Riehle races to Sectional 20 crown
Local dominance continued for Milan junior Gabe Riehle and several coverage area runners are heading to the regional after the IHSAA Cross Country Sectional 20 run on Saturday at Hanover College.
Southwestern (Hanover) served as the host of the sectional which sends its top five teams to the regional alongside the top 15 runners from non-qualifying teams.
Riehle’s championship win in the boys race came at a time of 16:06 and such a performance paced Milan to its third-straight regional appearance after the black and gold finished fifth in the team standings. His time was 11 seconds better than runner-up Will Laufer of Madison and behind Laufer was Milan’s Lucas Cooney who ran 16:42 for third place.
Milan scored 124 points for fifth place, just two points behind fourth place Crothersville and 10 points back from Switzerland County and Austin who sat in a tie for the second and third place spots. Madison won the team title after putting together 41 points. South Ripley sat sixth out of 12 teams with 134 points. Jac-Cen-Del competed but did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score.
After Riehle and Cooney it was Nathan Voss among the Milan pack, finishing 25th out of 82 runners in a time of 18:23 and teammate Tyler Myers was 48th in 19:31. Seth Thomas rounded out the Indians at 64th in 21:23. South Ripley is sending 12 of its runners to the regional after just missing out on a team bid. Raider sophomore Mason Bascom ran 16th overall in 17:52 and classmate Dillon Cloney was 21st in 18:03. Luke Bradley and Jordan Davis also qualified, crossing the finish line 26th and 32nd respectively in times of 18:25 and 18:39.
Three others ran for South Ripley. Bill Plazarin was 61st in 21:10, Blake Swinney 67th in 21:33 and Earl Carter 71st at 21:45. Jac-Cen-Del’s lone runner was Jacob Ricke who finished 70th in 21:42.
No girls team qualified for the regional but three coverage area runners advanced to the next round. South Ripley’s Elizabeth McKittrick placed 25th out of 76 runners and ran a time of 23:02 while teammate Virginia Minch sat 31st and crossed in a time of 23:22. Hannah Cooney was Milan’s only runner and is advancing after finishing 32nd in 23:30.
Southwestern won its first girls sectional title in program history after scoring 52 points and holding off second place Charlestown and its 55 points. South Dearborn was right behind in third at 56 points and the top five was rounded out by Switzerland County’s 92 points and Madison’s 116 points. South Ripley was ninth overall with 230 points and Jac-Cen-Del placed 11th at 296 points. Milan did not qualify for a team score.
Henryville’s Lydia Ramsey, a freshman, was the individual sectional champion in a time of 20:04.
Four more runners finished for South Ripley after McKittrick and Minch. Jocelyn Goddard was 54th in 26:36, Kaiden Bradley ran 66th in 29:49 and the duo of Illyria Billingsley and Emily Campbell was 75th and 76th in times of 36:44 and 37:53 respectively. Jac-Cen-Del was led by a 53rd place finish from Allene Peters in 26:12 and teammate Kira White was 58th at 27:04. Hailey Caudill was next up for the Lady Eagles, running 68th in 30:40.
Rylee Reese and Joselyn Burford were the final two runners for Jac-Cen-Del. Reese was 70th in 31:15 and Burford sat 72nd in 35:26.
Those advancing to the next round of the postseason will compete at the IHSAA Cross Country Regional on Saturday morning at Shelbyville.
