Strong semi field

Each step of the tournament represents a step up in talent.

In the case of cross country, the move to semi-state is more like a giant leap.

The Jay County and South Adams runners in competition Saturday at the meet hosted by New Haven at IPFW all enter as heavy underdogs to advance to the next level. The field of 20 teams and the best individual runners in the northeast quadrant of the state includes six state-ranked boys teams and four state-ranked girls teams.

From that group, only the top five teams and top 15 individuals will move on to the state finals.

"I think for teams like Jay County and ourselves, you want to push for a top-10 spot and see how close you can get to that," said South Adams coach Clint Anderson. "Just to be where we're at, having gone through what we've gone through, says a lot of the quality of our team and the quality of our runners."

The Starfire girls team, which placed fourth at the Marion regional, will compete at IPFW, and freshman Evan Liechty will represent the boys team after a 12th-place regional finish.

Jay County's girls team goes to the semi-state after winning its second consecutive regional title at the Delta meet. Tevan Nichols, a senior, will join Liechty in the boys race following his ninth-place regional finish.

Base on regional teams, the SAHS and JCHS girls teams are seeded back-to-back in 14th and 15th respectively. The Starfires placed 14th last year, and Jay County was 16th.

The battle for the girls semi-state title will be hotly contested, with No. 20 Penn entering as a slight favorite. Other contenders include Columbia City, No. 3 Huntington North, No. 6 Carroll, defending champion Northridge and Warsaw. Eighth-ranked Concordia will also run in the meet.

The Patriots have had a tremendous season, winning their sixth straight Olympic Athletic Conference title and fourth consecutive sectional championship. They became just the third program in school history, joining wrestling and baseball, to win back-to-back regional crowns.

JCHS coach Brian McEvoy said his runners want to walk off the course Saturday knowing they put their best foot forward.

"I know last year I think the girls felt like they didn't complete the season. We didn't go there and run as well as we could have or would have liked to," he said. "We want to do the best that we can do. I really have no doubts that we can do that."

Sophomore Katie Simmons is the highest seeded runner for Jay County at 75th. She was the sectional runner-up and placed fifth place in the regional.

A look at individual regional results illustrates the semi-state talent level she and teammates Leah Wellman, Kari Hemmelgarn, Logan Laux, Megan Taylor, Liz Lennartz, Aly Miller and Julie Valentine will be up against.

The winner of the Delta regional, Alexis Hunt of Yorktown, finished in 19 minutes, 51 seconds. That same time would have placed her fifth, 11th and 13th at the Marion, West Noble and Elkhart Central regional meets respectively.

All of those feed into the New Haven semi-state.

The difference is not quite as dramatic for the boys race, in which Nichols is seeded 67th. Still, Delta regional champion Nathan Hendershot of Pendleton Heights would have placed no higher than fifth at any of the other three regionals with his time of 16:26.

"They've been great seniors, just tremendous leaders," said McEvoy of Nichols and Kari Hemmelgarn, his lone seniors in Saturday's race. "Kari was a big part of our (girls team's) success, and Tevan has shown how things should be done on the boys side. I'd like to see them go on a high note."

Liechty is the highest seeded runner from the local teams at 47th in the boys race. He was 12th in both the regional and semi-state.

The boys competition includes No. 6 Huntington North, No. 7 Concordia, No. 8 St. Joseph, No. 16 Bishop Dwenger, No. 18 Homestead and No. 19 Snider.

"I just hope to see the same thing I've seen all season out of Evan," said Anderson. "He's a competitor.

"He just kind of rises to the level of competition that he's in. He ran his best race of the season at (the New Haven Invitational) ... I think he's looking forward to going back up there. I'm just looking forward to seeing him run against the best competition there is and see what he can do."

Hannah Moore, a sophomore, is seeded 49th for South Adams in the girls race. She placed 12th in the regional after missing the sectional with the flu.

The team has also been without Allison Beitler, who ran in the top three for the Starfires last year, throughout the season because of a broken foot. But the squad - Sawyer Shane, Kristen Muselman, Adrianna Teeter, Brooke Kirchhofer, Jenna Smith and Emily Miller join Moore - still won the Allen County Athletic Conference title and placed second in the sectional.

"We've just had different girls step up," said Anderson. "The way I look at this meet is this is a reward for them for all the hard work they've put in this season. ... You're running at the second biggest meet the state holds every year. ... They've proven that no matter what they're going to represent their school well."[[In-content Ad]]