Patriot sweep

WINCHESTER — When contact sports are brought up, most people’s minds will jump to football, basketball, wrestling and soccer. Some people will even expand it to baseball and softball considering plays on the basebaths.

Cross country isn’t one of those sports that athletes particularly expect to take any form of contact.

Dougie Cox wasn’t so lucky.

Despite getting cut off, causing him to collide with a fence, the freshman remained undaunted. Keeping his poise helped Cox achieve his personal goals and earn a ribbon.

Cox and the other four Patriot boys that scored finished in the top 20, while the girls had eight athletes in the first two decades to power the Jay County High School cross country teams to first-place finishes at the Winchester Invitational on Saturday.

“(Feeling) pretty good,” said JCHS coach Bruce Wood. “We’re still getting faster and starting to taper, so that’s why I think we’re starting to see some times come down. I’m pretty excited. I don’t know if the boys and girls have won an event at the same time, definitely not in my time.”

The boys totaled 38 points for the top spot in the field of nine teams. Centerville had the closest score with a 65.

The girls had a similar margin of victory, as their 40 points beat out Canterbury’s 68 for the victory in the seven-team field.

The boys team got predictably good scores out of its top runners, Caleb Garringer, Dash Thacker and Joseph Boggs. Garringer and Thacker had back-to-back finishes to place second and third, while Boggs picked off a pair of runners in the final mile to claim sixth.

Jay County junior Joseph Boggs finishes up his second mile at the Winchester Invitational on Saturday. Boggs was one of five boys in the top 20 for the Patriots, as he finished sixth to help the team to a 27-point victory. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Union County’s Tanner Paddock claimed the individual championship with a time of 17 minutes, 19.89 seconds, beating out Garringers’ 17:28.57 by 8.68 seconds. Thacker followed with a 17:35.55 (a career best by nearly 20 seconds), while Boggs finished in 18:13.42.

Cox and Klopfenstein rounded out the top five, finishing 14th and 15th, respectively. Cox came into the race with the goal of placing ahead of his junior teammate, who has beaten him every time in September.

Coming out of the gate, Klopfenstein outpaced the freshman, but Cox caught up around the 1 ½ mile mark. By the time they hit the second mile, Cox overtook his teammate, and the distance grew as they approached the third mile.

Despite three runners being between the two, Klopfenstein found one final push, but wound up one spot short as they finished with times of 19:16.39 and 19:23.40, respectively.

It wasn’t all smooth for Cox though. During one of his laps around the baseball diamond, an opposing runner cut him off a little too close, forcing Cox into the fence. Yet, he didn’t let the setback keep him from setting a new career best time by 8.02 seconds.

“I don’t know if he meant to do it on purpose or not but he cut me off and I had to keep myself up,” Cox said. “I just shook it off. …

“(The race) hurt a little bit, but I still got a PR and just glad I beat Max.”

The girls also had some tight finishes with each other, as they swept the sixth-11th places.

Brooklynn Byrum paced the Patriots with a time of 21:55.92 for the sixth place finish.

Running alongside Byrum the entire race was fellow freshman Abby Fifer (seventh). She ran a time of 21:58.32 and continued her trend of finishing as one of the top two Patriot runners.

“(It’s been) having a really good mindset this year,” Fifer said. “I think at the start, I was slower because I was trying to find that perfect pace for going into high school and adding that extra mile. Just as the races progressed, I’m just getting my time faster and getting up there more.”

Following Byrum and Fifer were Alexis Sibray (22:15.11) in eighth, Jessie Homan (22:21.78) in ninth, Ava May in 10th (22:29.84) and Natalie Carreno (23:22.81) in 11th.

Lizzy Brunswick and Paityn Wendel also earned top-20 finishes. The freshman took 14th with a time of 23:58.21, while the junior placed 18th in 24:32.11.

The victories come one week before Jay County runs in the Allen County Athletic Conference meet and two weeks before the sectional. Wood and his athletes shared the sentiment that the team can use Saturday as a confidence boost  going into the postseason.

“The young kids are gaining confidence,” Wood said. “I think they were used to winning regularly in middle school and our first couple races were bigger and as a team. They didn’t finish as high as they were used to, so they were a little low on confidence.

“So this is perfect for them to gain confidence as a team and be ready for conference and sectional and regional.”