Keihn's season ends at semi-state

FORT WAYNE — She had her goal going into the race.

Lydia Keihn wanted to break the 20-minute mark.

In conditions far from her ideal scenario, it was going to be a tall order.

Slipping at the starting line didn't make reaching her goal any easier.

Keihn, a Jay County High School freshman, had her season end as she placed 103rd Saturday in the IHSAA cross country semi-state meet at The Plex on the campus of Purdue Fort Wayne.

“Freshman in high school, she got the first one out of the way,” said JCHS coach Paul Hyatt. “She said she was super nervous and was able to get over the nerves.

“To eat it right at the beginning of the race and still run pretty close to what you were wanting to shoot for in not the greatest conditions, can't be prouder as a coach.”

Temperatures hovered in the upper 40s and rain was falling the entire day. Keihn, who earlier this week said her most ideal weather with which to run is when the mercury rises above 70, said her plan given the cold, wet conditions was to push through it and work as hard as she could.

“I just like to work on my form and my breathing,” she said. “I know the cold will impact my breathing so I was focusing on that the whole time.”

Positioned one spot in from the far right side of the starting line, as soon as the gun sounded Keihn's foot gave out and she fell to the grass. The youngster got up and from there just focused on running a strong race, making up as many spots as she could and not worrying too much about her primary goal of setting a new personal record close to 20 minutes.

“I was happy that I did my race and didn't focus on staying up with people and just passing people was my mindset,” she said.

Keihn ran with a group of about 10 others for the duration of the race once the field exited the starting chute and began to file behind the leaders. By then, Erin Strzelecki of Bishop Dwenger had claimed the top spot, and that's where she stayed until the finish. She had challengers in Carroll's Zoe Duffus and Huntington North's Addison Wiley for most of the race. The trio ran together until the final kilometer when Strzelecki, last year's runner-up, pulled away to the finish line.

Strzelecki won with a time of 17 minutes, 29.4 seconds.

Coming down the final 600 meters toward the finish line, Keihn was trailing Leah Keesling of Randolph Southern, Bailee Shambaugh of Mishawaka and Hannah Hawkins of Bishop Luers.

Keesling ran out of gas as the other three passed her, and Keihn crossed the finish line in 20:47.4, the fourth-best time of her 10 races this season.

Keesling, who was sectional champion and regional runner-up, finished 106th.

“There's no way you can really get prepared for conditions like this,” Hyatt said.

Out of the 28 freshman who ran on Saturday, Keihn was the 14th to cross the finish line.

“I think that she did exceptionally well,” Hyatt continued. “She got the jitters out of the way and she did well.”

Defending state champion and top-ranked Carroll won the semi-state team title with a score of 50. Seventh-ranked Fishers was a distant runner-up with 139 points, and Homestead placed third with 145 points.

No. 11 Hamilton Southeastern scored 168 points, edging No. 24 Northridge for fourth place.

The top five teams and top 10 individuals not on advancing teams earn a berth in the state finals.