Running season ends at IPFW

FORT WAYNE — The Starfires’ goal was to find their spots early and hold strong.

But against the giant leap up in talent at the semi-state level, that was a difficult target to hit.

Kallee Patch came closest to doing it and turned in the best finish for the 16th-place South Adams High School girls cross country team, but came up about 35 seconds short of a state berth.

Jay County’s Sophia Fugiett finished 119th place overall as the local cross country season came to a close Saturday at the semi-state meet hosted by New Haven at IPFW.

“First time up here, not knowing what to expect, as a freshman, really good experience,” said Kurt Hess, Jay County’s coach. “Glad she made it here.”

South Adams, led by Patch’s 38th-place finish, scored 380 points to place 16th out of 20 teams. Concord (367) was 15th, and Pendleton Heights (407) was 17th.

Top-ranked Carroll won the team title with 77 points, followed by No. 17 Penn (131), Bishop Dwenger (161), Concordia (162), Homestead (175) and Northridge (183). The top six teams advance to the state finals.

“Today wasn’t bad. They executed the start of the race like we thought they had to,” said SAHS coach Clint Anderson. “Once you get beyond this first stretch, it’s a little bit difficult to pass for a while. It narrows down. And if you’re kind of mid-packing it, you’re kind of stuck, and you just have to bide your time until it starts to string out. And it usually doesn’t happen until you’re about 1,200 in … If you don’t get a good start, you’re kind of at the mercy of the field for a while.

“When they actually went into the woods (after the mile mark), I thought we were in pretty good position. But just as the race unfolded, we kind of gave up, probably on average about 10 spots from that point on per runner.”

No. 2 Westview took the boys title with 74 points. Other state-qualifying teams were Concordia (103), No. 8 Carroll (144), No. 19 Penn (147), West Noble (176) and Pendleton Heights (179).

The top 10 individuals not on qualifying teams also advance to the state meet. For the girls on Saturday, that meant the need for a top-15 overall finish.

Patch came closest to extending her season as she established herself as her team’s lead runner in the early going. She slipped back a bit during the middle of the race before climbing again during the final run through the woods. The sophomore held off Concordia’s Abigail Mays by about a half-second at the finish line to take 38th, 11 spots better than last season and the best semi-state effort by an SAHS girl since Hannah Moore took 22nd in 2010.

“I’m proud of her. She ran strong. She finished strong,” said Anderson. “The idea is to come up here and compete as best you can, and if you do that and you don’t move on, at least you can feel good about you gave it your best effort.”

The experience was an eye-opener for Fugiett, who had not seen the course at IPFW until she arrived Saturday. She got caught in the pack as the field narrowed from the opening stretch, leaving her in a difficult position to make up ground. Her time was about 33 seconds slower than at the previous weekend’s regional as she crossed in 21:39.94.

Though she would have liked to have been faster, she said being part of the race was a positive step.

“It was awesome. It was really cool,” Fugiett added. “It was a great experience as a freshman especially. I didn’t think I could have got here, but I was …

“I think I did good for my first time here on a new course that I just learned today and I haven’t ran it before. It was really difficult.”

Harruff, a junior, followed Patch for the Starfires, placing 73rd in 21:01.1. Freshman Megan Miller was 84th in 21:16.65, and seniors Olivia Von Gunten (94th – 21:46.23) and Calyssa Lehman (98th – 21:58.18) rounded out the team score.

Also competing for SAHS were senior Hadi Hawbaker (108th – 22:23) and Isabel Von Gunten (117th – 23:09) in the field of 180 runners.

“It was a good season,” said Anderson, whose team won the Allen County Athletic Conference title and earned its semi-state berth with a third-place finish at the regional meet at Indiana Wesleyan University. “It was a great group of girls to work with. …

“We have several of them coming back, which gives us a lot to look forward to. But there’s three girls there that are seniors with Olivia, Hadi and Calyssa — first group of girls probably in the history of the school to go through the cross country program and never lose a conference meet from middle school through high school. They’ve been a huge part of us getting to where we are today.”