Three to regional

UPLAND — Joseph Boggs is used to the final mile being a struggle.

He was waiting for his legs to give out.

They did not.

Boggs ran past his target runner, caught the next group of four and passed them down the home stretch to place fourth for Jay County High School in the boys cross country sectional race hosted by Delta on Saturday at Taylor University.

“I was just feeling it,” said Boggs. “I’m so used to my legs dying out, I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to be cautious.’ And then they just never died, so I was like, ‘All right, got to go.’”

Caleb Garringer, a freshman, joined his teammate in earning a regional berth as did sophomore Alexis Sibray for the Patriots in the girls race. (The top five teams and top 15 individuals on non-advancing teams move on to the regional level.) They will compete Saturday in the race hosted by New Haven at The Plex in Fort Wayne.

Both JCHS teams finished outside of the top 10 in the field of 15. The boys scored 240 points for 11th place and the girls finished with 296 for 12th.

Wapahani won the boys title with 58 points ahead of Bluffton (96), Norwell (138), Bellmont (160) and Southern Wells (169). The girls championship went to Adams Central with 59 points followed by Monroe Central (91), Norwell (95), Eastbrook (121) and Wapahani (150).

Boggs has been working on running negative splits — running the latter part of the race faster than the start. While he didn’t do that Saturday, he had plenty of gas left at the end.

The sophomore, who also qualified for the regional last season, controlled his early pace, sitting 15th at the mile mark. He was still 12th at the two-mile but had passed rival Dakota Sprunger of South Adams. Needing a new goal, he targeted a pack of runners in front of them. He caught up to the back of the group and then on the home stretch blew past Blackford’s Keaton Walker and Darius Osborn, Eastbrook’s Andrew Bryant and Wapahani’s Caleb Aber to earn the No. 2 spot in 17 minutes, 1.8 seconds.

“Coach set the goal to stay with South Adams’ No. 1 guy, which is who I run a lot with,” he said in reference to Sprunger, also a sophomore, of the Starfires. “He was ahead of me. He was running a really good pace and I was trying my best to keep up with him.”

But then Sprunger slipped back.

“Once I got past him, I had to completely change the strategy,” continued Boggs, who was 22 seconds faster than in the 2022 sectional meet. “Thankfully I found this pack that I stuck with all the way ’til the end and I was able to get by them.”

The three runners ahead of him — champion Nick Cook (16:03.3) of Wapahani, Tyler Godwin (16:28) of Blufton) and Tyler Dillon (16:29) of Delta — along with the two directly behind him were all seniors.

While she didn’t climb as far, Sibray ran a similar strategy.

At the mile mark, she was hanging out in about 30th place before fighting up to 20th behind Union City’s Ava Jefferis at the two-mile mark. She was able to pick off a few more runners in the final third of the race and narrowly missed one more as she finished 17th in 21:20.5, just two tenths of a second behind Norwell’s Brooklyn Meyer.

“She was curious to where she was with her split times, looking at us for some feedback,” said Wood. “She was doing great. After the two-mile, I knew she was in a good spot. I was like, ‘Just go take spots.’”

Garringer was around 20th in the boys race at the mile mark, slipped into the mid 20s and then stayed there the rest of the way. His 25th-place finish in 17:48.2 was good for the 11th individual qualifying spot for the regional meet.

Max Klopfenstein finished 62nd in 19:22, Beckett Brandenburg was 80th in 20:27 and Darren Fisher completed the team score in 84th at 21:02.

The No. 2 time for the JCHS girls was 23:50 from Willow Hardy for 53rd place. She was running just ahead of teammates Paityn Wendel (72nd – 25:50), who was battling an injury, and Courtney Harris (73rd – 25:85) for most of the way before pulling away from them in the final mile. Exchange student Tina Japaridize completed the team score as she finished last out of 92 runners in 32:20.

Also running for the Patriot boys were Will Hawbaker (92nd – 22:42) and Lukes Powers (94th – 23:03) in the field of 99.