LaVern Gibson is the place to be this weekend with three meets occuring. After last night's DIII Nationals Preview for college and the first part of the Nike XC Town Twilight Meet it was time for the Indiana Middle School State Championships. Find a quick recap from each race, interviews from race winners, as well as a photo album from all eight races below!
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Photo Album by Logan Wong (Uploading Soon)
Girls Small School JV Race
Presley Tragesser, the third grader from Saint Maria Goretti, would take the race immediately with a large gap built by the 2K mark. It was at this point where she mentioned that she knew she had a chance to win. She would dominate the field with a time of 11:49.3 to win by nearly 30 seconds. Churubusco Junior High would claim the team win with 63 points.
Girls Large School JV Race
Similar to the girls small school race there would be a girl to break away from the field in the first 400m. In this race it would be Sterling Howard who would dominate with a margin of victory of close to 90 seconds. The fifth grader would break the 11 minute barrier with a time of 10:57.5 and hopes to qualify for nationals later in the season. Zionsville would win the team win with an impressive 20 points.
Boys Small School JV Race
Brendon Yoder from Westview would earn the title with a finishing time of 11:03. Yoder said it was the best feeling race he has ever had and had winning on his mind the whole race. At the halfway point he mentioned that he knew was going to make a push for the win. Brendon would end up winning by nine seconds and help his team from Westview get the win with 31 points.
Boys Large School JV Race
Trevor MaFarlane from Kahler would claim the win with a time of 11:11 to win by nearly 20 seconds. After the race he mentioned how he is looking forward to the conference championships coming up this upcoming week. With his win today he says cross country could be an option looking forward to high school as he also has an interest in golf. The Zionsville boys would win on the team side with a score of 42 points.
Girls Small School State Championship
Rylie Paskiewicz from Wes-Del would win the first state championship of the day where she would claim the girls small school division. Coming into the meet she mentioned how she knew she had a shot at the title and how she realized that it would become a reality coming down the final stretch towards the finish line. She would run a 10:46 to lead two other girls under the 11 minute mark. Morgan Township would claim the team title with a score of 135 points.
Girls Big School State Championship
Teammates Milena Williams and Leighton Archer would lead the Maple Creek team to their second consecutive team title with an impressive score of 37 points. The entirety of their scoring five would all place in an all-state position in the top 20. After the race they talked about how they are both coming off of PRs from their previous race at Huntington Unvierstiy and how they look forward to conference this upcoming week. The duo would run 10:39 and 10:44 today.
Boys Small School State Championship
Marshall Watt from Princeton would be the only boy to break the 10 minute barrier in the race with a time of 9:58. He mentioned after the race how he has gone 9:30 earlier this season and is looking forward to his conference championship coming up next week. The team battle would be an exciting one with Heritage Hills and Westview finishing within 15 points of each other. Heritage Hills would get the win with 101 points being largely helped by three boys in the top 15.
Boys Large School Varsity Race
The last race of the day proved to be the most exciting with several in contention halfway through. Coming down the final stretch it was Iestyn Anderson-Davis from Otter Creek in the lead with Kai Feasel from Maple Creek charging and closing the gap. He would catch up to Iestyn in the final 10m where they would bump and cross with the exact same time down to the HUNDREDTH! Both would go 9:48.64 with Iestyn taking the win after photo review. This would be just Iestyn's second race in his first season of XC ever. Kai also shared in the excitement and looks forward to future competitions especially on the next level in high school. In the team scores Brownsburg East would put three in the top 15 to win with 154 points.