Switzerland County cross country runners Braden Burk and Robin Furnish have earned the opportunity to participate in the IHSAA Cross Country Semistate that will be held this Saturday at Brown County.
The runners advanced by placing in the top 15 individual runners at last week’s Regional – where the boys team narrowly missed the chance to advance as well.
In the girls race, Robin Furnish and Paige Ridener participated as individuals because of their finishes at the Sectional; and Robin Furnish turned in a ninth place overall finish in the Regional in a time of 21:07 – a personal best for her.
Paige Ridener also had an outstanding race, finishing 26th overall in a very strong field with a time of 22:11.
*
In IHSAA meets, the top five finishing teams and the top 15 individuals advance. Those scores are determined by adding together the finishing positions of a team’s top five runners. That was never more close than at the Regional, where the Switzerland County boys team missed advancing to the Semistate by just one point.
Bedford North Lawrence won the Regional with a score of 24; followed by Seymour with 66; Jennings County with 118; and Silver Creek with 120. Salem, with a team score of 154 became the fifth school to qualify; with sixth place Switzerland County finishing with 155 points.
Braden Burk advanced with a 13th overall finish with a time of 17:11. Talen Taylor was the top finishing freshman in the Regional, coming in 29th with a time of 17:49; and Quinn Meyer was 35th in a time of 18:06.
Sean Oatman finished 43rd in 18:45; Anthony Dennis was 45th in 18:49; Mikhail Cole was 51st in 19:11; and Michael Douglas was 60th in 19:40.
Pacer team members Anthony Dennis, Quinn Meyer, Brady Voris, and Michael Douglas are seniors.
The Semistate will be held this Saturday at Brown County, with the boys race starting at 10:30 a.m. and the girls race beginning at 11:10 a.m.