Owl to run solo at cross-country state finals: Junior Johnson advanced individually after team ousted

Zoey Johnson regularly looks at the cross-country rankings at indianarunner.com.

At last week’s Brown County Semistate, the Seymour High School junior was predicted to place fifth, and she did. Looking ahead to Saturday’s state finals, though, she has gotten mixed results.

“I talked to Spencer (Sunbury, SHS girls coach), and he said looking at all four semistate times in the state, my time (18:26) was 12th,” Johnson said. “But they recently posted a coaches poll where the coaches predict the placings, and I’m not even in the top 25.”

Going into her first state meet, Johnson has her eye on placing in the top 20 so she can earn all-state honors.

“I’ve talked to some of the (Seymour) boys that ran the course last year, and they’ve kind of given me a couple pointers,” she said. “(Today) I’m going to run the course, which I think I’m going to feel a lot better once I’ve done that. I’m going to feel a lot more confident going into the race.”

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