Not having a dominant runner has its advantages.
The evenness of the Center Grove girls cross country squad allowed the Trojans to dominate the Franklin sectional on Saturday as they won their first team title since 2015.
Coach Wes Dodson’s squad tallied 26 points to finish well ahead of runner-up Whiteland with 69. Trojan sophomore Sadie Schemmel came in second individually, one spot ahead of junior Gabrielle Harrell.
“They’re all so close together, and it makes for a pretty awesome pack when we’re coming in. We actually tried to group up in the middle of the race, and they did an awesome job with that,” Dodson said. “I think it’s pretty intimidating for other teams to see that many girls.”
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The goal coming in, Dodson added, was to have seven runners in the top 20. They fared even better, with seven of the top 14.
“The girls can help each other in practice every day,” Dodson said. “When you have that one standout, it’s hard to have someone that pushes her. These girls push each other every day.”
Franklin’s Lillian Lacy ran to the front early and never looked back to finish first in a time of 20 minutes, 30.0 seconds. The sophomore, who won by nearly 22 seconds over Schemmel, said transitioning from last week’s chilly temperatures at county to Saturday’s heat was challenging.
“The warmer temperatures definitely factored in, but I was trying to keep my mindset the same and remember everyone has the same conditions,” Lacy said. “It’s definitely hard to go from cold to hot, but it started heating up midweek when we had our workouts.
“My own success doesn’t quite matter as much as the team success. I love watching everyone succeed, and when we do, we remember why we love to do this sport.”
Whiteland’s second-place effort as a team was led by Alexa Brodnik, who took fourth in 21.10.3. Katia Olmstead came in 11th and Taylor Leytham 13th.
Franklin’s boys, ranked No. 16 in the state, used basically the same blueprint as the Center Grove girls to claim their 10th sectional championship and third in four years. Five of the first 10 runners to cross the finish line were Grizzly Cubs, led by second-place Wyatt McCullough and fifth-place Andrew Bixler.
The Cubs had 29 points to Center Grove’s 50. Whiteland placed third with 71 points.
“We wanted to come out and win today and wanted to move on to regional and ultimately the semistate round,” Franklin coach Adam Schwartz said. “We’ve got some pretty lofty team goals for this season, and it kind of starts here.
“We went out very, very conservative today. That was on purpose. Part of it was with the heat, but it’s early in the tournament season. We have a month’s worth of tournament races, hopefully. Maybe three weeks. But we want to be ready.”
Whiteland sophomore Will Jefferson won the boys race in 16:41.4, ahead of McCullough’s 16:52.5. For Center Grove, Archit Malik finished fourth and Raef Sauer sixth. Whiteland’s Mika Long was ninth.
“I was running for placement and obviously for our team to get out,” Jefferson said. “We went out a lot slower today because the temperatures can really mess with you. The heat always makes you work a little bit harder.”
