Moore is 22nd for Stars

FORT WAYNE — The season didn’t end the way the Patriots or Starfires had hoped. Still, both were able to take some positives away from Saturday’s semi-state meet.
Hannah Moore of South Adams was far and away the top area runner, finishing about 20 seconds shy of a state berth in 23rd place in the girls race. She led the Starfires to a 14th-place finish with 378 points.
“Hannah got a big monkey off her back,” said SAHS coach Clint Anderson of the junior, who was nearly 100 spots better than a year ago. “That was fun to watch her run where she was the whole race. … She gave it everything she had. In that last stretch she was really cranking it, everybody else was too.”
“I thought the girls ran decent. It wasn’t their fastest races of the year, but it was probably as good as we’ve ran on that course in a while. I think we pretty much held up where we should have been.”
Jay County’s girls, who were minus two of their top seven runners, were 19th with 453 points. Delta was the only team behind the Patriots with 551 points.
Tenth-ranked Carroll won the girls championship with 72 points led by a 23-second championship run by senior Brianna Johnson in 18:13. No. 16 West Noble was second with 97.
“I thought our first three had really good races,” said JCHS coach Brian McEvoy. “Eme (Miller) had her clear best race there. And Leah (Wellman) and Katie (Simmons) had strong races. They were pretty close to the times they ran throughout the entire season.
The South Adams boys team, making its first semi-state appearance, was 16th with 414 points.
Bishop Dwenger edged No. 18 Mishawaka 94-98 to take the boys championship while James Martin of Carroll took the individual crown in 15:19.
Moore gave herself a chance for a state berth from the start, running out with the front pack. She was 19th at the mile mark in the woods at IPFW and was still in contention at 21st as she hit the final straightaway to the finish line.
The junior ended up 23rd as she fought off Whitney Wiist, who won the Delta sectional and regional titles, by one second with a time of 19 minutes, 31.67 seconds. She made a huge jump from last season, when she finished 117th in 22:44.
“It was just believing in herself,” said Anderson of the improvement for Moore. “She was still nervous, but I think she really felt like she had a shot. … It just paid off.
“A lot of times after her runs up (at IPFW) there have been some tears shed. That wasn’t the case this time. I think she walked away knowing she ran a good race.”
Jay County’s Simmons also made an impressive jump from last season. She ran close to the time she posted at the regional meet a week earlier and was nearly two minutes faster than at the 2009 semi-state. She finished in 20:43 for 78th place after finishing 120th a year ago.
Eme Miller, a first-year runner as a junior for the Patriots, was the only runner on the team to run faster at the semi-state than she did at the regional. She improved her time by nearly 15 seconds and crossed the finish line 87th in 20:56.
“I think she’s learning more and more every race that she runs and she’s starting to believe a little bit that she can be a pretty good runner,” said McEvoy. “She’s a very smooth runner. I think a lot of it is just gaining confidence.”
Jay County’s Leah Wellman and South Adams’ Sawyer Shane, both seniors, finished back to back. Wellman was 91st in 21:05, and Shane crossed the line just one second behind her.
Kristen Muselman followed Shane in 95th with a time of 21:10 for the Starfires. Jenna Smith was 98th in 21:11, and Allison Amstutz was 119th in 22:03.
South Adams senior Eric Isch had a chance to earn a state berth base on his seed, but he got stuck in the middle of the 169-runner field. She ended up 71st in 17:01, four seconds ahead of 74th-place teammate Evan Liechty.
“I think the guys showed their inexperience at that level of the tournament,” said Anderson. “When you’ve got a field that fast, you can’t shoot out like some of them did at the start of that race and expect to hang on. I think that hurt us.
“It’s understandable. It’s a big race, and sometimes it gets the best of you.”
Joel Hawbaker finished 83rd in 17:11 with Brody Shane 138th in 18:08 and Simon Sprunger in 140th in 18:11. Also running for South Adams were Emily Miller (144th – 24:14) and Alexis Ford (147th – 27:14) for the girls, and Brett Affolder (152nd – 18:46) and Cody Sprunger (154th – 18:54) for the girls.
Abigail Johnson, a freshman, finished 122nd for the JCHS girls in 22:10, and senior Logan Laux was 130th in 22:33.
Julie Valentine finished 143rd in 24:11 for the Patriots, who were without regional No. 5 and 6 runners Miranda Gerber (academic ineligibility) and Liz Lennartz (vacation).
“That’s a big deal” said McEvoy, whose team was also 19th last season. “Our six and seven helped us win a lot of meets and a lot of races this year. It just really takes away our margin of error.”[[In-content Ad]]