Franklin boys, Jefferson advance to state meet

<p>SHELBYVILLE</p><p>Fall break could have disrupted the Franklin boys cross country team in training for Saturday’s Shelbyville Semistate.</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs didn’t let it, though, and advanced to the state meet with a fifth-place team finish.</p><p>“Fall break made it a little bit challenging,” Franklin head coach Adam Schaefer said. “But we met every morning, trained at 8 a.m. every day, tried to keep things as normal as possible outside of our normal practice times. We wanted our kids to stay normal, go home, be active throughout the day, not sitting around, watching TV and eating all day.”</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Wyatt McCullough led the Grizzly Cubs with a 13th-place individual finish and a time of 16:01.5. Andrew Bixler, Isaiah Lindsay and Ethan Pheifer followed him with finishes of 21st, 39th and 41st, respectively.</p><p>“Through the three and four spot we looked really strong,” Schaefer said. “Outside of that though, we kind of fell apart a little bit.”</p><p>In addition to Franklin’s boys advancing as a team, Whiteland’s Will Jefferson moves on as an individual after running a 15:58.9 to finish eighth overall.</p><p>Center Grove’s girls were 11th, while the boys placed 14th. The Trojans’ top finishers were Hudson Gilstorf in 66th and Archit Malik in 69th, respectively.</p><p>Franklin’s girls finished 15th, led by Lillian Lacy in 57th.</p><p>Whiteland’s boys and girls both placed 18th. Katia Olmstead led the girls in 114th.</p><p>Greenwood’s Julia Arruda and Keith Alford competed individually and placed in 111th and 168th, respectively. Indian Creek’s Nathan Decker and Shaelynn Biddle finished in 146th and 153rd in their respective races as individuals.</p><p>The Franklin boys and Whiteland’s Jefferson — as well as Roncalli’s Nick Perkins, who placed third overall — will compete at the state meet in Terre Haute next Saturday.</p><p>The goal is simple for Schaefer.</p><p>“We just want to run our best times in the biggest race,” he said.</p>