For The Tribune
SCOTTSBURG
Brownstown Central’s cross-country teams brought home third-place trophies form the Hardy Lake Invitational on Tuesday.
Austin won the boys’ race with 30 points, Eastern (Pekin) was second with 55, and Brownstown scored 96.
Crothersville placed 10th with a score of 253.
The Jennings County girls were first with 42, Borden had 104 and Brownstown Central tallied 126 while Crothersville was 9th with 205.
Jake McCullough was the Braves’ first runner, seventh overall, at 18:31 followed by Harlan Deaton 21st at 19:30, and Cameron Lee, 22nd at 19:34.
“I think right now, where we are I’m pretty happy with,” Braves boys coach Derrick Koch said. “We’re such a small team we’ve got to stay healthy, and that’s what I’m worried about the most. They’re starting to feel a few more aches and pains because we’re a little bit further into the season, but at the same time we’re going to keep pushing them, so we have some good mileage we’re going to do, and we have some good workouts, and these next couple weeks we’re going to push the workouts a lot more.”
A.J. Goecker topped Trinity Lutheran by placing ninth in 18:39.
“There was quite a bit of competition there, and for him to place in the top 10 is a nice achievement,” Cougars coach Chris Crenshaw said. “He ran 17:35 at Bedford, so we want him to take his time down a little bit. We want him to get under 18. I’m anxious to see how he runs at Brown County (on Saturday).”
Lane Wienhorst led the Crothersville boys in 35th at 21:34.
“I was surprised with Lane’s time,” Crothersville coach Carl Bowman said. “That’s not bad, for this course, being a freshman and the heat and stuff like that. I’ve got four guys right after him that are battling for the next spot, so everything considered I think the guys are going to come away from here feeling pretty happy with their performances.”
Matt Jones was first for Medora by placing 51st at 22:30, and Zac Thompson was 79th at 25:22.
“I think they did a good job,” Hornets coach Brad McCammon said. “The main thing, each time out we can show them the time they ran here last year and hope they can better that time, and they seem to rising to that occasion.
“We had been pushing them pretty hard, we gave them three days off and we wanted to get their legs fresh for today. I think when the weather gets in the 70s we’ll see some improvement. Even the great runners, you’ll see there hasn’t been any course records set anywhere we’ve been.”
For the girls, Alexis Koch topped Brownstown by placing 10th at 24:02, Destiny Satterthwaite was 18th at 25:01 and Kaelyn Johnson was 20th at 25:03.
“Our times were alright,” Braves girls coach Maria Weigel said. “I think the Labor Day kind of threw us off a little bit. I was gone on Friday. We weren’t able to practice together Friday, Saturday or Monday so they were out running on their own.
“I think the weekend caught up with them. Alexis still ran a pretty good race. She got 10th for us overall,and her time was so-so, but she continues to lead the races for us, so that’s what I’m looking for out of her.”
The Braves have a freshman-heavy team this season.
“My three freshmen were in there, second, third and fourth (Satterwaite, Johnson and Shauna Drake), which is where they’ve been,” Weigel said. “The times were very consistent with their places.”
Breanna Barger was first for the Crothersville girls and placed third overall with a time of 21:57.
“These hills seem to take a toll on us, but considering that and the fact that she wasn’t in her running shoes, she finished third and that’s one of the big things we’re looking for,” Bowman said. “We’re still looking to lower the time some, but we’ve still got a way to go. I think she’s doing well, and we’re hoping before the end of the season we can get her down to below 21, and once she drops under 21 we know she’s right on track.
“The rest of the girls — same thing. As far as time is concerned, they’re basically bettering themselves every meet. We had a little competition between a couple of them.”