A year ago, the IHSAA adjusted the Post-Season tournament series for cross country. Student athletes used to compete to advance 3 times ... Sectional-to-Regional, Regional-to-Semistate & Semistate-to-State. Last fall, the Semistate level was eliminated ... making XC more closely resemble the track tournament in the spring. So ... Regional competitors now race to punch a ticket to State. In order to do that, they must be a member of one of the top 5 scoring teams ... or one of the top 15 individuals not on a qualifying team.
On Saturday morning, BOTH our boys & girls teams were at New Prairie High School racing for two things ... a PR and a ticket to the State Finals. The Snyder & Smith Championship Cross Country Course is LEGENDARY over at New Prairie and it was in GREAT shape for a race on a near perfect day in late October!
At 10:30am CT, the gun fired and our girls were off and running!! On Indiana's 2nd biggest stage, our girls SHINED BRIGHT!! They ran like warriors ... and for the second week in a row, ALL FIVE varsity scorers broke the 23-minute barrier! Junior Cassie Cohen was the first Brickie into the finish chute when she crossed the line in 12th place overall in a blistering time of 19:29.3! WOW! Classmate Millie Massey was next in 111th place with a time of 22:22.4 ... an improvement of 26 seconds over her place a year ago and 7 seconds faster!! Freshman newcomer Liliana Lopez (121st, 22:36.9) and sophomores Amanda Guthrie (124th, 22:41.0) & Grace Meagher (127th, 22:57.6) rounded out the top 5 placers for Hobart with junior Audrey Turley (140th) and freshman Layla Massey (155th) completing the lineup for the day! In spite of how extremely well our girls ran, our team score of 495 put us in 20th place overall. When you consider there were 53 schools represented and 238 runners, that's PRETTY DARN GOOD!! Unfortunately, it fell outside the state qualifying places effectively ending the season for our team. However, with her time & placement, Cassie was among the top 15 individuals on non-advancing teams and QUALIFIED FOR STATE!!! This will be her 3rd straight trip to the IHSAA STATE CROSS COUNTRY FINALS!! Cassie will join the best of the best next Saturday in Terre Haute to race on the infamous LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course!! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Ok, with the girls race completed, it was the boys turn. At 11:15am CT, the starter's pistol fired and it was GO TIME! Led by seniors Kolin Gladney & Felix Lopez, our boys were FANTASTIC traversing the 3.1-mile course!! Kolin and Felix were the first two Brickies to sprint down the home stretch into the finish ... Kolin placing 63rd overall and Felix finishing 70th. Not too shabby in the field of nearly 250 competitors! Juniors Lu Cohen (116th) & Durgon Click (139th) were next and sophomore Nolan Shaginaw (152nd) rounded out the scoring positions for Hobart. Senior Nick Meagher and sophomore Jerry Theodorakos completed the varsity lineup for the Bricks on the day. Unfortunately, only the top 5 teams and top 15 individuals from non-advancing teams advance to Terre Haute ... and the Brickies did not finish in either of those categories. Still ... watching our boys give it EVERYTHING they had and compete extremely well on the doorstep of the state finals gave this sports reporter GREAT PRIDE in being a Brickie! Hobart can walk off the course with chins up and heads held high for their terrific effort and outstanding representation of this blue-collar town!!!
CONGRATULATIONS to all of our harriers on a fantastic season and to Cassie for punching her ticket to Terre Haute for the 3rd consecutive year!! She will race at the LaVerne Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute next Saturday in the IHSAA STATE FINALS! Girls start at 12pm ET. GO FOR IT CASSIE!! WE BELIEVE IN YOU!!
#GRATEFULLYDEDICATEDXC
