The Batesville Middle School Cross Country team got an early start Saturday morning, leaving before the sun was up to travel to the Eagle Classic, an invitational hosted by Brown County. The varsity girls were the first to step to the start line. Despite the less-than-ideal lane assignment, seventh grader Ava Wade got out fast and quickly raced to the front of the field. After drafting for the first third of the race, Wade made her move to pass and continued to put distance between the second-place runner for the rest of the race. Wade, in a time of 11:15, took home the championship in a field of 228 runners. Maycee Holtkamp was the next Bulldog across the stripe in 16th place, Elia Wade closely followed in 18th, Jayla Bedel in 25th place, Hilary Ziegler in 38th, Nya Moon 42nd, and Cailtin Raver in 49th. The Lady Dogs team tied for 1st place with an impressive 98 points against a much larger Center Grove Central Middle School. Unfortunately, the Dogs lost the tiebreaker with our sixth runner and placed 2nd on the day.
The varsity boys were not quite as successful as the girls but still had a good day with fast times overall. The boys were led by eighth grader, Levi Essick, who placed 61st in a field of 235 runners. The other contributing varsity runners who also ran season-best times were Cael Luhman, Hank Bohman, Abe Trossman, Ryan Benz, and Wyatt Essick. The boys varsity team finished 20th out of 34 teams.
On the JV side, the girls JV team dominated their race with eighth grader Rosie Gilland claiming the first-place medal. Other scoring JV runners and ribbon winners were Audrey Dieckmann in 2nd place, Bhuvi Ranka in 3rd, Kenzi Lacey in 4th, Aubrey Weberding in 6th, Addison Mills in 8th, and Annabel Eckstein in 9th. The JV girls were one point away from a perfect score with 16 points, but good enough for a first-place team finish.
The JV boys team ran hard and had many season bests, but only placed 12th overall in a field of 23 total teams. The five scoring members of the boys JV team were Jasper Johnson, Coleman West, Luke Raver, Varshath Rajesh, and Sam Patterson.
Submitted by the school’s athletic department.