Bloomington sweeps team titles at Evansville cross country regional

It's been hard saying where Caleb Winders will show up in Bloomington North's pecking order at a boys' cross country race.

More than once he was outside the top seven. But late in the year, the sophomore, one of the state's best 800 runners and anchor for a state champion 3,200 relay last spring, was No. 3 at Nike, No. 4 at Conference Indiana and No. 5 at sectional. Something was brewing.

At Saturday's Evansville Regional at Angel Mounds, North needed a little boost as usual lead runner Jacob Mitchell works past an illness and Winders was a rocket, shattering 16 minutes for the first time with a 15:39.7 for fifth place. He led five Cougars in the top 30, good enough for 88 points to edge Floyd Central (94) and Columbus North (101) for the title.

Bloomington South, led by second-place Ryan Rheam and 10th pace Joe Zinkan, was a comfortable fifth at 159 (by 93 over Castle) to claim the last spot at next week's IHSAA state finals in Terre Haute. South won the girls' title, while Edgewood was fifth.

Depth carries Cougars

North's depth has been awful tough to beat this season.

Caelan D'Onofrio, who led North at sectional, was 13th (15:51.8) with Mitchell still 23rd (16:12.0), Jack Holden 27th (16:14.9) and Dominic D'Onofrio 29th (16:16.0). The back end was good enough to offset Floyd's 1-4-9 finish led by Will Conway (15:23.9).

"With Caleb, we obviously needed it," North coach Charlie Warthan said. "It was Caelan last week. Caleb was the star today.

"But that's been our strength all year long. The guys are running so close together. I was 200 meters from the finish and watching them coming in, I thought Floyd's 1-4-9 finish would be too hard to overcome. I told them going in we needed to minimize how many points they would pick up with their first three guys to have a reasonable shot."

Floyd's fifth man was 16 seconds behind North's No. 6, Aden Pierce.

Winders went out about 10 seconds slower than the other top 20 finishers, but stormed through his third and fourth Ks much faster than they did to eat up ground. Mitchell was the sixth man through the 2K and also picked up several spots late as D'Onofrio and Holden were solid as usual.

"(MItchell) came on the last part of that race and made a difference," Warthan said. "When the time came, he did what he needed to do to help the team. I hope he continues to get better and gets close to full strength for next week."

7 up for South girls

For the first time all year, Bloomington South had its expected top seven runners all going at the same time. The field never stood a chance as the Panthers put three in the top 10 to score 70 points and outpace Columbus North (94). Edgewood was fifth (164) and North seventh (216).

Sectional champ Jasmine Martoglio followed up with a runner-up finish in 18:49.3, just her third race of the season. Freshman Lexi Kollbaum was fourth (19:01.0) and Aurelia Martoglio, back for the first time from her injury, was seventh (19:10.4).

"It's been a bumpy season and we're just trying to get through to the end," South coach Jill Rensink said. "To have all seven of them out there was really fun to see.

"Aurelia was not even running in spikes. The top three did phenomenally well and they're all freshmen and sophomores."

With another freshman, Mary Asplund, ailing a bit, seniors took charge as Clara Graham (34th in 20:32.0), Kate Barada (39th in 20:39.7) and Tamara Kun (42nd in 20:46.9) kept close and kept the score low.

"The amazing thing with this team is when someone is down, someone steps up," Rensink said. "Clara and Kate are running really well and they seem to do that every week. They've been really solid and great leaders."

North will still have a presence at state despite missing out as a team as senior Nola Somers Glenn sped to eighth in 19:16.7. The Cougars' next finisher was Lila Childers in 52nd.

South boys are back

South's boys made it seven years in a row to state.

Senior Ryan Rheam was outstanding and had one of the best finishing kicks to take second in 15:27.7, while Joe Zinkan battled to 10th in a career-best 15:43.8. Hunter Tabor grabbed 35th in 16:26.9 while Suoming Zhang had his second-best career time in 16:52.6 and freshman Luke Reinhart stepped up to the No. 5 spot.

Williams wanted his runners to get out strong and maintain their positions and compete for spots ahead of them. They did that and closed the gap on fourth place and left the rest of the field behind.

