Starfire girls cross country finishes fourth

MARION — Competing against a couple of the top teams in the state, the Starfires held their own.

Kallee Patch finished in the top 15 Saturday, helping the South Adams High School girls cross country team finish fourth in the Wildcat Classic Invitational at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Hamilton Southeastern, which is ranked sixth in the state by Indiana Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches, won the team title with 36 points, edging No. 7 Valparaiso by three points. Warsaw Community totaled 130 points for third, while South Adams had 160.

The South Adams boys scored 451 points for 14th out of 25 teams. No. 8 Valparaiso had three finish in the top 10 as it won with a score of 39, ahead of Zionsville (139) and Noblesville (143).

Patch ended with a time of 19 minutes, 46.4 seconds, as the top SAHS runner. Olivia Von Gunten finished 30th in 20:34.4, three spots ahead of teammate Megan Miller (20:37.1). Eliza Harruff was 37th in 20:49.5, and Hadi Hawbaker placed 63rd in 22:02.2.

Wyatt Miller led the Starfire boys by finishing 62nd in 17:18.3. Victor Vasquez had a time of 17:44.1 for 80th, Luke Gerber placed 129th in 18:42.2, Trey Lehman was 131st in 18:42.4 and Clancy McIntire completed the team total by finishing 135th in 18:45.9

Also competing for the South Adams girls were Calyssa Lehman (69th – 22:12.9) and Isabel Von Gunten (80th – 22:33.9). Kam Yoder (142nd – 18:50.3), Dario Banuelos (207th  – 20:44.4), Aidan Von Gunten (215th – 21:25.7) and Korbin Dunnuck (232 – 23:30.3) ran for the SAHS boys.

Middle school

South Adams’ girls had three in the top 10 and all five of its scoring runners finish in the top 14 in finishing first out of 12 teams.

The Starfires scored 47 points, placing ahead of Norwell (55) and DeKalb (101).

South Adam’s boys were third with 103 points. DeKalb won with a score of 28 and Norwell placed second with 99 points.

McKenzie Sturwold led the SAMS girls, finishing third in 12:02.4. Addisyn Hundley (12:46.9) was eighth, Mia Singleton (12:52.1) placed 10th, Jocelyn Willis (12:53.2) finished 12th and Nia Littwiller (12:54.4) was 14th.

Race Anderson was the top SAMS boy, finishing sixth in 10:58.4. Owen Wanner (11:02.1) and Brady Fox (11:13.7) were ninth and 10th respectively, while Isaac Gorrell finished 19th in 11:50.8. Oscar Vasquez completed the team score by placing 80th in 13:52.5.

Mirra Mata (15th – 12:55.4), Ella Neuenschwander (20th – 12:20.8), Elizabeth Gerber (35th – 13:59.3) and Clancy Hawbaker (88th – 15:50.6) also ran for the SAMS girls.