Ahmed Saleh, of Mt. Vernon, shown here in the Mt. Vernon Invitational, was the individual winner in the Boys Open Red race at the LaVern Gibson Nike Valley Twilight in Terre Haute last weekend.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
Ahmed Saleh was the individual champion and five other Mt. Vernon boys cross country runners had top 10 finishes at the Nike Valley Twilight Boys Open Red 5K held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute last weekend.
The site of the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals on Nov. 2 hosted a number of races Friday and Saturday that included runners from Indiana and other states.
Saleh won his race with a time of 15:47.41.
The Marauders grabbed spots six through 10 with Xaiden Jenson (16:23.77), Landon Willis (16:26.22), Austin Baugh (16:27.25), Brayden Strantz (16:27.46) and Caden Cassada (16:31.62).
Full teams from Mt. Vernon, New Palestine and Greenfield-Central ran in the Red race.
Mt. Vernon won with 27 points. Greenfield-Central was third with 147 and New Palestine was eighth with 251 points.
New Palestine was led by a 14th-place finish from Jacob Cooper (16:40.99). Greenfield-Central’s top placer was Henry Rahe in 18th (16:53.53).
Other scorers for Greenfield-Central were: Bryce Cotterman (20, 16:56.63), John Wait (31, 17:24.01), Peter Hummel (35, 17:30.32) and David Wasson (57, 17:59.83).
Following Cooper for New Palestine were: Gavin Smith (46, 17:44), Mike Bauer (52, 17:54.92), Carson Cooper (65, 18:07.67) and Hayden Flanagan (105, 18:46.15).
The Boys Open Red included 25 teams and 281 runners.
Runners from all four Hancock County schools participated. Eastern Hancock’s Preston Markley competed as an individual in the Boys Open Blue race and finished fourth with a time of 16:37.34. Lakewood Park’s Zander Ritenour won the race in 15:46.53.
Girls cross country
Marauders 2nd at Nike Twilight
Runners from all four Hancock County schools competed in races Friday and Saturday in Terre Haute at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course, the host course for the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals on Nov. 2.
In the 16-team Girls Open Red race, Mt. Vernon placed second and New Palestine finished eighth. Cathedral was team champion with 82 points. Mt. Vernon scored 116.
Greenwood’s Lillian Rollings won the race in 18:20.51.
Mt. Vernon’s Makenna Laffey was eighth in 20:16.83. New Palestine’s Abby Journay placed 18th in 20:59.40.
Other Mt. Vernon scorers included: Hannah Hauser (20, 21:03.71), Chesnie Willis (23, 21:20.24), Emma Gale (30, 21:36.65), and Lillian Quinn (37, 21:55.10).
The remaining New Palestine scorers were: Taylor Burke (36, 21:42.95), Taylor Stone (51, 22:36.06), McKenzie Hacker (54, 22:47.36), and Evelyn Kell (57, 22:53.30).
In the 56-team, Girls Open Blue race, Josie Kinnaman led the 19th-place Greenfield-Central team with a fifth-place finish in the 5K race with a time of 19:36.58.
Carmel was the team winner and Lebanon’s Penny Lamerson was the individual champion in 19:18.49.
Running as an individual, Eastern Hancock’s Sydney Johnson placed 25th in 20:45.85.
Greenfield-Central’s Kendall Barrett was 82nd in 21:38.51. Lexie Copeland placed 137th in 22:19.32. Harper Rahe was 187th in 22:59.27 and Cerenity Minchin was the final scoring G-C runner in 325th with a time of 24:59.75.
Eastern girls compete in Winchester
Eastern Hancock girls cross country runners Kaylee Swan and Riley Williams ran in the Winchester Invitational Saturday.
Swan placed 16th in the 5K race with a time of 24:03.4. Williams was 48th in 36:28.5.
Jay County won the team event. Fort Wayne Canterbury’s Promyse Williams was the individual champion with a time of 20:33.3
Girls volleyball
Dragons win Richmond tournament
New Palestine’s volleyball team went 4-0 and won Saturday’s Richmond Invitational.
The Dragons are 26-2 heading into tonight’s home match against Noblesville (16-8).
The Dragons beat Seton Catholic (17-8), Winchester (20-8) and Purdue Polytechnic (11-16) by 2-0 set scores and finished off the day with a 2-1 victory over host Richmond (9-11).
Against Seton Catholic, the Dragons won 25-14, 25-16.
Hayden Ramsey led with seven kills. Natalie Sevier had six kills and 10 digs. Josie Corbett added six kills and setter Sam Gooding recorded 22 assists.
In the Winchester match, New Pal won 25-18, 25-15.
Corbett topped attackers with eight kills. Sevier had seven to go with six digs. Ramsey had five kills and five blocks. Caylee Brown added four kills. Azure Flagle tallied six digs and Gooding finished with 20 assists.
Against Purdue Poly, the Dragons had set scores of 25-11, 25-4.
Cayanna Brown had a team-high six kills. Grace Tippit, Caylee Brown and Corbett each had five kills. Corbett added three service aces and setter Kennedy Armstrong had eight assists.
In the victory over the host Red Devils, the Dragons won 25-8, 23-25, 15-6.
Three players had double figures in kills. Corbett led with 14. Ramsey had 12 and Caylee Brown had 11, with on errors on 16 attempts. Sevier had six kills.
Defensively, Ramsey had six blocks. Flagle totaled a team-high 14 digs. Sevier had eight digs and Kyndra Monteith and Makaeli Johnson both had six digs. Sevier added two service aces and Gooding dished out 33 assists.
Following tonight’s match with Noblesville, New Palestine (26-2, 3-2) wraps up the regular season with Hoosier Heritage Conference matches Tuesday, at home, against Shelbyville (5-18, 0-6) and Thursday, at Mt. Vernon (17-6, 4-2).
Cougars split matches at Fishers
Greenfield-Central’s volleyball team defeated Guerin Catholic and lost to Fishers at Fishers High School Saturday.
The Cougars beat Guerin (13-16) 2-0 and lost to Fishers (18-12) 2-0.
Set scores against the Golden Eagles were in favor of the Cougars 29-27, 26-24.
The loss to the Tigers also came in close sets, 25-23, 25-22.
Greenfield-Central (18-9) hosts Anderson (0-13) Tuesday and Triton Central (15-8) on Thursday.
