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Indiana XC Championships Recap - Parker West - DyeStat

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DyeStat.com   Nov 2nd 2014, 4:59am
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West Lafayette upsets Carmel for boys title

 

By Parker West for DyeStat


TERRE HAUTE, Indiana -- Cooper Williams summed up West Lafayette's first boys cross country state title in 50 years with three words: "Best feeling ever."


Williams placed third overall in 15:12 at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.
"I'm so proud of these guys," Williams said. "It's been our goal all year to be where we are, and we've done it. I couldn't ask for a better team."

 
Williams and the Red Devils upset the defending champion, Carmel, 133-140. Carmel sought its third straight victory.

 
The top three teams were separated by 10 points as third-place Munster scored 143.

 
There was also big drama in the individual race, where Carmel's Ben Veatch and Brebeuf's Zack Snider went head to head. As expected, they wasted no time going straight to the front of the pack. They had company, though, for a majority of the race. Columbus North's Seth Williams, Dekalb's Mark Beckmann, Cooper Williams, and about 10 more runners went through the mile at 4:43.


The pack never thinned out until the 2-mile mark when it turned into a single file line led by Veatch, Snider, Beckmann, Seth Williams, and Cooper Williams. Beckmann fell off by 4K. And with 400 to go, Snider went into an all-out sprint to claim the title.


Snider couldn't shake Veatch and in the final 100 he had a half-step lead as they approached the finish line. But Veatch got around Snider's right side and out-leaned him for the win in a time of 15:09.30 – winning by a margin of .07 seconds. It was reported as the third-closest finish in IHSAA meet history.


"I may not have won, but I gave it everything I had," Snider said. "I feel like I ran really well. Whatever happens, I'm happy with the way I ran. With the way I ran today, I think I can make it to Nike and Foot Locker Nationals. Once I get there, I'm going for All-American. There's no other reason to be out there."


When asked what he was looking for this upcoming track season, after Nike and Foot Locker, Snider said: "I'm going for sub-8:50 (in the 3200). I want to really make myself known as much as I can. Cross Country was a start, but I think track is when I will really get to see what I can do."


Also on the topic of Nationals, Veatch had this to say:


"We hope we can advance to Nike Cross Nationals. There's a lot of good teams here.This race was close today, so I have no idea. It's going to be close to get out of the Midwest Regional. There's a lot of good teams, not only from Indiana but from Illinois and Michigan too."


"It's gonna be a dogfight," junior Thomas Revard explained.


Veatch also confirmed that he will be running at Foot Locker Regionals where he is "just hoping to advance."


As expected, there were also some under-the-radar performances of note. Christian Noble (Mt. Vernon) was projected somewhere in the top 40. If you had Noble in your top 25 predictions, you were likely to be questioned. Today, Noble crossed the finish line in 16th place, with a 12-second personal best of 15:42. Brayden Law was another dark horse who performed well, finishing 13th in 15:40.


Carmel Collects 16th State Title, 5th Consecutive

 
When the Greyhounds of Carmel were announced as the state champions, nobody was surprised. This is Carmel's 16th state title, and fifth straight. Carmel was far in front of Avon, 55-124.


"It's fantastic knowing that four years of hard work has paid off. It's been a blessing to work with my past and present teammates and seeing what we've done as a team," Kelsey Harris said. "I'm super excited to see how the future of Carmel cross country (goes), and how long this streak can continue."


It was also no surprise to see Anna Rohrer jump out to the front of the race. Rohrer has a knack for absolutely dominating races. She hasn't lost a race since she was a freshman. This was just her fourth race this season, as she took the summer off and spent the entirety of the 2014 regular season just training and recovering from an injury that caused her to miss all of the 2013 season and preventing her from defending her state and national title. Rohrer ran in a small pack of runners for the first kilometer before she took the race into her own hands. From there, Rohrer blew away the field, running a time of 17:08.8, 42 seconds ahead of runner-up Taylor Nicholson of Avon. Rohrer lowered her own state meet record by five seconds.


Pendleton Heights finished higher than expected. The Lady Arabians finished eighth, led by Alex Buck, who also finished eighth overall. Buck has recently gotten back into shape after an injury, and it was surprising to see her so far up in the pack. She finished just behind Haley Harris and Rachel Nichwitz, with a season best time of 18:16, just 12 seconds off of her lifetime personal best, which she set at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional.


"Earlier this week, I turned the page in my assignment notebook and what I wrote in the space for November 1st was James 1:2-3," Buck said. "I had written that verse there back in August. At the time I wrote that, I didn't even know if I would be racing at podium level today. Just a wonderful reminder of the power of faith."



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