Cutting times

Patriots coach Bruce Wood has had faith his team would find more and more success as the season goes on.

While the girls came out the gate as a revitalized team, it took the boys a bit more time to reach Wood’s vision.

The picture is now starting to come into frame.

All five boys who scored for the Jay County High School cross country team managed to run times lower than 20 minutes to take down the Winchester Golden Falcons 18-40 on Tuesday in a three-team meet that included Union City. In the girls race, Brooklynn Byrum found the kick she needed to claim the top spot in a 19-43 beating of the Falcons.

Union City did not have enough runners to post a team score.

“I feel really good about both teams,” Wood said. “It was good to get back out and compete again. I think everybody felt pretty fresh.

“Still a little bit on the warm side, so I think everyone’s excited about some cool temps … I’m excited to see how they do when they get those temp drops, because I think we can pull off some more times.

Four of the top five Patriot boys finished with their season-best times in the meet to help JCHS pick up five of the top six spots.

Caleb Garringer finished with a time of 17 minutes, 34.58 seconds, just 2.08 seconds away from his season best, to claim the top spot in the race. Behind him, freshman Dash Thacker put up a new career-best of 17:42.90 for second place.

Winchester’s Hunter Patterson spaced things out by claiming the third-place finish in 17:57.85, but the next three runners to cross the finish line were Patriots.

In his second race back from illness, Joseph Boggs contributed a 18:48.32 for fourth.

“Things have been relatively slow,” Boggs said. “In practice, I’m maintaining about what I was running last year. … Now it’s about having the motivation to push forward when I’m running all the way to the end. And I’ll keep notching down until hopefully I’m at least back to where I was last year.”

In the last home meet, Dougie Cox beat out Max Klopfenstein. On Tuesday, the junior reclaimed the fourth spot in the order.

Both Patriots finished with sub-20-minute times for the first time in their careers. Klopfenstein ran a 19:43.90 to place fifth, while Cox claimed sixth in 19:55.46.

“What that brings us, by those guys getting down into those 19s — and we have to go and look at the other sectional and conference teams — but that gives us a four and a five makes us really competitive as a team,” Wood said. “Those two are kind of pushing each other a little bit … competing with each other and that’s going to make them faster.”

The JCHS girls also claimed five of the top seven overall spots. (Union City didn’t have enough athletes to compete as a team, so JCHS secured five of the top six scoring spots.)

Leading the pack was Brooklynn Byrum. The freshman started the race slightly ahead of a pack that included Union City’s Ava Jefferis, Winchester’s Erica Grubbs and teammates Jessie Homan and Abby Fifer.

Byrum held the top spot, but during the second mile Jefferis made a push to pull even.

They were neck-and-neck with less than 200 yards to go before Byrum found an extra kick to take off and claim first place.

Byrum’s time of 22:11.21 improved on her career best by 12.58 seconds and beat the Indians’ top runner by 4.89 seconds.

“At the beginning, it started at a fast pace, and I kind of felt comfortable in it, so I just kept at it,” Byrum said. “(At the end) I was just taking control of my breath, getting ready for a finish and just took off after it because I knew if I didn’t she would catch me and I would get second.”

Grubbs claimed third place in 22:37.74 before five more Patriots filed in.

Homan was the first of that group of JCHS runners to cross the finish line at 22:41.53. Fifer followed with a time of 23:01.69, and not far behind was Ava May, who claimed sixth in 23:21.90. Alexis Sibray rounded out the Patriots’ score with a 24:06.45.

“I think we all don’t know how good they can be yet,” Wood said in reference to both teams. “They’re improving all the time and I don’t think they’re sure how fast they can be. They were all pretty fast in junior high, but they still have more in the tank and training is going good.”

The four Patriots to take scores away from Winchester, but not add to the Patriots’ total were:

•Natalie Carreno in eighth (24:18.23)

•Lyla Kunkler in 10th (25:18.30)

•Beckett Brandenburg in ninth (20:54.32)

•Lukes Powers in 11th (21:29.19)

Junior high

The Jay County Junior High cross country team dominated Winchester and Union City in the boys race and escaped with a victory in the girls.

The boys claimed five of the top six spots, only missing out on fifth place, to finish with 16 points. Winchester and Union City lagged behind with 60 and 61, respectively.

One day after breaking Raif Beiswanger’s school record of 11:15, Sam Wiggins shaved even more time to finish in 10:30.99. Caison Lloyd came in nearly two minutes after Wiggins to claim second place.

Other finishes came from Logan Fifer, Ango Kato and Carter Lloyd.

Jay County eked out a 27-28 win in the girls race.

Winchester’s Danie Rose claimed first place in 12:48.97, but Gracie Rowles (13:41.86) and Abbie Rowles (14:19.61) came in to swoop up second and third.

The other three scores came from Allie Rowles in eighth, Emalee Aker in ninth and Alexis Tipton in 11th.