TERRE HAUTE — It was a fond farewell for four Hancock County runners Saturday at the IHSAA Boys Cross Country State Finals at the LaVern Gibson Championships Cross Country Course.
A trio of Greenfield-Central runners and one from Mt. Vernon, all seniors, finished their prep careers at the race they had worked so hard to get to.
Greenfield-Central’s Carter Crouch led the quartet of county runners with a 29th place finish, just four spots off of achieving all-state honors. The county and sectional individual champion, and the highest finisher in last week’s regional, Crouch ran a personal best 5K with a time of 15:43.1.
There were 250 runners in the race.
“He was really bummed about not making all-state, but I thought he had a great race,” Greenfield-Central coach Aaron Smith said. “Any time you run a PR, especially on that course. He had a great race.”
Crouch was sixth in last week’s regional, but finished third-best among runners that participated in last week’s Shelbyville Regional.
Teammate and classmate Chris Ross was next among area runners. He was 62nd with a time of 15:59.8.
“He was ninth from our regional after being 15th last week so that was definitely an improvement,” Smith said. “He went out well and put himself in position and was with Carter at the 2-mile and the 3-mile.”
G-C’s Liam Brinkruff was the only two-time state qualifier in the race. He finished 152nd with a time of 16:30.5. His place was better as a junior, but he ran a faster time in Saturday’s race on the same course. In last year’s state finals, Brinkruff was 85th with a time of 16:39.6.
“He was good for the first 2K,” Smith said of Brinkruff, who was still recovering from being ill a couple of weeks ago. “He started having some trouble breathing in the race and he was disappointed about how the race went.”
“A great career for all of them,” Smith added. “I’m excited we could have them all at the same time and I think that made all of them better, training together every day.”
Mt. Vernon senior Colin Strachman wrapped up his high school career by finishing 125th in 16:23.0.
“He ran a great race,” Mt. Vernon coach Bruce Kendall said. “He was within nine seconds off his personal best and was 25-30 seconds faster than last time he was on the course (at the Nike Twilight Meet). It was a good day for us.
“He moved way up from his (Hoosier Heritage Conference) finish against conference foes and moved up on his sectional finish against sectional foes. He had a good state meet. It was a good way to end.”
Cameron Todd of Brebeuf won the race with a time of 14:55.5. Carmel won the team title with 76 points. Fishers was second with 185.
