Carmel 3200m Showcase Produces Fast, Deep Performances

Photo: Kent Graham

Carmel's Kole Mathison leads Columbus North's Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff early in the 3200m.

Kent Graham Photos from Carmel 3200m Showcase

Results

The Carmel 3200m Showcase produced a fast and deep set of results Friday night. Overall, 68 boys went sub-10:00, 41 girls went sub-12:00, a girls 4x800m relay team went sub-10:00, and two boys broke the 9:00-minute barrier.

The night started off with Warsaw's relay team of Amanda Lusinde, Ava Knight, Ella Laput, and Elliana Transparenti running a great solo 9:49.76. The early season marks puts the Lady Tigers in the top ten in the state for moment. Culver followed closely with a fine 10:00.58 to nearly dive under the 10:00 mark.

Boys 3200m Highlights

The boys freshman 3200m kicked off the 3200m portion of the night with some stellar performances. A barrier once seldom broken for first-year high school runners was nearly nabbed in April by several young future stars. Hayden Kemple, Clinton Prairie, won the race late by pulling away from Jack Turnbull, Zionsville, and Neal White, Columbus North. Kemple was timed in 10:01.11 with Turnbull and White coming home in 10:04.49 and 10:07.68, respectively. 

Section 1 of the boys saw another set of runners almost break that 10:00-mark. Jace Churchill of Crown Point won a very close battle over Carmel teammates Jack Capes and Kyle Grove. Churchill won in 10:01.16- just edging the Capes and Grove who came home in 10:02.63 and 10:03.97. 

Section 2 of the boys 3200m saw seven runners break 10:00. Leading the pack was Connor Heagy of Carmel. Heagy winning time of 9:47.54 put a four-second gap on runner-up Hayden Monk of North Central. A mass finish saw six runners come in between 9:51 and 9:59 as the pack attempting break 10:00 pulled a nice group through the eight laps.

Section 3 really turned up the action as the winning time dropped another 10-seconds and double the number of runners smashed 10:00. Luke Harber of Yorktown pulled away from the field to win by six seconds in 9:37.38. Brandon Rice of Austin led the next several runners across the line, coming home in 9:43.72. Rice led another freshman, Evan Farmer of Franklin Central, and Garrett Mowry of Westfield, across the line. Farmer and Mowry were timed in 9:44.02 and 9:47.01. Connor Mallon of Carmel also broke 9:50, crossing the line 9:49.59.

Section 4 saw the first-sub 9:30 of the night with Gabriel Connelly of Concordia Lutheran nearl eclipse 9:20 with his 9:21.60 winning time. He pulled to a huge victory, 11-seconds over Andrew Knight of Hamilton Southeastern who ran strong in 9:33.33. Two Columbus North Bull Dogs came home next. Will Russell and Evan Carr ran 9:34.86 and 9:36.08 to take the next two spots.

The final boys race of the night, Section 5, saw the biggest fireworks of the evening with 12 runners going under 9:20. Two of those runners went under the magical 9:00-mark.

Kole Mathison of Carmel took the early pacing duties, leading through the mile under 4:30. Within another 600m meters, Ryan Watts of Edwardsville, Illinois, started to take over the lead. Watts began to accelerate the pace again. The entire time, Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff, Columbus North's cross country state champion, was never further than two strides from first.

Kilbarger-Stumpff followed Watts drive to the finish, quickly gapping a still-strong Mathison. Watts continued to push the pace through the final 400m meters. Kilbarger-Stumpff, known for his strong finishes, could not quite overtake Watts over the final 200 meters. Watts took home the title in 9:54.09 to Kilbarger-Stumpff's 9:55.22.

Mathison came home strong in 9:01.31. He was followed closely by Jack Moore of Northridge who nearly broke 9:00 himself with a strong 9:02.86.

Nicki Southerland of Delta wins the Girls 3200m Showcase in a time of 10:30.44.

Girls 3200m Highlights

Section 1 over the girls saw seven runners break 12:00 to kick off the girls racing over eight laps. Addison Applegate of Corydon Central outkicked Klaire Lemmons of Morgan Township. The two were respectively timed in 11:49.42 and 11:50.57. Cami Farmer of Franklin Central ran a strong 11:52.93 for third- just ahead of Taylor Osterling of Zionzville. Osterling was timed in 11:53.45.

Section 2 saw 10 females continue the strong sub-12:00 performances. Mackinsey Heagy of Zionsville broke 11:40 with her 11:39.97 victory. Heagy outran a close pack of Hannah Taylor (Avon), Caitly Derwinski (Crown Point), Abby Adams (Franklin Central), and Kennedy Applegate (Noblesville). That group came cross the line respectively in 11:42.14, 11:42.45, 11:43.63, and 11:44.56.

Section 3 of the girls racing saw the biggest performances of the night. As expected, Nicki Southerland took the early lead and did not relinquish it the rest of the eight laps. Southerland, who has established herself as one the best in a great crop of current Indiana females runners, came home nearly uncontested with a fine time of 10:30.44 in the solo effort.

However, Southerland was far from the only star in the field. Kendall Martin from Brebeuf overtook Lila Gillessee from LaPorte and Bridget Gallagher of Guerin Catholic past the midpoint of the race and came home in a strong 10:42.47. Gallagher came home third in 10:51.24 ith Gillessee just behind in 10:54.85. Josefina Rasterelli of Warsaw also broke 11:00 with her time of 10:57.53.