Boys start their race during Saturday’s Johnson County cross country meet at Franklin.
The burden of expectation didn’t slow Sam Grimes one bit.
After winning last season’s boys race at the Johnson County meet, Grimes, a Greenwood senior, returned to the Franklin cross country course Saturday morning determined to accept nothing less than a repeat performance.
He delivered, and then some, running a time of 16 minutes, 16.1 seconds to eventually break away from the Indian Creek duo of junior Luke Neibert (16:34.5), the runner-up, and sophomore Noah Greenwood (16:40.7), who finished third.
“I had been visualizing my race, and I said at 3K, I’m just going to go,” Grimes said. “I think I did that pretty well. Once I came around that corner, it’s all straightaway, so I just kept kicking and kicking.
“It feels phenomenal. I was smiling … it was just a lot of fun. I’ve definitely outreached my goals. I never thought I would do anything like this when I came in as a freshman.”
Indian Creek put five of its runners in the top 13 to capture the first county boys team championship in its history. Senior Jackson Neibert crossed the finish line in ninth, and juniors Henry Fleetwood and Lukas Hogan were 12th and 13th, respectively.
The Braves finished with 39 points to Center Grove’s 63 and Greenwood’s 67.
It proved to be a departure from a year ago, when Indian Creek’s boys came in second on this same course despite what Braves’ coach Brady Devine feels was a subpar performance.
“The kids were amazing today. This is what we came out here to do. We knew we could,” Devine said. “Our No. 5, Lukas Hogan, he PR’d today, and this is not a PR course, so he’s the reason we got this done.”
Also placing in the top 10 were Greenwood junior Jake Squier (fourth), followed by a cluster of Franklin runners — Isiah Tunis, Liam Fennig and Brooks Huddleston — and Center Grove freshmen Landon Kyle (eighth) and Ethan Holbrook (10th).
In the girls race, Whiteland senior Tori Jackson won county for the first time, her time of 18:50.3 a little more than 12 seconds faster than second-place Lily Rollings, a Greenwood sophomore. Franklin senior Lauren Klem took third in 19:17.1, leading a quartet of Grizzly Cubs in the top seven.
“I just kind of went out, led the pack, and just kept going,” Jackson said. “Our mileage hasn’t been bumped down at all lately (in practice), so it’s really all mental, pushing through and giving it my all.
“It’s a pretty fast course. All of our girls know it pretty well. I think after the first mile, it was just keep going and don’t look back.”
Going 5-6-7 for Franklin were juniors Kathleen Lacy and Hannah Lindsay along with soph Ava Ott. The Cubs were the team champion with 37 points, followed by Whiteland (53) and Center Grove (55).
It marks the third consecutive season that Franklin has won the girls title.
“We knew the numbers of the race were going to be a little bit down, so we kind of picked spots,” Grizzly Cubs coach Ray Lane said. “We thought if we could be close with Whiteland up front, and then our fifth (runner) could be close to Center Grove’s fifth, we could pull it off.
“The final margin was surprising. We really expected it to be a couple of points one way or another.”
Other top-10 finishers were Whiteland freshman Lena Shipp (fourth), junior teammate Isabella Fuentes (eighth) and a pair of Center Grove ninth-graders in Lexi O’Barr (ninth) and Gretchen Meisberger (10th).
