Cope, girls advance

MUNCIE — The Patriot girls have made a habit of advancing to the semi-state meet. For the boys, a visit to IPFW has been a rarity.
Dylan Cope became just the second Jay County High School boy in more than a decade to earn a spot in the semi-state meet as he finished second at Saturday’s regional race hosted by Delta at Muncie Sports Plex.
And the girls team also placed second just ahead of Mount Vernon as it picked up a semi-state berth for the seventh straight season.
Cope joins Tevan Nichols as the only JCHS boys in the last 10 years to advance to the semi-state meet. Nichols was ninth in the regional in 2009.
“It feels great,” said Cope. “I’ve put a lot of work into it and it’s worked out. I’m going to semi-state to see what I can do there.”
The Patriot girls scored 85 points, fighting off Mount Vernon (87) for the runner-up spot. Each of the first five Pendleton Heights runners finished in the top 11 as the Arabians scored 29 points to run away with their second straight regional title.
Yorktown was fourth with 126 points, and Delta (138) finished fifth.
The top five teams and top 15 individuals advance to the semi-state, which will be contested at 1 p.m. Saturday at IPFW.
“I thought the girls did a really good job,” said McEvoy, whose team won three straight regional titles from 2008 through 2010. “Overall I thought they had a good race. …
“We knew coming in (the Arabians) were tough. They won the regional last year. I thought we did the best we could with them. … I hope it pushes us this summer to really get to that level.”
After feeling as if he went out too fast at Tuesday’s sectional race, Cope eased back at the start in the regional. He was in the lead group of about 20 runners early on, but then the pack started to thin out.
By the mile mark he was in ninth in a lead group of 12, and along the back stretch of the course he moved up to fourth. By the two-mile mark he had surged past sectional champion Jace Hirst of Muncie Central to claim second place.
“Probably at about a half mile people started dying off,” said Cope, acknowledging that he was a bit worried about his position early on. “And then I just kept passing people. At about a mile-and-a-half I was in fourth place.
“About 2 miles in, Jace Hirst started (fading) and I was like ‘I should probably pass him now so he can’t catch me in the end.’ So I just kicked and it worked out.”
Cope made a run at leader Parker Williams in the final mile, but couldn’t quite keep up with the Frankton senior as he finished second in 16:42.94 ahead of Hirst (16:43.71). Williams won the individual title in 16:30.51 to lead Frankton (37) to the team championship ahead of Mount Vernon (98), Pendleton Heights (112), Yorktown (117) and Monroe Central (125).
“You couldn’t have ran that any better than what you did,” McEvoy told Cope when they met after the race.
 “We talked about going with the opposite strategy we used Tuesday and starting off a little slower and just kind of keeping in touch with the front pack,” he added. “He did a really good job of doing that, just hanging in there and staying tough and confident … He was just relaxed and bided his time.
“It’s been so rare (to have a boy advance to semi-state) and he did it in convincing fashion. He was one of the elite runners here today. That’s the cool part of it is seeing him not only accomplish that goal of going to semi-state … but also how he did it. It’s just really impressive.
“He’s worked really, really hard for it. That’s a huge accomplishment for our program. … I couldn’t be more proud of what he was able to do.”
Pendleton Heights established itself as the dominant team in the girls race from the start as its top three runners ran to the front of the pack along with Lapel’s Sierra Ratzlaff. Jay County’s top three — Abigail Johnson, Megan Wellman and Emi Minnich — meanwhile were in sixth, seventh and eighth places at the half-mile mark.
Johnson moved up to fourth at the mile mark, and by the 2-mile she had caught Chelsea Blackwell of Pendleton Heights for third place. But she was unable to catch the other two Arabians and ended up fourth in 20:07.07.
Alex Buck and Emma Manchess of Pendleton Heights went one-two with times of 19:10.83 and 19:21.70, and Delta’s Jenna Parsons passed Johnson in the final mile to take third in 19:58.92.
“I thought she ran a smart race,” said McEvoy of Johnson, who won the sectional title Tuesday. “She was tough. She’s done everything this year we could have asked of her. She’s seen a lot of success.”
Megan Wellman was the No. 2 runner for JCHS, finishing 12th in 20:33.
Fellow freshman Kellie Fortkamp came up big on the regional stage, improving by more than 45 seconds from Tuesday’s regional to place 16th in 20:57.39.
“I thought Kelly Fortkamp was huge for us today,” said McEvoy. “We talked to her before the race started and said, ‘We need you in the 20s.’ And she stepped up and did that. That’s really awesome.”
Emi Minnich placed 25th in 21:22 for the Patriots, and Kaitlin Hemmelgarn finished 39th in 22 minutes flat. Abbi Dunlavy was 43rd in 22:23, and Patricia Hein finished 58th in 23:33.[[In-content Ad]]