Two advance to semi-state

MUNCIE — Sophia Fugiett threw her arms in the air as she crossed the finish line.

She wasn’t yet sure where she stood in terms of extending her senior season. But she knew how much time she had slashed from the previous week.

It was cause for celebration.

About an hour later when regional cross country results were announced, Fugiett got to celebrate again as she joined sophomore teammate Lydia Keihn in earning a berth in the semi-state meet.

Fugiett and Keihn, thanks to finishing among the top 10 runners on non-qualifying teams, will represent Jay County High School in the New Haven semi-state that will be contested Saturday at Huntington University.

“Oh my gosh, that was awesome,” said Fugiett, who ran more than a minute faster than the sectional meet a week earlier on the same course. “I didn’t know that I could do it.”

The Patriot girls placed seventh out of 10 teams at the Delta regional at Muncie Sportsplex with 194 points. Hamilton Southeastern (41) fought off Fishers (52) for the regional title, followed by Delta (92), Pendleton Heights (112) and Yorktown (141). The top five teams advance to the semi-state.

The season also came to an end for JCHS senior Mitchell Winner, who placed 57th in the boys race.

Fugiett and junior Lindy Wood got off to a strong regional start, running in about 10th place a few hundred yards into the race with Keihn behind them.

Fugiett was 30th at the mile mark before climbing her way to 24th after 2 miles. She couldn’t quite hold that spot, but ended up 26th in 21:25, just two seconds behind Sydney Fellers of Blue River Valley and one second behind Kaitlyn Moriarty of Fishers.

Her time obliterated the 22:32 she posted in placing 21st in the sectional, and she out-ran eight of the runners who finished ahead of her at that meet.

“I am absolutely on top of the world for her,” said JCHS coach Paul Hyatt. “I can only imagine how she feels. I’m super, super excited for her.

“And Lydia making it back again is a big deal. … I’m excited.”

The semi-state berth is Fugiett’s first since her freshman season.

She fell eight tenths of a second short of advancing to the meet in 2018.

“Freshman year, it was awesome, because I had no idea going into it that I would even have a chance to get there,” said Fugiett. “And then sophomore year I missed it … and that was hard.

“I feel like, it’s like redemption, like I finally got it. All my work has paid off.”

After trailing her teammates early, Keihn had made her move to her usual team-leading spot at the mile mark as she ran 19th. She was 20th after 2 miles.

As she did in the sectional race, Keihn came through with a strong final mile. She picked off five runners who were in front of her and held off Carolyn Szilagyi of Fishers at the finish to take 15th in 20 minutes, 58 seconds.

“Instead of following people, I’ve been getting comfortable with the pace,” said Keihn, who was also a semi-state qualifier as a freshman last season. “That’s been helping me. I feel like I had the right mindset today.

“I felt like at the beginning of my race I wasn’t doing too good, but then after I started passing people I knew that I was in a good position.”

Wood posted a time of 22:27 for 41st place. Lita Chowning (25:38) and Makaylah Brainerd (25:40) finished back-to-back in 77th and 78th to round out the team score.

Winner was back in the pack from the start of the boys race — Fishers cruised to the team title — on the way to a time of 18:53. Although it didn’t put him in position for a semi-state berth, the time was 14 seconds faster than the previous week and the second-fastest time of his career.

“He’s just a great kid,” said Hyatt. “He really, really, really turned it around after his sophomore year.

“He wanted to be the best runner on the team. He wanted to be all-conference, and he wanted to qualify for regional. And he checked all those off.”