Prime position

Leave it all on the course.
Have the run of their lives.
Survive and advance.
All the clichés are there, but they are relevant now more than ever.
Two Jay County High School runners and both South Adams cross country teams hope to follow those mantras during the semi-state meet Saturday at IPFW.
“This weekend is going to be exciting like it is every year for these runners,” said JCHS coach Leah Wellman. The boys’ race starts at 1 p.m., with the girls to follow at 1:45 p.m. “This is what they train for all year and hope to get to at the end of the season.
“The girls, Kellie (Fortkamp) and Megan (Wellman) are ready for this meet. They have trained so hard and have given so much that they deserve this opportunity to leave their mark on the program and to leave it all on the course.”
The work Megan Wellman — Leah’s sister — has put in sure is paying off. Her times have consistently been getting lower. The JCHS senior won the Delta sectional Oct. 10 in 19 minutes, 24.78 seconds, more than eight seconds faster than what she had run on the same Muncie SportsPlex course two weeks earlier.
Still she wanted to go faster.
A week later she crushed the school record by more than 15 seconds, finishing fifth in 19:00.2 to reach Saturday’s semi-state meet.
So where does she stack up against the field?
Based on regional times, Wellman is seeded 18th. Pendleton Heights’ Alex Buck — who was the Delta regional champion — has the top time with 17:24.5.
Wellman has the fourth-best time out of individual semi-state qualifiers, and is 13 seconds away from the 10th seed, Faith Beer of Pendleton Heights.
That puts her in excellent position to reach the state finals.
The top six teams and top 10 individuals not on advancing teams earn a berth in the state finals.
“She needs to have the race of her life,” Leah Wellman, using one of those clichés, said of what it will take for her sister to reach the next level. “These last couple weeks she had done just that. She continues to improve and put herself in position to survive and advance to the next level.”
One thing that will help the younger Wellman and Fortkamp — she finished 21st at regional — is their familiarity with the course Saturday at IPFW. Both ran at semi-state the previous three years.
“They will know where to make their strategic moves on the course,” said Leah Wellman, who wouldn’t go into much detail about strategy for Saturday. “They are aware of the layout of the course and where they can make moves that will benefit their race the most.
“My expectations are that they use their knowledge that they have gained through this season and their whole running careers to compete with state-caliber runners.”
Megan Wellman said she hopes she can be pleased with her performance when she crosses the finish line.
“I am striving to leave it all on the course,” she said. “I hope to make my family proud, my team proud and most importantly make myself proud of all that I’ve done in my final cross country season. I’m going to go in and have fun with the sport that I love.”
Bailey McIntire and Olivia Von Gunten are the front-runners for the Starfire boys and girls teams respectively. McIntire, like Wellman, destroyed the school record he already owned Saturday, winning the Marion regional in 15:24.81. That time has him seeded third, behind Christian Noble (14:55.3) of Delta and Homestead’s Brayden Law (15:17.81).
“He is very focused,” said coach Clint Anderson, whose boys squad finished as the runner-up to New Haven at regional by one point after placing fourth at sectional. “He’s worked very hard for this. More so in the fall than any other time of the year, he really focused on doing the best he can to raise his team to a different level.”
Wyatt Miller, an SAHS sophomore, is seeded 32nd following his eighth-place finish at regional.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Wyatt more pumped about where he is as a runner than after regional,” Anderson said. “When he crossed (the finish line) and realized what he had done he was pretty excited. He’s had a hard time containing it. He has crossed a big threshold of where he is as a runner.”
Based on team times from regional, South Adams is seeded sixth with a total of 1 hour, 23 minutes, 17 seconds. That is 27 seconds behind Westview, but just eight seconds ahead of New Haven. Mt. Vernon (1:20:38) is the top-seeded team.
“A couple weeks ago at sectional I don’t think many would have given us a shot,” Anderson said. “We didn’t run to our potential at sectional. I think regional was more of what we are capable of. I think if they stick together as a group throughout the race and run like they did last weekend they’ve got a chance.”
Von Gunten, who finished seventh at regional in 19:10.37, is seeded 27th, and there are 15 runners ahead of her who are not on teams most likely to advance. The sophomore has her work cut out for her if she wants to make the state meet.
“What we really want from Olivia is to go in and run her race — not focus on anything else but just running her race,” Anderson said. “The semi-state is loaded with talented runners and some times kids get caught up with who they’re running against.
“Let’s put the blinders on, forget about everyone else that is there. If Olivia does that, she is as good or better than a lot of kids.”