Jay Co. runners win big (08/30/07)

Not only did the Patriots dominate Wednesday's meet. They had the ability to do it twice.

The Jay County High School girls cross country team won the three-team meet with Monroe Central and Union City by scoring 16 points. Ten of the first 11 runners to cross the finish line were Patriots.

The Monroe Central girls were second with 63 points, and Union City did not post a team score

Monroe Central had an easy win in the boys race, as neither of the other two teams have enough runners for a team score. Tevan Nichols turned in the top effort for Jay County in fourth place.

In blazing heat that had even the fans soaked in sweat, Bantz said he felt his teams ran better than it had at Saturday's Celina Rotary Invitational.

"I was very pleased," he said. "We were hotter and later in the day ...

"It's hard to make it hurt (like that). I can understand that.

"I think everybody ran pretty well."

Senior Amanda Johnson led the Jay County victory.

After struggling at Celina, Johnson was back on top of her game Wednesday as she and freshman teammate Aly Miller ran out to the front from the gun. She surged to the lead during the middle of the race and cruised to a 20-second win in 21-minutes, 29 seconds - 25 seconds faster than at Celina.

Miller was a solid second in 21:49, and fellow freshman Leah Wellman was 12 seconds behind in 23:091. Kylie Wellman placed fourth in 23:46.

Liz Curtis of Monroe Central was the only Golden Bear or Indian runner able to break the Jay County stronghold on the top 10. She followed Wellman in 24:14 before Brittany Burris rounded out the Patriot team score in 24:41.

"All in all I can't complain," said Bantz. "We're on our way. ... I'm thinking about October. ... Long-term goals is what I'm after. We'll see where we are by then."

Burris took the No. 5 spot in the Patriot lineup after Cassie Laux finished there in each of the first two meets of the season. Laux was seventh behind Burris Wednesday in 25:04, and there is plenty of other competition to get into the top five as well.

Running on their home course, Katie Butcher placed eighth in 25:14, Deidre Chenoweth was ninth at 25:17, Logan Laux took 10th in 25:22 and Erica Butcher finished 11th with a time of 26:28.

Kristen Selvey finished 15th in 28:54.

"That fifth place of course is vital to us," said Bantz. "We need somebody really there to kind of take the challenge. Some of those girls keep moving up it could be a real fight for fifth place. We have some team competition."

Monroe Central won the boys competition, taking first and second place.

Trey Thomas dominated the race, winning by 50 seconds in 19:25. Fellow Golden Bear Derrick Calhoun finished second with a time of 20:15.

Nichols started the race in third place and held that position through the first kilometer, but faded to fourth behind Nate Cash. At the finish line, Cash was third in 20:29 with Nichols fourth at 20:45.

Branden Brinton finished ninth for the Patriots in 23:14, Jacob Heitkamp was 13th at 24:50, and Joe Imel finished 14th in 28:06.[[In-content Ad]]