FORTVILLE — The victories were nice but the times were even better.
Mt. Vernon’s boys cross country team swept Saturday’s Mt. Vernon Invitational/Hancock County Meet at Mt. Vernon High School.
The Marauders scored a perfect 15 [grabbing the top five places] in the county race and had 26 in the invitational, both well ahead of the closest competition.
Bloomington South was runner-up in the 11-team invitational with an 85, six less than third place Whiteland and 12 fewer than fourth-place Greenfield-Central.
The Cougars placed second in the county meet with 53 points. New Palestine had 85 and Eastern Hancock scored 99. The Dragons were sixth [179 points] and the Royals ninth [236] in the invitational that included the aforementioned schools, Edgewood, Lapel, Cathedral, Frankton and Blackford.
Mt. Vernon coach Bruce Kendall was quick to recognize that his team’s county-race dominance had a lot to do with the three rivals either not at full strength or in rebuilding mode or, in some situations, both. But he also knows his squad has the potential to have a very strong season.
The Marauders are currently No. 16 in the Indiana Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches (IATCCC) poll.
Eastern Hancock and Greenfield-Central each graduated much of their rosters from last season. Both schools had arguably their best, or close to best, seasons ever in 2023.
Plus, Eastern Hancock standout Preston Markley is just coming back from an injury. New Palestine is in a bit of a rebuilding-mode with a heavy-freshman/sophomore roster, and senior standout Jake Cooper, like Markley is not quite at full health.
Add to it that Mt. Vernon has one of its best teams and you have a lopsided score.
“It’s a combination of things,” Kendall said of his team taking the top five spots and seven of the top eight in Saturday’s county-scored race. “What stood out was the average time was 16:26. That’s good stuff. You can’t fake a good time, that’s what I was pleased with about the meet more than anything else, not the win, the 16:26.
“We need to get that down to 16:10 to even have a shot to get out of the regional to get to state.”
Ahmed Saleh’s time of 15:51.43 won the race. Teammate Caden Cassada was third overall and runner-up in the county race with a time of 16:25.93.
Saleh finished nearly 30 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. Second to cross the finish line was Lapel’s Simon Nicholson in 16:20.64.
“He missed the end of last cross country season, but ran a 4:12 mile last spring, that’s legit,” Kendall said of Saleh, who finished ninth in the 1600-meter run at last spring’s state track and field meet. “The 15:50 was waiting to happen.
“The depth, having several guys run that fast, our first seven runners were under 17 and by quite a bit. That’s a good day for us.”
To round out the county’s top five, Mt. Vernon followed with Brayden Strantz (16:35.71), Austin Baugh (16:37.95) and Xaiden Jenson (16:39.49).
Greenfield-Central sophomore Braylon Mumaugh broke up the run of Marauders with a sixth-place county finish, 11th overall, with a time of 16:45.60.
Rounding out the top 10 — the all-county team — were Mt. Vernon’s Cooper Hunziker (16:45.61), Mt. Vernon’s Landon Willis (16:48.34), Eastern’s Markley (17:06.18) and Greenfield-Central’s Henry Rahe (17:13.64).
“For the county meet, this was our year,” Kendall added. “(We have) a long way to go for anything else. I am happy for Saleh because he didn’t finish last cross country season.
“We’ve got Willis back (who was at Martinsville last year after two years at Mt. Vernon) and he’s our seventh runner. Hunziker didn’t finish last track season and he was ahead of Saleh and Cassada most all of track season. We don’t know where we’re headed, but we have fast courses, and tough competition.”
