FORTVILLE — It was Mt. Vernon’s home course, but Greenfield-Central’s Carter Crouch appears to like it, too.
Crouch, who was the individual champion in the Hancock County Meet held at Mt. Vernon on Aug. 26, won the individual title in Saturday’s Mt. Vernon Boys Cross Country Sectional.
Greenfield-Central placed second to Franklin Central, and two points ahead of third-place Mt. Vernon in the team standings. The top five teams and top 15 individuals not associated with the top five teams advanced to the Shelbyville Regional to be held at Blue River Cross Country Course this Saturday.
Along with the Cougars and Marauders, both Eastern Hancock and New Palestine advanced individuals to the next round.
No. 13 Franklin Central won the team event with 38 points. The 20th-ranked Cougars and 24th-ranked Marauders scored 60 and 62 points, respectively. Lawrence North advanced with 91 points and Cathedral took the last team position with 155.
New Palestine was seventh with 188. Eastern Hancock did not have five runners to make a team score, but had three individuals qualify for the regional race.
Both of Crouch’s 5K wins this season have come on the Mt. Vernon course. At the county meet, the Cougars were without Chris Ross, who has typically been the team’s No. 1 runner. At the sectional, Ross was there, but he finished second to senior classmate Crouch, who finished first in 15:48, 30 seconds faster than his win in August. Ross was close behind in 15:53. Another G-C senior, Liam Brinkruff, was fifth in 16:11.
“I like the hill,” Crouch said of a portion of the Mt. Vernon course. “We go through it twice. I like to pass people on that or if people are tired after going up the hill I can easily run on by them … I was confident (coming into the race).”
“The thing that really helped me was running with (Ross). Usually, I’m either running alone or with a person from another school. Running with him was good, it felt good.”
“(It’s) kind of tough,” Greenfield-Central coach Aaron Smith said. “We came in thinking Chris would win and then Carter wins. It’s one of those where you’re disappointed for one and happy for the other. You’d love for both of them be able to win.”
Smith said Crouch had a really good workout Tuesday and the course at Mt. Vernon led to strengths of his running style.
“He said he likes the hills and it’s a course where he doesn’t have to worry about the time too much, he can just go out there and race,” Smith said.
The Marauders had a strong day, too.
Colin Strachman was ninth in 16:34. All five of Mt. Vernon’s scoring runner ran under 17 minutes and finished in the top 20. After Strachman, the Marauders had a nice pack of runners placing 12th through 14th. Brayden Strantz led the group with a time of 16:39. Xaiden Jenson finished in 16:44 and Cooper Hunziker ran a 16:45. Caden Cassada placed 18th in 16:55.
With three of the team’s top four from a year ago graduated (No. 1 Tristan Trevino), injured (Ahmed Saleh) or moved to another school district (Landon Willis, Martinsville), veteran Mt. Vernon coach Bruce Kendall was very pleased with how his young group ran. “We come back and our first five guys are all well under 17 on a slow course in bad weather. I’d say we had a pretty good day, a really good day,” Kendall said.
“Strachman tried to stay with all of the No. 1 runners, but that’s a handful, three from Greenfield, three from Franklin Central and one from Warren Central, that’s a tough group. Our body was all relatively close after that. This course has a lot of turns and it requires more core strength than usual. It’s a strength course, Shelbyville next week is wide open with more spaces, it’ll be a different kind of race.”
Eastern Hancock’s Preston Markley was the second fastest among runners not on a top 5 team. Markley finished the course in 16:35 and placed 10th. Teammate Brandon Metz was 23rd in 17:09. Andrew Metz got the final individual advancement spot by placing 49th in 19:11, one position ahead of New Palestine’s Ryan Cain (19:13).
The Dragons were led by Jacob Cooper with a time of 17:13, good enough for 24th spot. Two other New Palestine runners advanced to the regional. Gavin Smith was 33rd in 17:53. Jacob Collins placed 43rd in 18:15.
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2023 Mt. Vernon Boys Cross Country Sectional
Team scores: Franklin Central 38, Greenfield-Central 60, Mt. Vernon 62, Lawrence North 91, Cathedral 155, Warren Central 167, New Palestine 188, Scecina 237, Lawrence Central 286, Morristown 305, Purdue Poly 309
Top 10: Carter Crouch, Greenfield-Central, 15:48; Chris Ross, Greenfield-Central, 15:53; Evan Farmer, Franklin Central, 16:06; Justin Reedus, Franklin Central, 16:07; Liam Brinkruff, Greenfield-Central, 16:11; Grant Coburn, Warren Central, 16:16; Joseph Ashman, Franklin Central, 16:27; Rimmon Semere, Lawrence North, 16:30; Colin Strachman, Mt. Vernon, 16:34; Preston Markley, Eastern Hancock, 16:35.
