Patriot pack prospers

LYNN — Whose turn will it be?

From meet to meet, the Patriots never know.

This season, it started with Ava May three times.

Then Abby Fifer.

Then Brooklyn Byrum.

On Saturday, it was back to May.

Regardless of the order, it’s their tight packing that is most important. It makes them dangerous.

With four sophomores finishing between ninth and 19th place, the Jay County High School girls cross country team picked up its first invitational victory of the season Saturday at the Randolph Southern Invitational.

“Our sophomore girls, they like to take turns,” said JCHS coach Gabby Williams, whose team was fourth at both the Celina Invitational and the Taylor University Invitational. “Who’s gonna lead the pack? It kind of just depends on the day.”

The Patriots scored 63 points to fight off Northeastern (72), led by individual champion Hayden Neagle, and Wapahani (82), which had a pair of runners in the top six, in the field of 10 scoring teams.

Competing without their top runner, the Jay County boys scored 245 points for 11th out of 13 teams.

“I thought overall our kids ran pretty well today,” said Williams. “I’m proud of the position we were in, especially with our girls. Our top five, we’re looking really solid.”

The trio of Patriot runners who have led the team this season were all bunched together for the first half of the race, with May 12th just ahead of Byrum and Fifer — freshman Kinsley Bowman of the host Rebels was also in the group — as they headed toward the start line for their second lap around the course.

All of them moved up over the second half of the race. All three overtook Muncie Central’s Lily Clark and Union County’s Kelsey Dare, and May continued her climb by passing Eastern Hancock’s Sydney Johnson.

“Sometimes when you’re running you just feel a push of energy,” said May. “And it’s you can either use it now in the moment or sprint a lot at the end. I would rather just use it then.”

She was right on the heels of Union City's Christina Teegarden heading into the final 200 minutes, finishing less than two seconds behind the freshman in 21 minutes, 31.95 seconds. (Neagle ran away with the win by more than 40 seconds with her time of 19:34.78.)

“She’s been really strong this year throughout,” said Williams. “Her times have been impressive from the very first meet to now and we haven’t seen much of a gap with how she’s performing. We’re just really proud with the leadership she takes and we’re excited to see her finish out this season.”

Byrum came in about 30 seconds behind May at 22:01.75 for 11th place, with Fifer just behind in 12th in 22:06.78.

Jessie Homan wasn’t quite able to keep pace with her teammates, but still ended up in the top 20 with a 19th-place finish in 22:39.76.

“That really helps us out in terms of scoring,” said Williams. “From their freshman year, that’s how they’ve always been. They’re that pack of four or five that are always just really strong and together. That kind of togetherness I think really pushes them to be as fast as they are.”

The team’s pair of seniors also ran in close proximity to each other, with Alexis Sibray completing the team score with a 28th-place finish in 23:17.73 and Paityn Wendel 16 seconds behind her in 30th.

With Caleb Garringer out of the lineup again — he is expected to return for this weekend’s Yorktown Invitational — Max Klopfenstein led the Jay County boys with his time of 18:52.91. (Garringer’s season-best time would have put him in third place and shaved about 70 points off of the team’s score.)

Mason Tomboni of Wapahani won in 16:16.96 over Northeastern sophomore Dash Thacker (16:27.17), who spent his freshman season at JCHS.

Caison Lloyd stayed within sight of his senior teammate, posting a time of 19:03.14 for 35th place.

“Caison Lloyd has been impressing us as a freshman,” Williams said. “He’s come in and he’s really continued to improve every single meet and push himself. So we’ve been proud of how he’s been performing.”

She had similar comments about freshman Grant Glentzer, who finished 43rd in 19:36.79. Rounding out the team total for the Patriots were Alex Rivers (62nd – 20:28.79) and Ethan Powers (91st – 22:11.49).

Alyvia Muhlenkamp also ran for the Patriot girls, placing 70th in 30:48.09, while John Cook (92nd – 22:15.85) and Isaac Hawbaker (104th – 26:19.13) competed for the boys.