Patriots favored to win regional

The Patriots are solid favorites to win their second straight regional title. South Adams will have some work to do to pick up another semi-state berth.

Jay County High School's girls cross country team heads into Saturday's Delta regional, which will be contested at The Water Bowl at 10 a.m., as the No. 1 seed.

South Adams is seeded sixth for the Marion regional at Indiana Wesleyan University.

The top five teams and top 15 individuals from both regional meets will advance to the New Haven semi-state.

The Patriots, who won their fourth straight sectional title Tuesday, have been the semi-state meet in each of the last three seasons.

Based on sectional results, defending champion JCHS is favored to win regional by about 25 points over Muncie Central and Pendleton Heights.

The Starfire girls team is the No. 6 seed for the Marion meet, but stands right on the heels of fifth-seeded Eastbrook and fourth-seeded Marion. The SAHS boys are the No. 8 seed, more than 50 points out of fifth place.

Among individual runners, JCHS sophomore Katie Simmons leads area competitors as the No. 3 seed in the Delta regional after her runner-up finish in the sectional meet. Tevan Nichols is the fourth seed for the boys race at the Delta regional, and Leah Wellman is No. 6 in the girls race.

Both Simmons and Nichols finished in second place at Tuesday's sectional meet.

The top ranked runners for South Adams are Sawyer Shane in the girls race at No. 18 and Evan Liechty in the boys race at No. 20.[[In-content Ad]]