NH’s Bosler, Fleace crack top 50

It was a good day for some and a really bad day for others, as runners from throughout Indiana ran in the state cross country finals at the LaVerne Gibson cross country course in Terre Haute Saturday afternoon.
Carmel made a sweep of the day, winning both the boys’ and girls’ divisions in the team standings.
The boys ran first on a day that had both a chill and some wind to it. The area had been hit by a good amount of rain two days before, leaving the course soft in places but not too hard to handle.
‘The conditions were great and the weather was great,’ North Harrison’s Daniel Fleace said. ‘The ground was firm, so it was all great.’
The real drama of the boys’ race came in the last 400 meters. Fort Wayne Concordia’s Zachary Panning had been leading through most of the last two kilometers with Terre Haute South’s Bertoli Jackson a few meters behind.
With about 150 meters to go, Panning’s body suddenly gave out and the Concordia senior fell to the ground, causing many in the crowd to gasp in disbelief.
As Panning tried to get up, Bertoli made the pass and ran toward the finish line, turning up his hands in disbelief, as well. Bertoli crossed the finish line first in a time of 15 minutes, 32.4 seconds, with Greenwood’s David Dalton finishing second, just under five seconds behind.
Panning fell twice more before the finish and placed 22nd in 15:59.2.
Borden sophomore Julien Magallanese, who won the Crawford County sectional and regional, finished well back, at 104th, in a time of 16:52.7.
Fleace finished in the 50th position in a time of 16:23.1. The North Harrison junior was pleased with his run but not completely satisfied.
‘I felt like I ran a smart race,’ he said. ‘I was pretty consistent. Place-wise was good. Time-wise, I would have liked to have run a little faster, but it was good.’
‘I got a little jammed in the beginning around the first turn,’ he said. ‘Every now and then, I had to move to work around somebody. … I tried to run my own race and just be consistent. I tried to run smart. I tried to go out at my speed and pace and keep it all the way through. I feel like I passed a lot of people that were dying from the hard pace.’
The girls’ race didn’t have the dramatics that the boys’ race did, but it was still tight, with Carmel’s Kelcy Welch and Columbus North’s Mackenzie Caldwell running side by side with one kilometer to go in the 5K. In the final 400, Welch finally pushed ahead of Caldwell, kicking to win by less than three seconds in a time of 17:53.9.
North Harrison’s Ashton Bosler cracked the top 50 with a 42nd-place finish. The Lady Cats junior was disappointed in her run, hoping to break the top 25.
‘It was OK,’ Bosler said. ‘It was a really fast pace. It was well under the 6’s in the beginning (the first mile). … I wanted to hang on to the (front) pack.’
Bosler said the course was still in good shape following the boys’ race, with no real slick spots.
‘The course was in good condition,’ she said. ‘The start, I’ve always said it was really, really fast. … The wind made it a little chilly, but it was really not windy at all compared to yesterday. It seemed like it was when we were practicing the course the day before.’
‘I’ve just got to get better,’ Bosler said. ‘That’s all there is to it. I have to make my time faster.’
Floyd Central finished 19th as a team, with Lydia Kotowski and Kassidy Manning cracking the top 100 in 69th (19:29.1) and 81st (19:35.8), respectively, of the 208 participants. Madison Barney was 146th (20:38.9), with Morgan Paul right behind in 147th (20:39.4). Gabrielle Rodriguez was 173rd (21:06.2), Jamie Bierman 189th (21:26.2) and Zoe Doebbler 193rd (21:32.8).
‘We looked pretty good,’ Floyd Central coach Brian Emerson said. ‘Lydia ran strong for us like she always does. Kassidy had a real big day. We ran strong as a team.’
‘It’s the first go-round for almost all of them, so this was a learning experience,’ he said. ‘I definitely think we came here to Terre Haute prepared. We were ready to go. They certainly didn’t come up here just to have fun or just to enjoy the trip. We were ready to go. We’re happy with the outcome.’
Kotowski said last year’s experience as a freshman helped prepare her for this year’s run.
‘I remembered from my freshman year that the first mile is like a dead-out sprint,’ she said. ‘We kind of tried to prepare for that, but saying you’re going to hold yourself back and doing it is sometimes two very different things.’
‘I was really excited and happy to have my team with me,’ she said. ‘We all felt really good about it and just happy to be here but not satisfied. We all wanted to run our hardest and prove that we deserved to be here.’
Emerson said the course can be intimidating, especially for the younger runners who haven’t been there.
