Center Grove boys coach Howard Harrell, center, will run his full lineup at the Johnson County meet for the first time since 2019.
Daily Journal file photo
For the first time in nearly a decade, the Johnson County cross country meet will actually include all of Johnson County.
In theory, getting seven schools together for a championship meets shouldn’t take a whole lot of doing, but it’s been easier said than done in recent years.
From 2016 to 2019, Indian Creek missed the county meet because the Western Indiana Conference was holding its championship on the same weekend. No sooner did that scheduling glitch get figured out than another popped up — beginning in 2020, Center Grove’s boys team began competing in the prestigious Nike XC Town Twilight meet on the LaVern Gibson course in Terre Haute. The Trojans entered their second five runners at county while saving the varsity regulars for that evening.
Indian Creek’s Libby Dowty also missed last year’s county race for the same reason.
With more local teams looking to enter the Twilight meet this year — Franklin, Indian Creek and Whiteland are all joining the Trojans there — the decision was made to move the Johnson County meet up two weeks from Oct. 5 to this Saturday.
Bill Doty, the athletic director at county host Franklin, says that an effort was made to reschedule last fall but not everyone could make it work on short notice due to contractual agreements in other meets. This time around, it all fell into place.
“Everybody kind of banded together, and here we are,” Indian Creek coach Brady Devine said. “Thankfully, it finally happened.”
Devine and Center Grove boys coach Howard Harrell had defensible reasons for prioritizing the Terre Haute trip — both had designs on state championship runs, and the Twilight meet not only represented an opportunity to gain more experience running at LaVern Gibson but also a chance to face more elite competition.
The move has clearly paid dividends; the Trojan boys have three top-six team finishes at state in the last five years, including a third-place showing in 2022, while Dowty was the individual girls champion last season and is heavily favored to repeat. Still, both coaches are glad to have a true county meet for the first time since 2015.
“Obviously, if this would have fell on the same week as Twilight, (Dowty) would have missed the county meet for Twilight,” Devine said, “because that’s her one opportunity prior to the regional to actually see somebody. But obviously, that was the intention here, was to move it to a weekend that there was no big meet going on across the state, so I’m glad we finally woke up and did that. I pushed for this last year, because obviously I want Libby to be able to run. I was like, ‘I don’t care — I’d rather meet on a Tuesday (than not be here).’ It’s the county meet; we should all be there. We should all be running.”
“It’s fantastic,” Harrell agreed. “I’m glad that we can run full strength and everyone else can run full strength. It looks to me like it’s going to be very competitive. All of the teams are getting good, and it’s neat to come to a meet that’s going to be so close.”
Indeed, both the boys and girls races look to be highly competitive.
Dowty is obviously a heavy individual favorite on the girls side, but Greenwood’s Lily Rollings is also among the state’s top 20 runners so far. In the battle for the team crown, Center Grove’s girls will try to use their depth to outpoint more top-heavy teams from Indian Creek and Whiteland; reigning champ Franklin also looms as a dark-horse threat.
The boys race should see a wide-open chase for the individual and team titles. Center Grove, ranked 16th in the state, is the favorite due to its history and a deeper lineup, but Indian Creek, Whiteland and the host Grizzly Cubs all believe they have a fighting chance to win.
“I feel like it’s the first time where, when you stack all the varsity, there’s not an obvious winner like Center Grove the past five years and plus some,” Devine said. “If everybody shows up and runs well, it’s going to be close.”
Harrell was able to win the meet with his second five in 2022, but graduation losses over the last two years have leveled the playing field a bit and provided the rest of the county boys teams with an opportunity to close the gap.
They’ve taken advantage.
“It’s just amazing how everyone steps it up,” Harrell said. “Everyone’s got some good runners, and everyone’s got really good teams. You can tell in my voice — I’m excited.”
Though it’s taken longer than most hoped to get the schedules aligned, it’s finally happened — and in a year where the fields seem to be more balanced than they have been in several years.
Regardless of the outcome on the course, Saturday already represents a victory for tradition and good old-fashioned competitive spirit. Everybody in the county will finally be putting their best feet forward.
“I’m glad we’re getting back to the way it used to be,” Harrell said.
IF YOU GO
Johnson County championship
Where: Franklin Community HS
When: Saturday, 9 a.m.
