Published: October 19, 2009 03:39 pm         

North boys, girls run away with XC regional crowns

NASHVILLE — Led by champions John Mascari and Tapring Goatee, the Terre Haute North Patriots, boys and girls, overcame the competition and severe course conditions on Saturday to win the IHSAA Cross Country Regional Meet at Brown County.

North’s boys and girls teams scored surprisingly easy victories over Bloomington South. Paced by Mascari, the Patriot boys won 28-61, while Goatee led North’s girls to a 28-36 victory.

Heavy rains during the week turned the rolling Brown County High School course into a mud track. Area runners in both races talked about mud up to their ankles and slippery conditions that made the times meaningless.

It’s the third straight year North’s boys have won the Brown County regional.

“We had a great team run today, but in conditions like this you see a different team. This course really tested the strength of each individual. The strongest kids performed the best. [The strongest runners] are not always the fastest, but today it was a mudder’s day. Mascari proved he can run under any conditions,” North coach Lon McDonald said.

North’s Mascari won the boys race in 16 minutes, 10.99 seconds over Martinsville’s Jace Lowry’s 16:19.02.

“I don’t even think about [the mud]. I just go out try to think about racing only. [I have] never run on a course as sloppy as this. I’ve run in some muddy meets, but this is by far one of the hardest races I’ve been in due to the conditions. When you try to run your feet slip a lot,” Mascari said.

Lowry led Mascari by a stride most of the race. But about a half mile from the finishline Mascari passed and pulled away from his Martinsville rival.

“I just wanted to get out [front] as far as I could and hold on for the victory. I tried to get in front of him the entire race, but he just kept going with me,” Mascari said.

“We still have semistate next week. So we’re just going to come to semistate and pull off another victory like we did last year and move on to state, hopefully finish in the top five.”

North’s Milton Brinza finished fourth, Brian Depasse sixth, John Davis ninth, David Tucker 12th, Tyeson Mundy 18th and Dylan Bertsch 24th to round out the scoring.

“Brian Depasse just ran a great race and so did Milton Brinza. [Brinza] was right with [Shakamak’s] Drew Gambill the entire time and Drew is a great athlete,” McDonald said.

The top five team and top 15 individuals will return to Brown County next week for the semistate.

Gambill, who finished a strong third in 16:39.75, ran the course on Thursday and came mentally, as well as physically prepared for the muddy course.

“I already had my mind set on not worrying about the times. The mud will really slow you down. The main concern out in the woods was just not to fall,” Gambill said.

Terre Haute South’s boys fell three points short of a semistate berth. Brown County nipped South 130-133 for the fifth semistate berth.

“It was just down to who could run through the slop the best, and the evidently the Braves were a little short today going through the slop,” South coach John Chapman said.

South’s Taylor Head earned a semistate berth with a seventh-place finish in 16:55.76.

“The worst part was probably out in the woods because it’s all mud and it gets up to about your ankle and you just slip everywhere. Your shoes get heavier from the mud and it makes your legs heavier,” Head said.

North’s Goatee and teammate Chanli Mundy, both freshmen, led the girls race from start to finish. Goatee pulled way at the end to win in 19:03.50 to Mundy’s 19:19.84.

“The mud puddles were slippery, but you got to do what you got to do,” Goatee said.

Having Mundy close most of the meet helped the freshman maintain her pace. “It made me stay out there. I wanted to win,” Goatee said.

North’s team took half of the regional positions, as all seven Patriots were in the top 15. Bloomington South had five runners in the top 15.

Joining Goatee and Mundy in North’s winning score were Kiowa Burris in seventh, Lindy Jones eighth, Annie Mullican in 10th, Alexa McFadden in 12th and Andi Clark 13th.

“We’ve been working toward this. Next weekend again we want to do the same thing. We pretty much we knew it was going to be a duel meet between us and Bloomington South, obviously we came out on top. The girls all showed up, every single girl ran great,” North coach Mike Dason said.

Terre Haute South took the fifth and final regional berth, 189-194 over Bloomfield.

“We actually felt the conditions would help us out a little bit because you didn’t have to focus as much on times as much as just being strategic. We were looking for Martinsville and Edgewood, that’s who we knew we had to get today. So we went out there and just worried about getting in front of those people and not necessarily just being worried about times,” South coach Ed Jarvis said.

Rachel Stephens finished 23rd to lead South in 21:46.17. Rounding out the Braves’ effort were Jen Samson in 26th, Molly Nasser 31st, followed by Olivia Stockton 32nd, Maria Samson 44th, Natalie Mitchell 54th and Ianna Dalani 56th.



Cross country regional

Boys results

Team scores — Terre Haute North 28, Bloomington South 61, Martinsville 96, Bloomington North 124, Brown County 130, Terre Haute South 133, Edgewood 163, West Vigo 224, Clay City 256, Northview 269.

