Cross country teams battle at Lincoln Trail
The HCHS cross country teams competed in the Lincoln Trail Invitational at Hoosier Heights Country Club Saturday. Several Hancock County athletes had career best performances.
“All of our boys and six of our eight girls ran season best times,” Hancock coach Wes Meserve said.
Izzy Ross led the varsity girls team with a 17th place finish in a time of 21 minutes, four seconds over the hilly 5K course. Lexus Ralph placed 41st in 22:20, Preslee Meserve 57th in 24:40, Carolina Jones 60th in 25:02, Lyla DeJarnette 63rd in 25:28, Juliana Nevitt 68th in 25:58, and Karissa Ralph 76th in 28:34.
“Izzy ran her best regular season time ever. She’s well ahead of where she was last season and is ranked second in the region. Lexus ran a good time, but she was struggling. Based on what I’ve seen, I think she can go at least 30 seconds faster,” Meserve said.
“The most successful teams I’ve coached have all been very good at packing together. If they can learn to consistently run together they are going to be very tough in the future.”
Cordelia Hoover of Evansville Reitz won with a time of 19:07.
Corydon Central won the team title with 38 points. Hancock was ninth.
Hunter Stephens led the varsity boys with a 31st place finish in a time of 17:52. Emmitt Meserve placed 40th in 18:23, Noah Henson 64th in 19:40, Damion Basham 72nd in 20:16, Max DeJarnette 76th in 20:25 and Griffin DeJarnette 82nd in 20:30.
“Hunter broke into the 17s and Emmitt was in the 18s for the first time,” the coach pointed out. “Emmitt’s time ranks 13th in the US this season among 7th graders.
“Max had a huge race and he improved his time by over two minutes. They’re really starting to look like a team and work together.”
Jackson Nolan of Reitz won in 15:28.
Reitz won the team title with 83 points. Hancock County placed ninth.
Middle School results
Ellen Meserve led Hancock County in the girls 2400 meter middle school race. She placed 17th in 13:09. Oonagh DeJarnette was 85th in 15:23, and Alyson Goodall 100th in 15:54.
Isabel Land of Castle Middle School won in 11:53.
Corydon Central won the team title with 60 points.
Beckham DeJarnette led the boys in the middle school race. He placed 110th in 13:58 over 2400 meters. Talon Singleton was 150th in 15:05, Owen Shyver 182nd in 16:49, Michael Fulkerson 187th in 17:26, Xander DeJarnette 188th in 17:27, and Trevor Ralph 203rd in 19:47.
Carter Zieen of Mount Vernon won in 10:22.
Castle Middle School won the team title with 33 points. Hancock County was 15th.
Yellow Creek
Ellen and Elias Meserve both won their respective races during elementary competition at Yellow Creek Park on Sept. 20.
Ellen won the 5th grade and under girls division with a time of 4:22 over 1000 meters. Oonagh DeJarnette was seventh in 4:53, and Alyson Goodall 10th in 5:17.
Elias won the 2U boys division with a time of 4:37. Beckham DeJarnette was second in 4:43.
Other local runners who competed are: Peyton Cartwright (5:45), Audree Earhart (7:21), Michael Fulkerson (5:24), Raegan Helm (8:26), Cash Lomax (6:25) and Owen Shyver (5:23).
By Steve Wimmer
