Fresh legs

As the race begins, Abigail Johnson runs out to lead the Patriots.
Megan Wellman and Emi Minnich flank her, running just a shade behind their most experienced teammate. They run there like it’s where they belong, and as if that should come as no surprise.
Minnich, Wellman, and fellow freshman Kellie Fortkamp have made an immediate impact on the Jay County High School girls cross country team.
“They’ve just done a nice job stepping up,” said JCHS coach Brian McEvoy. “They’re not intimidated. They go out believing they’re going to win. They’re competitive.
“They’re tough for freshmen. Usually it takes an athlete a little while to get that built into them, but they’ve been good right out of the chute.”
In order for Jay County to have success, they had to be.
The Patriots have won six straight sectional championships and advanced to the semi-state meet every year for the last decade. But they entered this season having lost four of their top six runners — Katie Simmons, Eme Miller and Liz Lennartz to graduation and Miranda Gerber by way of a transfer to Norwell.
All three JCHS freshmen have finished in the top five at each of the first two races of the season. They’ve done so for a team that placed second by just two points in the season-opening Bellmont Invitational, and then won the Division I competition at Saturday’s Celina Rotary Invitational for just the second time in eight seasons.
“It feels awesome,” said Fortkamp of making such a big contribution to the team so quickly. “I’m not exactly sure how I got there. I just think it’s really fun.”
Minnich entered high school after a stand-out career at East Jay Middle School, having placed 15th for the Chiefs at the Indiana Middle School Cross Country Championships last season. And she broke a record in her first meet at JCHS.
She was the No. 2 runner for Jay County at Bellmont, snapping the school’s freshman record for the course with a time of 21 minutes, 55 seconds.
“I want to keep pushing myself to go harder and to do better,” said Minnich. “I have my own goals set and I want to reach those.
“I want to contribute more still.”
Wellman, who also surpassed the previous freshman record at Bellmont, came through with the best time for the Patriots to lead the way to the victory at Celina. She finished seventh overall and second among Division I runners in 21:05.
Katie Simmons held the previous freshman record at Bellmont (22:11 in 2008), and Aly Miller had the mark for the Celina course (21:07 in 2007). Those two runners went on to be a couple of the best in JCHS history, with Miller winning two sectional championships and Simmons, who now runs at IPFW, finishing in the top three at the sectional meet in each of her final three seasons.
“The potential is really there,” said McEvoy of his 2012 freshman class. “They come in as probably the strongest freshmen (we’ve had) and that’s saying a lot because we’ve had a lot of strong freshmen. We’ve had freshmen here contribute, but we’ve never had this many contribute all in one shot, especially this early. … At this point in the season, they’re as good as you could possibly expect a freshman to be.”
The truth is, based on their middle school careers, McEvoy knew Minnich and Wellman would be immediate contributors joining Johnson and fellow junior Kaitlin Hemmelgarn. The big question mark coming into the season was who would hold down the fifth and final scoring spot for the Patriots.
Fortkamp has answered the call.
She’s posted the No. 5 time for Jay County at each of its first two events, and ran 25 seconds faster at Celina than she had just five days earlier.
“She’s actually probably the athlete on the team who doesn’t know how good she could be,” said McEvoy. “I think she’s somebody that if … she continues working hard we’re going to see a lot of improvement. I just think she’s untapped potential right now.”
McEvoy said he was especially impressed with the way the freshmen worked during the summer months in order to prepare themselves for the high school level. It’s a big adjustment, making the move from junior high where a cross country race is just a 3K (1.8 miles) to the high school 5K (3.2 miles).
All three freshmen said that having each other on the team has helped them make the transition.
“We push each other,” said Wellman. “We work together. We pump each other up.
“We really want to show what us freshman can do. We really want to … put our best foot forward, always push ourselves, and I think that’s what made us ready.”[[In-content Ad]]