SHELBYVILLE — Led by Greenfield-Central’s Adalyn Cole’s fourth-place finish, seven Hancock County runners earned All-Hoosier Heritage Conference honors at Saturday’s HHC Girls Cross Country Championships at Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville.
Pendleton Heights ended Mt. Vernon’s run of consecutive team titles streak at three, taking the top two individual spots and scoring 46 points. Mt. Vernon was 15 points back, finishing runner-up with 61.
Greenfield-Central, without Hancock County champion Josie Kinnaman, who was fourth in last year’s conference race, placed third with 101 points.
New Palestine, led by a sixth-place finish from Abby Journay [20:56.92], placed sixth of eight in the team competition.
Mt. Vernon, which has battled its share of illness and injuries this season, had four runners earn all-conference [top 15] honors.
Hannah Hauser was fifth with a time of 20:47.48 for her 5K run. Makenna Laffey was ninth in 21:02.75, edging out 10th-place teammate Chesnie Willis, who crossed the finish line in 21:03.91.
Lillian Quinn grabbed the final All-HHC position with a time of 21:33.23.
Cole was just a few seconds out of finishing third. She clocked in at 20:32.80. Third-place finisher Anyah Amman, of New Castle, ran a time of 20:27.04.
Pendleton Heights’ 1-2 punch of Ava Jarrell and Anya Zoeller were well-ahead of the pack. Jarrell finished the race in 18:08.97 and Zoeller, a freshman, ran a time of 18:47.18.
Greenfield-Central coach Scott Burton was happy with how his team ran, especially given the late news that their leader, Kinnaman, dealing with an injury, was not going to be able to run. Burton said his sophomore runner is expected to be back soon.
“The girls competed extremely well,” Burton said. “They knew [Friday night] that Josie wasn’t going to run and really tried to work on dealing with the anxiety that came with knowing we were losing our top runner, but also trying to instill the confidence that we had a couple of weeks ago when we ran well at Cascade.”
“Our goal was to still to be in the top three. Adalyn had an incredible race to get fourth place. She was seeded sixth and had her season best [time]. Lexie ran very well and Kendall [Barrett] has been running incredible well, she was just off her PR and outside all-conference. That top three helped carry us.”
Barrett placed 16th, just a few seconds behind Quinn for the final All-HHC spot with a time of 21:36.14.
“Throughout the whole roster, everybody competed very well [Saturday],” Burton added.
Mt. Vernon coach Lydgia Palmer said she would, of course, liked to have continued the Marauders streak of conference titles, but was happy with how they ran, coming off a rough race a week ago at the Golden Bear Invitational, a race also held at Blue River Memorial Park.
“We ran way better than last week, and that was our goal,” Palmer said. “We had a rough last week and this is the first week we have had Makenna back. She’s been out over three weeks [in a boot] and the same with one of our other girls with a broken toe. This is the first full running group I’ve had, for that I’m proud.
“We wanted to win, but we knew it was going to be tough with Pendleton and their top two. I think we’re in the right mindset for the sectional and regional, which is our ultimate goal.”
There were 93 runners in the race. New Palestine’s Taylor Burke also earned a top 20 spot and was just outside the all-conference cut off of 15 with an 18th-place finish in 21:57.97.
All three teams are scheduled to compete this weekend at the Nike Twilight Meet races held in Terre Haute at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course.
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2024 Hoosier Heritage Conference Girls Cross Country Championship
Location: Blue River Memorial Park, Shelbyville
Team scores: Pendleton Heights 46, Mt. Vernon 61, Greenfield-Central 101, Yorktown 110, New Castle 121, New Palestine 129, Delta 166, Shelbyville 188.
All-HHC (Top 15): Ava Jarrell, Pendleton Heights, 18:08.97; Anya Zoeller, Pendleton Heights, 18:47.18; Anyah Amman, New Castle, 20:27.04; Adalyn Cole, Greenfield-Central, 20:32.80; Hannah Hauser, Mt. Vernon, 20:47.48; Abby Journay, New Palestine, 20:56.92; Hadley Walker, Pendleton Heights, 20:57.53; Tori Oliver, Yorktown, 21:00.60; Makenna Laffey, Mt. Vernon, 21:02.75; Chesnie Willis, Mt. Vernon, 21:03.91; Lexie Copeland, Greenfield-Central, 21:16.56; Everly Carter, Delta, 21:20.39; Macey Robbins, Shelbyville, 21:31.10; Lauren Gilman, New Castle, 21:33.22; Lillian Quinn, Mt. Vernon, 21:33.23.
