The girls individual race at the 2021 Girls Cross Country State Finals was all about Lily Cridge. From the moment the gun went off, the junior out of Bishop Chatard went right to the front of the race and immediately began to gap the field.
Only Homestead's Addison Knoblauch dared to go with Cridge, but even she couldn't hang on for long. Cridge kept up a relentless pace and won in dominant fashion with a time of 17:32, thirty seconds clear of her nearest competitor.
Delta Sophomore Nicki Southerland emerged from the chase group to finish second, with Park Tudor teammates Sophia Kennedy and Gretchen Farley close behind. Knoblauch finished fifth after running with Cridge early on, and the defending champion Karina James came home in sixth.
Columbus North and Carmel had a very close race for the team championship with almost identical lineups. In the end, it was Columbus North besting the Greyhounds by a mere thirteen points. Lily Baker and Julia Kiesler finished 8th and 11th to lead the way for Columbus North, with Bull Dogs Brianna Newell, Katherine Rumsey, Abby Jacobi and Sydney Morlok all finishing in under twenty minutes to secure the state title. The Greyhounds were led by a trio of upperclassmen with seniors Alivia Romaniuk in 10th and Jamie Klavon in 15th leading Jasmine Klopstad who finished a close 18th.
The team scores outside the top two places were close all the way through the field. In recent memory, there have not been any State Finals where the team scores from 3rd through 12th were only separated by 53 total points. 19 points separated Penn girls from the podium- but they were 12th place overall. This was simply an outstanding girls team race. Chesterton had a strong day to come out on the front of that pack and finish third in the team standings, with Hamilton Southeastern, Noblesville and Homestead close behind.
We will feature more photos, interviews, recaps, and other analysis throughout today and early next week covering this amazing meet.