Unedited coaches comments…
Greensburg’s Troy Davis: Senior Emily Mangels represented the Greensburg Pirates at the IHSAA Semi-State for cross-country Saturday morning at the Blue River Course in Shelbyville. This was the fourth consecutive year that Emily has competed in the semi-state race for Greensburg. Mangels used a strong start to record her second fastest race of 2021. She placed 110th in 20:53. Mangels finishes her career with a personal best of 19:45, which is the fourth fastest time in school history. Emily was all-county and all-sectional in each of her four seasons. She earned all-EIAC recognition in 2018, 2019, and 2021.
In addition to her outstanding accomplishments as a runner, Emily was also named Academic All-State by the IATCCC for the second year in row. “Emily has been an important part of our program since she was a freshman. She had a great race to end the 2021 season and an awesome runner career over the last 4 years. Her hard work and leadership will be missed next year,” noted Coach Davis.
Batesville’s Lisa Gausman: I am sad to say that the 2021 Batesville High School Cross Country season came to an end yesterday at the Semi-State competition in Shelbyville. I am super proud of the boys and girls as we have a lot to be proud of reflecting back on the whole season. Although making it to that “big dance”, standing on the state line next weekend, is the ultimate goal, we still accomplished a lot.
The Bulldogs loaded the bus at 7:45 in the morning to head to Shelbyville with a nice send off. Thanks to the girls basketball team, family, friends and community for wishing them good luck before the sun came up. It was very much appreciated.
The weather was pretty perfect for racing, 50’s, cloudy, no wind…and it was a fast race on both sides. The boys stepped up to the line at 10:30, with 19 other teams and 40 individuals joining them. There were several up front, but soon two Carmel boys fought to the finish as they went 1-2 at 15:15 and 15:18.
For Batesville, Benjamin Moster was the first to cross the line in 36th place with a time of 16:20. Ean Loichinger, Daren Smith, Jake Chapman and Kyler Daulton were the top 5 Bulldogs scoring 63, 93, 103 and 129 points respectively. Finishing out the varsity 7 was Eli Loichinger and Will Nuhring.
The boys ended in 16th place with 420 points. Brebeuf Jesuit was crowned Semi-State Champions with 60 points. Other teams advancing to state were: Center Grove, Carmel, Zionsville, Noblesville and Franklin Central.
The girls had their opportunity 45 minutes later with pretty much the same conditions. They knew they had to keep that pack close to have a fighting chance and did that pretty well. The front of the race was amazing to watch as Bishop Chatard’s, Lily Cridge broke the course record coming through the finish line in an incredible 17:04.6. Then two Park Tudor girls also crossed the finish line under 18 at 17:46 and 17:52. It was pretty incredible.
For Batesville, it was freshman Kaylynn Bedel leading the way and placed an impressive 32nd with a personal best time of 19:34. She was followed by 5 more of her teammates all coming through in less than a minute behind her. Lily Pinckley, Ava Hanson, Megan Allgeier, Maria Lopez and Sophie Myers, scoring 48, 52, 56 and 63 points respectively, with Sophie, 65th. Finishing out our varsity 7 was Madison Raschulte.
Unfortunately, we needed this pack to be a little further up, as we fell just 2 places shy of advancing to state. The Bulldogs were 8th overall out of the 20 team field. This is their best placement ever at the Semi-State meet. Way to go girls! Winning on the girls side was Carmel with 46 points. Other teams advancing to the state meet were: Noblesville, Franklin Central, Westfield, North Central and Avon.
Also Congratulations to East Central’s Rachel Campbell and South Ripley’s Lanie Nicholson for advancing to the state meet as individuals.
This has been a super fun group to work with and I am so bummed to have it end and saying goodbye and good luck to 13 awesome seniors. This group has accomplished a lot throughout their 4 years in Batesville Cross Country. But, reflecting on this year both were: County Champions, Conference Champions, Sectional Champions and Semi-State Qualifiers. The girls were also Regional Champions. We had 13 named to the All Sectional Team, 9 named to the All Regional Team, Sectional MVP, Conference MVP, just to name a few. We worked hard, but had tons of laughs. Thanks to everyone for all your support throughout the season! …until next year!
Rushville’s Amy Tush: For only the 2nd time in school history, the Boys Cross Country team competed in the IHSAA Semi-State Cross Country meet as a team. It has been a rollercoaster of a season for these boys. With only 1 Senior, 2 juniors, 1 sophomore, and 6 freshman, we really didn’t know what to expect. We only had 1 returning runner in our top 5 from our previous Sectional Championship season, but that didn’t matter to Senior Kyle Stanley. He made this team believe they were veterans. This was his last year, and he was making sure everyone was on board to finish this season in history making fashion.
Our last week of practice was geared towards enjoying the moment. We knew this Semi-State race was the best in the state, so we just wanted to focus on us. Olivia Wehr was the lone girl individual representing RCHS and she had the same goal.
Along the way we had some unusual motivators, like a movie, to help us “Remember the Goal”, an around the town selfie-challenge, a pumpkin carving competition, and a trip to the bowling alley where they learned humility from their coach. These were all important moments in the success of this XC season. It’s not always all about running or winning, it’s about the experience.
Saturday was a perfect day to race. Senior Kyle Stanley continued to lead his team with a very close lifetime best of 16:57. Next for the Lions with also a close lifetime best was Junior Ryan Schnidler (18:04), and Charlie Sterrett with a lifetime best of 18:09. A few spots back were Freshman Wyatt Jacobs (18:21) and Hunter Parmerlee (18:24). Other finishers for the Lions were Trent Dyer (18:59) and Isaac Krodel (19:30). The boys were 20th as a team with 537 points which was 39 points better than the 2012 team, so school history was made this cross country season.
On the girls side Junior Olivia Wehr got the running experience of a lifetime. She is coming off a Regional Qualifying track season and an injury free Cross Country season. I am not at all surprised she qualified for the Semi-State. She deserved to be there and we will use this as a building block for the rest of the year. She ran a season best of 21:52.
Next for the Lions and Lady Lions Cross Country team is rest.
We thank the IHSAA, Jac-Cen-Del coach David Bradshaw, Greensburg coach Troy Davis, Batesville coach Lisa Gausman and Rushville coach Amy Tush for the information. We also thank South Ripley Running and East Central Cross Country for the pictures.