(Summer Rempe of Noblesville (left) and Lily Baker of Columbus North (right) battle in the 2022 IHSAA State Track and Field finals as anchor legs in the 3200 meter relay)
The 2022 IHSAA Girls Cross Country team State championship could very well come down to two teams in late October. The Columbus North Bulldogs and Noblesville Millers are consensus preseason number 1 and 2 in the state in whichever poll you can get your eyes on. These teams have had very different paths to get to title favorites in the 2022 season. On Saturday, the Bulldogs and Millers will meet for the first time at the Rick Weinheimer classic at Ceraland Park in Columbus.
Let's take a deeper look into the looming battle not just on saturday, but for the remainder of the season and possibly, ultimately a State title.
Columbus North Bulldogs
The Bulldogs are the team to beat in Indiana this season entering the year as the defending State Champions and currently sitting as the #1 ranked team on INCCStats, Indiana Runner, and in the IATCCC coaches poll. North returns undoubtedly the best trio in the State in seniors Julia Kiesler, Lily Baker, and Brianna Newell. The Bulldogs won the State meet last year with 79 points just ahead of runner-up Carmel and bring back a total of 4 runners from that team including the trio mentioned above.
Recent history shows the Bulldogs are consistent and great in the biggest moments and on the biggest stages. In 2019 North placed 5th at the State Meet, then in 2020 placed 3rd, and of course last year were the State Champions. The Dogs also had the runner-up in the 3200 meter relay in the recent track state finals.
A historic program with great coaching year in and year out, and confident athletes to lead the way, the Bulldogs are still here in a big way and ready for another championship run.
Noblesville Millers
Noblesville enters the season in the #2 spot in all the polls, but if you look closely it is really, really close between them and the top. INCCstats (a statistics driven website), actually gives the Millers a better percent chance at the State title at this point in the season, although having a lower team rating than North. Albeit, the Millers enter this season with virtually the exact same team that landed on the podium at last season's State meet, bringing back all seven runners that ran at State and an additional four more returners at the top of their JV roster. The biggest difference for this season is that they got even better and deeper with an addition of freshmen Ansley Applegate who has been Noblesville's second runner thus far in the young season.
The Millers are currently on a high upward trajectory, just skyrocketing to the top of the Indiana distance running world. Start the timeline at the 2020 Cross Country State finals where Noblesville placed 12th on the day, but their top 5 scores were all freshmen and sophomores. Then last season, the Millers were running as a top 5 team all year and maybe even at times the clear number three team in the state. It was a tight team finish at the state meet and a deep enough Miller squad was able to score 254 points placing 5th and stay on the podium by 1 point over Homestead. In the recent track season they had the 3rd place 3200 meter relay team (1 second behind Columbus North), and had 2 individual medalists in Summer Rempe and Brinkley Cooper who are both back for the Noblesville squad this cross country season.
Noblesville has had many podium teams in their history so that is not new for the program. What is new though, is for this group to be in the mix for a State Championship. Something that has not happened for the Millers in over 15 years. This group appears ready to take on that challenge.
The Matchup
One might say, it's not the size of the dog in the meet, but it's the size of the meet for the dogs. That's not quite the saying but this year and in this matchup, quantity of teams in a meet could definitely impact the final score between these two teams.
Columbus North could have the Top 3 runners head to head, and for those counting at home that automatically wins a dual meet. These two teams are unlikely to face-off in a dual meet anytime soon though. With that strong top 3 in a bigger meet they are off to a great start, but they would need the remaining two scorers to break up the Miller pack or remain close enough to them to make up for a really high placing 5th runner of Noblesville.
Noblesville has on paper (and had at the Hamilton County Meet) one of the deepest teams ever. A 42 second gap separating 1-5 helped the Millers dominate the rest of Hamilton County. If they can have their pack far enough up in the race and have a couple athletes close the gaps on North's top three runners, then the Millers will be hard to beat when their fifth runner closes the door.
So how will the different dynamics of the teams impact the potential final score?
The Rick Weinheimer Classic
Going into this weekend its the battle of the known vs the unknown. Noblesville showed at the county meet what they are capable of and what they can be. That is, being one of the deepest and tightest pack teams ever in Indiana. The combination of youth and experience, and young experienced runners has to give the Millers a big boost of confidence.
On the other side, Columbus North has yet to have their full team run an all out 5k effort. All we know at this point is what we knew coming into the season. Which means we know they have the top trio in the sport, an experienced championship team with pedigree and to this point no reason to go against them.
To be the best, you have to beat the best. Right now the best is the Columbus North Bulldogs until seen differently. So, on this Labor Day weekend, I'll take the Bulldogs, but expect this one to be a really close finish between the State's two best teams.
Looking Ahead
Columbus North and Noblesville were both at the Nike Valley Twilight meet last season where North won and Noblesville placed third. The two teams expect to matchup there again on October 1st. Then, if things go as planned they will see each other four weeks later back at Lavern Gibson to battle for the State Title.
It's a long season and a lot can happen, maybe we see another team like Carmel or Homestead make a push into contender status by October. But at this point in the season, entering September and the Labor Day weekend, it is the Bulldogs of Columbus North, and the Millers of Noblesville that take the spots as early season title contenders and when they meet up on Saturday at Ceraland park, we will find out who throws the first punch, and then which team will need to counter for round two.