Rising Sun senior Trevor Levi’s cross country season will continue at least one more week as he returns to Shelbyville for the semi-state on Saturday, Oct. 21st at 10:30 a.m.
Levi (a semi-state qualifier a year ago) placed 18th in the regional at Shelbyville this past Saturday.
His time was 17:12.1 to advance as one of 10 runners not on one of the top five advancing teams.
Levi won the South Dearborn Sectional but was fourth among those competitors in the regional behind East Central’s Andrew White in seventh (16:52.8), South Dearborn’s Sam Gabbard in 11th (17:00.4) and Batesville’s Adam Moster in 13th (17:11).
“I didn’t run my best today. I’m just happy to move on,” admitted Levi who enjoyed running in the morning after his previous two races (both victories) occurred in the heat of the afternoon at the conference and sectional meets.
The day’s strategy was to “go out and run hard. I was racing against a lot of different people. There were about ten in the top that I’ve seen before but I was basically running on feel.”
“It’s definitely different (running in the morning). We’ve been tapering the miles but this week I think I’ll be getting back to the grind and put in more miles,” he added about his training with former Shiner Zach Martini.
Rising Sun competed as a team after placing fifth in the South Dearborn Sectional. The Shiners improved in the regional to defeat Greensburg (fourth place a week earlier) to claim ninth place in the 10 team field.
Nick Koons place 68th in 19:09.4 followed by freshman Dalton Vinup in 72nd at 19:50, Noah Pflum 80th at 20:22.3, Jacob Powell 81st at 20:43.7, Daniel Daugherty 82nd at 20:50.1 and Peyton Bell 85th at 21:21.3. All runners were making their first regional appearance.
The competition level increased as all five teams advancing to the semi-state were from the Franklin Sectional including regional champ Franklin with 63. Center Grove was runner up with 68 followed by Southport 89, Whiteland 93 and Perry Meridian 125. East Central had the best team score from the South Dearborn Sectional with 137 followed by Batesville 147, South Dearborn 238, Rising Sun 243 and Greensburg 267.
This week’s field will include runners from the Ben Davis, Noblesville, Rushville and Shelbyville Regionals including four of the top five teams in he state
(Carmel, Westview, Fishers and Cathedral).
Levi placed 111th in last year’s semi-state. He will be looking to go out with a personal best as last year’s final state qualifying time was less than 16 minutes.
Rising Sun senior Kasey Baker made her fourth regional appearance in the girls’ race.
It was a week where she didn’t have to split her time with soccer (where she was an all-conference team member). She closed out her cross country career with a time of 22:13.7 on a modified course from a year ago.
Baker placed 45th overall and missed being among the top 10 runners not on one of the five advancing teams. In the bid to be in among those top 10, Baker was 14th.
Greensburg’s Brenna Hannah won the race in a new course record time of 19:06.1.Greensburg placed second with 78 points to 72 by Center Grove. Southport scored 81 followed by East Central 109 and Franklin 112 to qualify for the semi-state. Other team scores included Batesville 120, Whiteland 139, Perry Meridian 161, South Dearborn 267 and Jac-Cen-Del 275.
South Ripley’s Megan Cole placed fourth overall in 20:15.4 to qualify for semi-state. Jac-Cen-Del’s Shianna Bellingham was 33rd overall in 21:33 but missed advancing as the 11th individual.