The following are unedited reports from local coaches…
Batesville’s Lisa Gausman: REGIONAL CHAMPS! SEMI-STATE BOUND! 9 NAMED TO THE ALL-REGIONAL TEAM! Yes, it was a great day for the Batesville Bulldog Cross Country Teams!
Despite the VERY wet and sloppy conditions, the Bulldogs embraced it and ran super tough with the boys placing 3rd advancing them to Semi-State competition and the girls, for the second time in school history were crowned Regional Champions, winning by just 1 point! AND 9 Bulldogs were named to the All-Regional team with their top 20 place finish in the race.
It was a bit windy, but the sun was shining. Unfortunately, not long enough to dry the course from the downpour from the night before. The course was soggy, muddy and in some places, pretty sloppy. However, Batesville got themselves mentally prepared and knew that everyone was racing in the same conditions and they couldn’t use that as an excuse.
The boys raced first and just missed coming in second by 4 points, getting beat by 4th ranked Center Grove (51 points) and Whiteland Community (75 points). Batesville had 79 points. Other schools advancing to Semi-State for the boys are Mooresville and Indian Creek.
The Bulldogs were led by seniors Benjamin Moster, who was Regional Runner Up (17:02) and Ean Loichinger, just behind him in 4th (17:11). Also, running in the top 20 with a fantastic finish was senior Daren Smith in 13th. All 3 of these seniors were named to the All-Regional Team.
The 4th Bulldog to cross the line was Jake Chapman with a strong 27th finish and Eli Loichinger finishing the scoring at 51st. The other varsity runners for the Dogs were Will Nuhring (61st) and Benjamin Adams (84th). Congratulations boys!
The Lady Bulldogs knew exactly what needed to be done to earn another Regional title and they executed the plan almost perfectly. Batesville had 6 girls named to the All-Regional team!
They were led by freshman Kaylyn Bedel placing 5th (20:32) followed by Ava Hanson (8th) and Megan Allgeier (9th), crossing the finish line almost simultaneously. Then a nice pack of 3 came through in 17th, 18th and 19th with Lily Pinckley, Maria Lopez and Sophie Myers fighting to the finish. This effort proved to be the difference as the Bulldogs won the Regional title by just 1 point over Franklin Community…57-58.
Madison Rahschulte finished out the varsity 7 for the Bulldogs in a strong 41st place finish.
The East Central Trojans will also be advancing to Semi-State with their 3rd place finish (89 points), as well as Center Grove (103 points) and Whiteland Community (111 points). Congratulations ladies!
There were also some area individuals that will be advancing to Semi-State as they take the top 10 individuals not on an advancing team. Congratulations to South Ripley’s-Lanie Nicholson and Deborah Murphy, Greensburg’s-Emily Mangels, East Central’s-Cole Benegas and Michael Schwebach, Milan’s-Ben Riehle and Jac-Cen-Del’s-Josh Pohle.
I am excited to have another week with this bunch, especially the 12 seniors! Semi-State competition is definitely a tough one. The Bulldogs will be up against 20 teams + 40 individuals in each race. The boys have 9 of those 20 teams ranked in the top 20 of the state right now and the girls will be up against 8 ranked in the top 20. They will need to place in the top 6 to advance to State competition.
Action begins at 10:30 for the boys and 11:15 for the girls. Good luck Dogs!
Greensburg’s Troy Davis: Franklin Community High School hosted the IHSAA Regional #12 Saturday morning for cross-country. Center Grove’s boys won the team title with 51 pts. The Trojans Griffin Hennessy was the individual champion in 16:37. Whiteland, Batesville, Mooresville, and Indian Creek also qualified for the IHSAA Semi-State next weekend at Shelbyville. The Greensburg Pirates finished in 8th place out of the 10 teams competing on Saturday morning.
Sophomore Cameron Schwartz led the Pirates for the first time in 2021. He ran a season best time of 18:47 placing 39th in the race. Jake Hawkins was 41st in 18:50. Nate Murray placed 56th in 19:25 while senior Sawyer Sanders finished his high school cross-country career earning 60th place with a time of 19:33. TJ Gorman crossed the finish line in 19:58 for 69th place. Freshman Paxton Harris ran 20:27 for 74th and teammate Bryant Merritt was 83rd in 21:39. The Pirate boys concluded their season with a record of 36-30.
In the girls’ race, Batesville edged Franklin 57-58 for the 2021 Regional Championship in cross-country. Whiteland’s Victoria Jackson won the race in 20:08. The other three teams that qualified for the semi-state included East Central, Center Grove, and Whiteland. The Lady Pirates came in 9th place overall in the team standing and finish the 2021 season with a record of 44-22.
Senior Emily Mangels was the top finisher for the Greensburg. She came in 38th overall in 22:42. That performance earned Emily a spot in the IHSAA Semi-State for the fourth consecutive year. Sophomore Hannah Crowell had a strong finish taking 40th place in 22:47. The next two finishers for Greensburg were freshmen runners. Tori Gauck was 46th in 22:55 while teammate Tiffani Gramman placed 48th in 22:58. Malana Kramer finished in 25:36 for 76th place. Ally Foster was 81st in 25:54.
Shelbyville hosts the Semi-State Championships next Saturday morning October 23rd at the Blue River Park. The boys’ race begins at 10:30 am and the girls follow at 11:15.
We thank the IHSAA and coaches Gausman, Davis and Jac-Cen-Del’s David Bradshaw for the information. We thank coach Gausman for the photo also.