Many athletes from Indiana competed at this past weekend's Champs Sports Cross Country Midwest Regional meet. At the meet formerly known as Eastbay and before that the Footlocker Championships, individuals around the Midwest race for a chance to advance to the National Meet in San Diego, California.
Indiana had several athletes compete and even a few that found their place in the top 10 of the championship races and will head to Champs Nationals.
Here are some highlights of the Indiana athletes that competed at Champs Sports Midwest.
Champs Midwest Indiana Highlights
The girls championship race saw three Indiana athletes place top 10 and advance to the National Meet. Sophia Kennedy of Park Tudor placed 2nd in 17:24, Nicki Southerland of Delta was 6th in 17:46, and Gretchen Farley also of Park Tudor was 9th in 17:50. Kennedy, Southerland, and Farley will represent Indiana and the Midwest at Champs Nationals in San Diego on December 10th.
Addison Knoblauch of Homestead was the next highest finisher from Indiana placing 13th in 18:10. Josefina Rastrelli from Warsaw placed 23rd as the 5th Indiana athlete in 18:42 and Guerin Catholic's Bridget Gallagher was 28th in 19:00.
Taking each State's top 5 runners and scoring them as one team, Indiana was the best scoring State out of the Midwest teams with 53 points, 13 clear of the 66 from 2nd place Michigan.
(Midwest Girls Top 10 Press Conference- Video by Elizabeth Schreiber of MileSplit Wisconsin)
In the boys championship race, we once again saw multiple Indiana athletes competing for top 10 spots. Carmel's Kole Mathison placed 2nd on the tough Wayne E. Dannhel Cross Country Course in a time of 15:02 to advance to his second consecutive Champs/Eastbay National Championships. Cameron Todd of Brebeuf Jesuit is also headed to San Diego after placing 4th overall in 15:08.
Five other Indiana athletes placed in the Top 40 competing at a high level. Anthony Provenzano from Carmel was 13th in 15:33, Ty Garrett of Center Grove was 24th in 15:51, Brebeuf Jesuit's Matteo Rosio was 28th in 15:54, Ryan Rheam from Bloomington South was 34th in 16:00, and Liam Bauschke of Mishawaka was 40th in 16:11.
(Kole Mathison after his 2nd place finish at Champs Sports Midwest- Interview by Elizabeth Schreiber of MileSplit Wisconsin)
The Indiana scoring 5 placed 2nd behind a Michigan "team" that had four athletes place in the top 10 to be the best scoring State in the Midwest.
Those individuals that qualified for Champs Sports Nationals will head to San Diego, California where a total of 80 athletes (40 girls, 40 boys) will compete for individual glory.
Click here for more coverage from the Champs Midwest Cross Country Regional.