Local trio runs to state finals bid

Batesville’s Jake Chapman and Kaylynn Bedel are bound for Terre Haute as is Milan’s Gabe Riehle after the trio punched their state finals tickets on Saturday as part of the IHSAA Cross Country Regional at Shelbyville.

All three runners earned bids after being named a Top 15 individual runner. The list features just those from teams that did not qualify for the state finals.

244 runners were featured in the boys’ meet that saw Chapman, a senior, and Riehle, a junior, emerge towards the top of the pack and finish back-to-back. Chapman sat 21st overall in a time of 16:06 and one-tenth of a second later it was Riehle right behind for 22nd place. Over on the girls side, Bedel finished 29th out of 243 runners. The senior ran in a time of 19:25. This will be Bedel’s second-straight trip to the state finals while Chapman and Riehle are making their first appearances.

Three full coverage area teams and several individuals from the area ran in Saturday’s race with Batesville’s girls putting together the best finish as the Lady Bulldogs were eighth out of 26 teams at 239 points. Franklin Central scored 73 points to win the girls regional title and Noblesville was runner-up at 90 points. Rounding out the top five and also advancing to the state finals were Hamilton Southeastern (140), Westfield (148) and East Central (157).

Away from Bedel, Lexi Harris was next in line for Batesville and just missed out on her second-straight state appearance after finishing 39th overall in a time of 19:52 and Jayla Bedel followed in 51st at 20:07. Two others finished in the Top 100 as Paige Allgeier and Caitlin Raver ran 75th and 83rd respectively in times of 20:34 and 20:43. Rounding out the Lady Bulldogs were Sam Adams at 103rd in 21:05 and Mayce Holtkamp in 120th at 21:31.

Coverage area individual runners were led by Oldenburg Academy’s Josie Wenning who finished 190th in a time of 23:03 and South Ripley’s Elizabeth McKittrick was 210th in 23:55. Milan’s Hannah Cooney (24:07) and Oldenburg’s Maddie Ryan (24:18) ran back-to-back at 213th and 214th and Virginia Minch of South Ripley rounded out that group at 231st in 25:28.

Batesville’s boys scored 376 points for 13th place out of 25 scoring teams and Milan’s boys sat at 21st after scoring 591 points. Noblesville won the boys championship with 45 points and Hamilton Southeastern was runner-up at 78 points. The other three state-qualifying teams in the race were Franklin Central (97), Fishers (100) and Mt. Vernon (Fortville) at 134 points.

Cannon Clark was Batesville’s second runner to cross the finish line and he was 63rd at 16:46. Isaac Trossman followed in 76th in 16:56, Cash Myers was 151st in 18:06 and Levi Essick sat 173rd at 18:20. The final two Bulldog runners were Ethan Rahschulte in 178th at 18:27 and Jaden Basler followed in 179th in a time of 18:28.

Milan’s Lucas Cooney ran a time of 17:06 to place 86th and teammates Nathan Voss and Tyler Myers were back-to-back in 238th and 239th respectively at 20:26 and 20:33. Seth Thomas was the final Indian runner and the freshman was 244th in 21:46.

Oldenburg Academy and South Ripley made for the individual runners running the boys race from the coverage area. Oldenburg’s Adam Dennis was 107th in 17:24 and teammates Santiago Schutte and Carson Hartwell sat 130th and 148th respectively in times of 17:47 and 18:04. Mason Bascom of South Ripley was 163rd in 18:15 and three of his fellow runners were all near each other afterwards. Jordan Davis finished 192nd in 18:36 and Dillon Cloney was 193rd in 18:36. Senior Luke Bradley placed 195th at 18:38.

The IHSAA Cross Country State Finals will be this Saturday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute. 12:30 p.m. will be the start time for the girls race while the boys follow at 2:30.