HANOVER

While he’s in his 40th year of coaching, Crothersville cross-country coach Carl Bowman and his teams are still experiencing firsts.

On Saturday, the girls team made some history at the Southwestern (Hanover) Sectional.

By placing fourth in the team standings, the Tigers moved on to this weekend’s regional at Brown County’s Eagle Park. It was the first time the Tigers had competed at Hanover, as they switched sectionals this fall.

No other girls team has moved on as a unit in the program’s history.

“It means a lot,” Bowman said. “We had quite a few people there that were pretty excited. There were some tears. Who would have ever thought we would be able to do something like this at a small school like us?”

Not only did the team move on, but the Tigers also had their first individual sectional champion.

Timing 20 minutes, 8 seconds, Tigers freshman Kaylyn Holman took the sectional crown.

“My son (Marc Bowman), ever since last week, has been running numbers and looking at times,” Bowman said. “He knew that the Jennings County girl (Emma Morrison) had a little faster time last week and had a kick. Kaylyn asked (Marc) to work on a kick. He has ran them pretty hard. She runs one of the freshmen boys.

“When the gun went off, (Holman) stayed with her the entire time. When she came down the straightaway, she was 20 to 30 yards ahead of (Morrison).”

The top 10 individuals from nonadvancing teams and the first five qualifying teams got out of the sectional.

Jennings County won the girls competition with 25 points, followed by Silver Creek (54), Madison (92), Crothersville (112), Scottsburg (129), Jeffersonville (149) and Austin (153).

Grace Wilson was the Tigers’ second fastest runner, clocking 22:25 for 11th. Ella Plasse (26:41) and Piper Hensley (26:40) took 39th and 40th, and Bekah Cook was 59th (41:32) for CHS.

“I think Grace ran a really good race,” Bowman said. “We knew that her and Kaylyn would make it out individually if the team didn’t make it out. I think she ran a great race against some stiff competition. Ella and Piper ran together the entire race and finished one right after the other. I knew those two needed to help us a lot to move up in ranks.”

There was another individual achievement from the race: Hensley became the first female athlete at Crothersville to advance to regional in three different sports.

While the Crothersville boys didn’t field a full team, two runners advanced as individuals.

David Rose was 17th in 18:44 and Lane Wienhorst finished 25th in 19:04 to move on.

“Both of those guys have worked hard,” Bowman said. “Lane, a senior, hadn’t made it out before. David is a sophomore, and he had a nice race.”

The Tigers’ Zerik Hunt finished his season with a time of 21:25 (51st).

Jennings’ Carter Leak, who won the Hoosier Hills Conference the week prior, was champion in 16:52.

Bowman and his team are excited for this weekend’s competition.

“I’m pleased that I’m still going. I have been doing this for 40 years, and it was well worth it to get to this point,” he said. “It was great all around today. I think everyone gave a top-notch effort over there. We celebrated, and once we got into Crothersville, we had a fire and police escort. That doesn’t happen to me and the sports that I coach.”