brelage DELTA 22:40
Lexi Wulff WAP 23:01
Olivia Neal WAP 23:03
Heather Paulter DALE 23:40
Sarah Whitesel DELTA 24:00
Janelle Woods-Barnes MUNCE 24:09
Brooke Pritchett DALE 24:13
Jenna O’Donahue MUNCE 24:17
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Matt Mitsch YORK 17:08
Isaiah Bennett MUNCE 18:11
Caleb Bonsack YORK 18:30
Blake Ellis WAP 18:34
Sean Weiss YORK 18:40
Lucas Fox DELTA 19:12
Cody Brelage DELTA 19:16
A.J. Martinez MUNCE 19:16
Robert Thomma MUNCE 19:20
Griffen Miller WAP 19:26
The Meister Family Memorial Run (8/18/18)
This year’s meet at beautiful Monroe Central Jr.-Sr High School saw 10 ECI teams participate including; Blackford, Blue River Valley, Cowan, Monroe Central, Muncie Burris, Randolph Southern, Shenandoah, Union, Union City, and Winchester.
On the girl’s side Leah Keesling of Randolph Southern got off to a great start to her Junior year with a 2nd place finish in 20:27. Ella Baldwin (Winchester), Gabby Beckham (Monroe Central), and Reagan Hoggatt (Union City), Stormie Fitch (Shenandoah), and Madi Jenkins (Shenandoah) all placed in the top 15. Shenandoah placed 5th overall, followed by Monroe Central in 6th.
On the boy’s side Winchester’s Camden Abernathy began his senior season with a 2nd place finish (17:22), closely followed by fellow senior Andrew Whitinger (17:37) of Blue River Valley in 3rd. Borru Kishpaugh (Shenandoah), Elliott Whiteside (Muncie Burris), and Dalton Winans (Monroe Central) all placed in the top 15. Monroe Central was the top placing ECI Team in 3rd, followed by Winchester in 7th place.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Leah Keesling Randolph Southern 20:27
Ella Baldwin Winchester 22:04
Gabby Beckham Monroe Central 22:06
Reagan Hoggatt Union City 22:12
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 22:30
Madi Jenkins Shenandoah 22:42
Chloe Wyatt Union City 22:59
Natalie Thurman Blackford 23:44
Lauren Smith Cowan 24:18
Hannah Smith Muncie Burris 24:24
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Camden Abernathy Winchester 17:22
Andrew Whitinger Blue River Valley 17:37
Borru Kishpaugh Shenandoah 17:57
Elliott Whiteside Muncie Burris 18:12
Dalton Winans Monroe Central 18:34
Carter Miller Monroe Central 18:39
Caden Shumaker Monroe Central 18:43
Daniel Wright Cowan 19:06
Luke Richmond Randolph Southern 19:31
Preston White Cowan 19:32
On the girl’s side Leah Keesling of Randolph Southern got off to a great start to her Junior year with a 2nd place finish in 20:27. Ella Baldwin (Winchester), Gabby Beckham (Monroe Central), and Reagan Hoggatt (Union City), Stormie Fitch (Shenandoah), and Madi Jenkins (Shenandoah) all placed in the top 15. Shenandoah placed 5th overall, followed by Monroe Central in 6th.
On the boy’s side Winchester’s Camden Abernathy began his senior season with a 2nd place finish (17:22), closely followed by fellow senior Andrew Whitinger (17:37) of Blue River Valley in 3rd. Borru Kishpaugh (Shenandoah), Elliott Whiteside (Muncie Burris), and Dalton Winans (Monroe Central) all placed in the top 15. Monroe Central was the top placing ECI Team in 3rd, followed by Winchester in 7th place.
Top 10 ECI Girl’s Times:
Leah Keesling Randolph Southern 20:27
Ella Baldwin Winchester 22:04
Gabby Beckham Monroe Central 22:06
Reagan Hoggatt Union City 22:12
Stormie Fitch Shenandoah 22:30
Madi Jenkins Shenandoah 22:42
Chloe Wyatt Union City 22:59
Natalie Thurman Blackford 23:44
Lauren Smith Cowan 24:18
Hannah Smith Muncie Burris 24:24
Top 10 ECI Boy’s Times:
Camden Abernathy Winchester 17:22
Andrew Whitinger Blue River Valley 17:37
Borru Kishpaugh Shenandoah 17:57
Elliott Whiteside Muncie Burris 18:12
Dalton Winans Monroe Central 18:34
Carter Miller Monroe Central 18:39
Caden Shumaker Monroe Central 18:43
Daniel Wright Cowan 19:06
Luke Richmond Randolph Southern 19:31
Preston White Cowan 19:32