Top 15 (advance to semistate) — 1. John Mascari (THN) 16:10.99; 2. Jace Lowry (M-ville) 16:19.02; 3. Drew Gambill (Shak) 16:39.75; 4. Milton Branza (THN) 16:41.63; 5. Justin Chen (BS) 16:52.62; 6. Brian Depasse (THN) 16:55.20; 7. Taylor Head (THS) 16:55.76; 8. Jordan Gornall (BS) 16:57.95; 9. John Davis (THN) 17:03.13; 10. Dylan Allen (BC) 17:02.04; 11. Nick McGrew (M-ville) 17:02.67; 12. David Tucker (THN) 17:03.13; 13. Cole Reinhold (E-wood) 17:03.92; 14. Carl Smith (BS) 17:07.66; 15. Taylor Lowry (M-ville) 17:14.30.

Terre Haute North — 18. Tyeson Mundy 17:28.14; 24. Dyan Bertsch (THN) 17:47.81.

Terre Haute South — 21. Clayton Harlan 17:46.36; 32. Dale Young 18:07.39; 36. Matt Collier 18:11.76; 45. Kyle Mullins 18:38.46; 49. Devon Fuson 18:59.54; 52. Jessie Bender 19:07.98.

West Vigo — 30. Kaleb Blair 18:05.62; 37. Andrew Kump 18:12.62; 53. Nathan Kump 19:17.23; 56. Michael Norris 19:35.58; 57. Austin Deal 19:36.41; 58. Landon Ellis 19:37.02; 69. Derek Braun 22:38.45.

Northview — 28. Conor Strain 17:57.76; 59. Tanner Brown 19:39.37; 62. Kyle Yocom 20:17.91; 64. Ryan South 20:40.32; 65. Patrick Durcholz 20:41.64; 71. Christian Swan 23:26.78 72. Jacob South 24:22.10.

Union — 31. Jacob Phegley 18:06.68.

Clay City — 43. Jesse Vansickle 18:35.39; 47. Parker Modesitt 18:47.07; 55. Connor Modesitt 19:24.03; 60. Ben Denker 19:52.66; 61. Austin Sinders 20:04.87; 67. Wayne Tharp 21:42.21; 70. Landry Moss 23:02.65.

Girls results

Team scores — Terre Haute North 28, Bloomington South 36, Bloomington North 86, Edgewood 140, Terre Haute South 146, Bloomfield 189, Martinsville 194, Northview 216, Shakamak 249, Sullivan 273.

Top 15 (advance to semistate) — 1. Tapring Goatee (THN) 19:03.50; 2. Chanli Mundy (THN) 19:19.84; 3. Anna Voskuil (BS) 19:23.99; 4. Nicole Lucas (BS) 19:30.07; 5. Alexandra Hetrick (BS) 19:55.36; 6. Christine Sparks (BN) 19:55.72; 7. Kiowa Burris (THN) 20:21.57; 8. Lindy Jones (THN) 20:23.37; 9. Carly Derheimer (BS) 20:31.65; 10. Annie Mullican (THN) 20:40.15; 11. Rebecca Jacobs (E-wood) 20:45.52; 12. Alexa McFadden (THN) 20:48.51; 13. Andi Clark (THN) 21:03.32; 14. Casey Fougerousse (Shak) 21:07.97; 15. Karolina Kenney (BS) 21:08.79.

Terre Haute South — 23. Rachel Stephens 21:46.17; 26. Jen Samson 22:18.94; 31. Molly Nasser 22:52.60; 32. Olivia Stockton 22:54.34; 44. Maria Samson 23:55.19; 54. Natalie Mitchell 24:39.71; 56. Ianna Dalani 24:53.24.

Bloomfield — 19. Julie Riggins 21:38.24; 46. Sarah Miller 23:59.90; 47. Avery Frederick 24:03.20; 51. Kristen Hall 24:22.61; 55. Charlene Warren 24:51.76; 67. Brittany Combs 28:07.83.

Northview — 33. Alyssa Conrad 22:57.65; 38. Corey Laue 23:20.10; 48. Nicole Nelson 24:11.00; 57. Shelby Sands 24:54.19; 59. Eileen Stinnett 25:25.45; 60. Tori Rohrabaugh 25:35.80; 62. Meaghan Pilman 26:14.63;

Cloverdale — 27. Amillia Nally 22:25.78.

North Central — 28. Shelby Higginbottom 22:41.27.

South Vermillion — 30. Mandy Kelly 22:49.41.

Sullivan — 49. Samantha Thompson 24:14.58; 52. Haylie James 24:26.87; 61. Jordyn Stowers 25:59.58; 63. Delaney Gadberry 26:50.31; 68. Hannah Mieure 29:28.45; 69. Hayleigh Hinkle 29:29.47; 70. Anna Atkinson 30:19.98.

Shakamak — 50. Megan Phipps 24:15.09; 64. Cassandra Holdaway 26:59.51; 65. Elise Miller 27:22.84; 72. Alison Miller 33:02.49.