New Prairie Boys & Girls Regional Preview

New Prairie Boys Race
Qualifying Teams: Lake Central, Illiana Christian, Crown Point, Lowell, Highland, Valparaiso, Portage, Chesterton, Hobart, Merrillville, Penn, LaPorte, Mishawaka, South Bend Adams, Trinity, Northridge, Goshen, Westview, Elkhart, NorthWood high, Rensselaer Central, DeMotte Christian, Kankakee Valley, Winamac Community, Benton Central

Photo by Valparaiso Athletics via X

The New Prairie boys regional looks to be a tough place to advance out of this year with a deep field where at least one top 25 team will not advance to state. There are 5 schools that appear to separate themselves from the pack based on sectional results last weekend as well as team performances throughout the season. These teams all are ranked in the coaches poll and include Valparaiso, Penn, LaPorte, Northridge, and Lake Central. These teams are very even with each other with Valparaiso and Penn leading as favorites for the team title as they both won their respective sectionals. There are also several teams that are in the mix and have raced well this season as well as sectionals but will have to have exceptional days to advance due to the strength of this regional.

In the individual race expect to see Mishawaka's Liam Bauschke and Portage's Shane Conroy compete for the win as both won their respective sectionals by a considerable margin. Liam currently holds the state's 12th best time this season with Shane close behind at 16th. Others expected to be up front include Noah Bontrager from Westview, Max Malloy from Elkhart, and Joseph LaPatra from Griffith.

Projected Advancing Teams:
Valparaiso
Valparaiso is led by Mason Nobles who finished second last week to Portage's Shane Conroy and has ran a 15:39 this season. Placing their #1 and #2 runners ahead of Penn's #1 and #2 will be essential if they wish to compete for the championship.

Penn
Penn had a pack of three together at sectionals with Matt Givens, Brandon Mueller, and Hudson Kaser going 3-5. Mueller has the best time this season from this pack with a 15:41. If Penn's top 2 can hang on to Valparaiso's top runners then their #3-#5 should be able to beat Valparaiso for the team title.

LaPorte
At the New Prairie sectional LaPorte finished just 2 points behind so they should also be in the mix with Brayden Sobecki leading the Slicers with a 16:00 best from this season. LaPorte's times from this season are not as impressive as the first two teams but they should still be right in contention as they raced well with a tight sectional team finish.

Northridge
Northridge won their sectional meet last week and has one of the state's most impressive 1-5 spreads being at 9.9 seconds. These times were run at their conference meet where their #1 runner, David Gingerich, ran a 16:18 and their #5 runner, Xavier Miller ran a 16:28.

Lake Central
Lake Central also had a strong showing at sectionals winning by 22 points. Ben Perschon led the charge with a fourth place finish and has ran a 15:34 this season. Lake Central matches the depth that it will take to advance as their scoring 5 have all broken 16:35 this season.

On the Bubble Teams to Look Out For:
Portage
Portage appears to lead this pack of competitors with their low scorers being Shane Conroy and Noah Bosstel, they will need help from their 3-5 if they wish to advance.

Chesterton
Chesterton is in a similar position as Portage in regards to their 3-5. Evan O'Connor will look to lead the Trojans with a 3rd place effort last week at sectionals.

Goshen
Goshen has a solid top 4 group of runners who have all been under 17 minutes this season and will need a big performance from their #5 in order to advance. 

Mishawaka 
Mishawaka is an interesting team as they will essentially only be scoring 4 runners with Liam Bauschke expected to continue his dominant season where he has won nearly every meet he has run in this season. Aiden Rogers will be a strong #2 with Toby Quintana also dipping under 17 this year for the team. The Cavemen will need their 4-5 to step up in order to pull off an upset. 

New Prairie Girls Race
Qualifying Teams: Lake Central, Crown Point, Highland, Illiana Christian, Munster, Valparaiso, Morgan Township, Portage, Chesterton, Kouts, Penn, Mishawaka, LaPorte, South Bend Adams, New Prairie, Northridge, Goshen, Westview, Elkhart, NorthWood, Rensselaer Central, DeMotte Christian, Kankakee Valley, Winamac Community

The New Prairie girls race will be interesting to see how the course holds up. Last week the course at New Prairie became a mudslide with the rain that rolled in a few days before and the weather looks similar this week with rain currently forecasted for Thursday-Saturday. Times will likely be out the window again as it will likely come down to who can overcome the elements and punch their ticket to state. There appears to be three teams favored to advance easily with Valparaiso, Lake Central, and Morgan Township all being relatively safe. The race for the final two spots will be much more intense with Penn and Northridge favored to advance. Goshen, Crown Point, Portage, and Chesterton should all be competitive and could potentially steal a spot to state if things go their way.

In the individual race expect to see an exciting race for the win as Mary Eubank from Penn and Whitney Anderson from Valparaiso hold the two best times from the season for the meet separated by just 0.2 seconds. They have run 18:21.2 and 18:21.4 which rank them 26th and 28th in the state respectively. After these leaders there should be a tight chase pack consisting of 5-10 girls.

Projected Advancing Teams
Valparaiso
Valparaiso is led by freshman standout Whitney Anderson who is one of the top girls entering the meet as she has gone 18:21.4 this season. She looks to have reinforcements relatively close down the line as Elizabeth Ehrhardt and Liv Hatch both have top 10 times out of everyone in the meet coming into the weekend. Valparaiso is heavily favored to repeat as regional champions.

Lake Central
Lake Central appears to have the best 1-5 spread out of any other team competing in the meet. Their top time belongs to Chloe Neal who has ran a 19:14 this year with their #5 being Mackenzie Smith who has gone sub 20 at 19:59 this year for a 45 second team spread. Lake Central won their sectional last week with 31 points and beat the next closest team by 32 points and should be a lock to advance to state.

Morgan Township
Morgan Township has an impressive top 3 that, similarly to Valparaiso, should all place in the top 10. Emersyn Bland and Peyton Bucher have both been under 19 minutes for the team this season, running times of 18:54 and 18:59 respectively. Morgan Township placed second to Valparaiso last week by 26 points and should be relatively safe to advance to state.

Penn
The top individual time in the meet belongs to Penn's Mary Eubank as she has run 18:21.2 earlier this season. Penn won their sectional by the widest margin of any of the other 4 sectional champions as they defeated runner-up Mishawaka by 58 points. Having Mary as a low stick will definitely help the team's chances of advancing as every point will be impactful.

Northridge
Northridge also has one of the top individuals in the meet as Dakotah Moore ranks fourth entering the meet with a season best 18:54. Addie Long has the next best time at 19:25 but appeared absent from the results from last week's sectional. Despite her being out of the lineup Northridge was still able to pull of the narrow victory by 3 points over Goshen.

On the Bubble Teams to Look Out For:
Goshen
Goshen is led by Kassandra Ortega who has run 19:13 this year. Last week the team was nearly able to pull off an upset over Northridge. If Addie Long does not race again Goshen could try to get its revenge this weekend and potentially steal one of the last advancing team spots.

Crown Point
Crown Point has 3 runners sub 20 minutes this year with Nadia Brumbaugh, Dusty Lopez, and Destiny Lopez running 19:28, 19:33, and 19:41 respectively this season. The team placed second to Lake Central last week where the team placed 5 runners in the top 20 scoring positions. Crown Point is definitely a dark horse contender to advance.

Portage
Portage appears to be evenly matched with Chesterton as only one point separated the two last week at sectionals. The slight difference came with Portage's #3-#5 runners beating out Chesterton. Madison Mikels should be able to compete with Chesterton's top duo again this week as she was sandwiched between them at the finish line last weekend.