Center Grove’s boys defended their Johnson County cross country championship last week without its regulars in the lineup.
With everyone competing for the Trojans in Saturday’s sectional meet on the same Franklin course, nobody else stood a chance.
The fifth-ranked Trojans had six runners in the top seven and finished with a near-perfect score of 18 points, easily outpacing runner-up Indian Creek (72) to win its fourth consecutive title.
The comfortable victory was a welcome result at the outset of what should be a long postseason run.
“We’ve had some ups and downs throughout the season,” Center Grove boys coach Howard Harrell said. “Everyone always thinks that the road to the top is smooth and it’s a steady incline, but there’s ups and downs when you’re going to the top. You just have to go through those — I say downs, but they weren’t that far down. It just wasn’t to the level we thought. But we are, right now, we’re trending upward, so it’s fun to be around these guys and there’s a lot of excitement.”
In the girls race, Franklin won for the third year in a row, finishing with 44 points to hold off Indian Creek (60) and Center Grove (63).
Senior Ty Garrett led the Center Grove convoy in the boys race, hitting the finish line first in 15 minutes, 30.7 seconds. He was followed by classmate Parker Mimbela, who placed second with a time of 15:45.9. Gavin Rockwell, Griffin Hennessy, Jarret Rockwell and Kyle Montgomery occupied spots four through seven, all finishing within 6.3 seconds of one another.
The runner-up Braves were paced by sophomore Lucas Niebert, who finished 10th (16:40.9). Teammates Noah Greenwood (13th), Casey Seitzinger (15th), E.J. Woodke (16th) and Jackson Niebert (18th) all landed in the top 20.
Led by Ari Smith in 11th place and Ty Murphy in 12th, Franklin (95 points) edged Mooresville (99) for third place. Whiteland secured the fifth and final team berth in the regional, finishing with 120 points. Matthew Nino (14th) was the Warriors’ top finisher.
Greenwood wound up sixth in the team standings, but Samuel Grimes (eighth) John Gries (19th), Jacob Squier and Henry Barrett all advanced to regional as individuals. Also punching an individual ticket was Greenwood Christian’s Nathan Cottongim.
Indian Creek’s dynamic duo of Libby Dowty and Abby Fleetwood continued an outstanding season by finishing 1-2 in the girls race yet again. Dowty hit the finish line first in 18:28.5, with Fleetwood not far behind in 18:43.6.
“I feel great,” Fleetwood said. “This is probably the best shape I’ve ever been in, so I feel really confident in my fitness level right now.”
The Grizzly Cubs’ superior depth, though, carried the day. Franklin had four of the top 10 finishers and five of the top 15, led by a fourth-place finish from junior Lauren Klem (19:05.2).
“Everyone came out and did exactly what we needed to do to win this thing,” Klem said. “At practice, I’m trying to take workouts way more serious and just go harder in practice, and then races I’m just trying to drop my time each week.”
Amelia Tisdale (seventh), Ainsley Botkin (eighth), Hannah Lindsay (10th) and Ava Ott (15th) rounded out the Franklin scoring. Indian Creek, meanwhile, only had one other runner in the top 20 — Phoebe Dowty in 12th.
Center Grove, which was led by Chloe Farmer’s sixth-place finish, had a balanced effort with seven runners in the top 20. Lily Rollings was fifth to pace Greenwood, which landed in fourth with 111 points. Whiteland, which got top-10 efforts from Victoria Jackson (third in a school-record 18:54.9) and Isabella Fuentes (ninth), claimed the final team regional spot with 116 points.
GCA’s Hannah Winn was one of the 10 individual girls to advance to next week.