‘It absolutely can,’ he said. ‘We talked a lot about how this course can be intimidating if you let it get to you. We’ve been doing things every day every week all season long in a particular way so that, when we got to this position, it wouldn’t be as overwhelming. I think they handled that really, really well.’
‘It’s a good stepping stone, and we’re going to build off of it next year and come back and be even better,’ Emerson said. ‘We lose two really good seniors that provided a lot of leadership for us, but we’ve got five of our seven back next year. We’ll be all right.’
Henryville’s Cia Greene, a freshman, finished 89th in a time of 19:42.3. Orleans senior Angela Kendall was 165th in 20:54.7.
Girls’ team scores ‘ 1. Carmel 76, 2. Hamilton Southeastern 122, 3. Columbus North 141, 4. West Lafayette 150, 5. Avon 152, 6. Penn 171, 7. Carroll-FW 180, 8. Westfield 216, 9. Zionsville 289, 10. LaPorte 344, 11. Bloomington South 350, 12. Twin Lakes 354, 13. Franklin Central 365, 14. Pendleton Heights 383, 15. Portage 394, 16. Northridge 398, 17. Homestead 422, 18. Terre Haute North 430, 19. Floyd Central 454, 20. Bloomington North 494, 21. Warsaw 503, 22. Lake Central 512, 23. Huntington North 523, 24. Jasper 528.
Girls individual results ‘ 1. Kelcy Welch (Crml) 17:53.9, 2. Mackenzie Caldwell (CN) 17:56.8, 3. Elena Lancioni (LPrt) 18:03.5, 4. Rachel Nichwitz (HS) 18:04.0, 5. Taylor Nicholson (Avn) 18:06.9, 6. Madison Woods (Pn) 18:09.5, 7. Abigail Hostetler (Frmt) 18:18.8, 8. Jessica King (HS) 18:20.1, 9. Sarah Billingsley (Oldnbg) 18:20.5, 10. Alexandra Dalton (Grnwd) 18:23.7, 11. Sierra Lax (CN) 18:27.6, 12. Mary Abramson (Avn) 18:29.6, 13. Jenna Halderman (Nrthfld) 18:29.7, 14. Haley Harris (Crml)18:31.8, 15. Sierra Moore (EM) 18:32.4 (42. Ashton Bosler (NH) 19:06.5, 69. Lydia Kotowski (FC) 19:29.1, 73. Mackenzie Crouch (SilCk) 19:31.4, 81. Kassidy Manning (FC) 19:35.8, 89. Cia Greene (Hnryvl) 19:42.3, 146. Madison Barney (FC) 20:38.9, 147. Morgan Paul (FC) 20:39.4, 165. Angela Kendall (O) 20:54.7, 174. Gabrielle Rodriguez (FC) 21:06.2, 189. Jamie Bierman (FC) 21:26.2, 193. Joe Doebbler (FC) 21:32.8).
Boys team scores ‘ 1. Carmel 64, 2. Columbus North 78, 3. Carroll-FW 192, 4. Brebeuf Jesuit 198, 5. Terre Haute South 228, 6. Bloomington South 230, 7. North Central-IND 230, 8. Northridge 234, 9. West Lafayette 244, 10. Lawrence North 265, 11. Westfield 269, 12. Warsaw 337, 13. Munster 347, 14. Bloomington North 359, 15. Fort Wayne Bishop 369, 16. Zionsville 382, 17. South Adams 390, 18. Valparaiso 416, 19. Crown Point 422, 20. Homestead 452, 21. South Bend Riley 503, 22. South Knox 581, 23. Lake Central 587, 24. Evansville North 606.
Boys individual results ‘ 1. Jackson Bertoli (THS) 15:32.4, 2. David Dalton (Grnwd) 15:37.0, 3. Ellis Coon (Wrsw) 15:41.4, 4. Anthony Didion (LPrt) 15:43.9, 5. Ben Veatch (Crml) 15:44.0, 6. Cooper Williams (WLfyt) 15:44.3, 7. Bobby Browning (Crml) 15:47.4, 8. Clayton Bowie (Sthprt) 15:48.2, 9. Mark Beckman (Dklb) 15:48.5, 10. Zack Snider (BJ) 15:50.3, 11. Brian Blaylock (Lwll) 15:50.3, 12. Andy Carr (CN) 15:50.7, 13. Ben Anderson (Crml) 15:51.8, 14. Cameron Clements (C-FW) 15:52.1, 15. Blake O’Dell (Nrthrdg) 15:53.3, (50. Daniel Fleace (NH) 16:23.1, 104. Julien Magallanes (Borden) 16:52.7).