Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH MANCHESTER - Manchester High School hosted the boys and girls cross country sectional Saturday, and it was owned by Wabash County schools.
Of the 10 girls teams that competed, with the top five advancing to the regional, four were from Wabash County. Three of them, Northfield, Southwood and Wabash, will compete in the regional, also at Manchester High School.
Northfield finished second with a team score of 75, Southwood fourth with 110 and Wabash fifth with 147. Huntington North won the team championship with 72 points, and Carroll finished third with 109.
Of local schools, Tippecanoe Valley finished in seventh place with 163, Manchester, the fourth Wabash County school, finished eight with 169, and Whitko was 10th with 208.
Of the top 15 girls individual runners that will advance to the regional, eight of them come from Wabash County schools.
Southwood's Margaret Boggs won the individual sectional championship with her time of 15:34. Manchester's Lydia Flora came in second with a time of 15:40.
"We were a little disappointed because that was 20 seconds off her best time," said Manchester coach Scott Erba of Flora's performance. "If she would have been 20 seconds faster, she would've been the sectional champion. The girl that won she's beat a couple times this year."
The Squires will also advance Shay Knecht to the regional after she finished 12th with a time of 16:20.
"The other girl we're advancing, Shay Knecht, has been to the regional before," said Erba. "So she has some really good experience.
Whitko will advance one runner to the regional, sophomore Angel Puckett, who finished third with a time of 15:54.
"That was her second-best time of the year," said Whitko coach Steve Hoopingarner. "She ran a pretty good race and did what we expected, finished in the top 10. She beat two girls from Carroll and I thought that was pretty impressive. I expect her to finish in the same place next week."
Tippecanoe Valley failed to advance anyone past the sectional round. The best Viking finish came from junior Sarah Kindig, who finished 17th, six seconds away from a regional berth, with a time of 16:39.
"She (Kindig) did well," said Valley coach Terry Screeton. "Some individuals came through and we had some others that didn't do that for us. Our team score suffered because of that. We were hoping we could get fifth. The competition was tough. We knew we would be close but we didn't quite make it over the hump."
The boys race was also dominated by Wabash County schools. As was the case in the girls race, three teams from Wabash County will advance to the regional.
Northfield won the team championship with a score of 43, Wabash came in second with 56 and Southwood rounded out the top five with 124.
Whitko finished with 171 points and seventh place. Tippecanoe Valley ended up in ninth place with 218 and Manchester rounded out the 10-team field with 269 points.