"(Reinhart) looked so much more comfortable with people around to race with and he showed his competitiveness in his finish," Williams said. "Sam Lutz and Marshall Caldwell did a better job than at sectionals as it showed the entire team was leaning on that thought of pushing through to the finals."

History made by Eastern duo

Eastern Greene's Lilyanna Blais and Esther Crane became the first two T-Birds to earn a spot at the state girls' meet.

Blais was 15th in 19:40.3 while Crane, who also played soccer this fall, was 23rd in 20:00.6.

Eastern was 16th as a team with 434 points, which was third best among the five teams that advanced from the Bedford North Lawrence Sectional.

Eastern had six boys running, with junior Jade Dawes taking 50th in 16:48.4 to lead the way.

Edgewood girls, Meyer make state

Edgewood ended a couple of minor droughts.

For just the fifth time in school history, the girls team is headed to the state finals after holding on to fifth by just three points over Floyd Central (167). The Mustangs last went in 2019.

"It's not something that happens super often, especially for a school our size," Edgewood coach Zach Evans said. "So it's a cool accomplishment because the Bloomington schools do it so often, for them it feels normal. When you think about it numbers wise, 24 football teams make it to semistate.

"This was our goal the whole season. It was fun and maybe a relief if anything."

Hannah Crain led the way by taking 11th in 19:25.8 while Ally Bland was 35th (20:35.3) and Riley Haskett was 37th (20:37.2). Ellie Vagedas (45th) and Nayeli Young (72nd) rounded out the top five.

"We struggled a lot," Evans said. "It was not a great race for us but we held on. It was hot and for whatever reason, we did not run as well as usual. The teams behind us couldn't quite catch us, but it was closer than it should have been."

The boys were not as fortunate, placing eighth with 277 points, but will have a presence at state for the first time since Austin Haskett, now a lead runner for Indiana, got there in 2018.

Zane Meyer grabbed one of the individual spots by taking 15th in 15:58.5. Jackson Klinger was 32nd in 16:19.8, one of his best races of his season, but he just missed by seconds of going on.

"Both of them ran really well," Evans said. "For Zane, there's not a lot of history there for us, so it's something to say he made it. He beat some guys who beat him at sectional, so it was good to see that bounce back. And he has a shot at being in the 40-50 range or better on a good day, so that sets him up well to be a medalist next year."

More: 'Pure joy' as Bloomington South girls soccer wins semistate title

OV duo at Brownsburg

Owen Valley's Lily Smith finished 167th in 22:59.1 and Alli Anderson was 207th in 24:05.9 in the regional race at that took place in Brownsburg.

North Central beat Carmel for the team title and Bishop Chatard's Julia Score won the individual race in 17:37.8

EVANSVILLE REGIONAL

BOYS' RESULTS

Team scores (Top 5 advance to state): 1. Bloomington North 88; 2. Floyd Central 94; 3. Columbus North 101; 4. Evansville Reitz 133; 5. Bloomington South 159; Castle 252; Jasper 261; Edgewood 277; Springs Valley 288; Greensburg 290 Gibson Southern 371; Evansville Memorial 375; Corydon Central 402; Silver Creek 410; South Knox 412; Jennings County 419; Brownstown Central 423; Princeton 449; Perry Central 465; Barr-Reeve 466.

Top individuals: 1. Will Conway, FC, 15:23.9; 2. Ryan Rheam, BS, 15:27.7; 3. Jackson Nolan, ERz, 15:32.2; 4. Luca Corincione, FC, 15:35.2; 5. Caleb Winders, BN, 15:39.7; 6. Martin Barco, Martinsville,15:41.4 ; Calvin Seitz, Jas, 15:41.5; 8. Alexander Pinckney, Christian Academy, 15:42.7; 9. Sawyer Mossberger, ERz, 15:43.7; 10. Joe Zinkan, BS, 15:43.8. Area individual qualifier: 15. Zane Meyer, Edg, 15:58.5.

Other Bloomington North: 13. Caelan D'Onofrio, 15:51.8 ; 23. Jacob Mitchell, 16:12.0; 27. Jack Holden, 16:14.9; 29. Dominic D'Onofrio, 16:16.0; 40. Aden Pierce, 16:33.0; 61. Reed Pierce, 17:03.4. Other Bloomington South: 35. Hunter Tabor, 16:26.9; 54. Suoming Zhang, 16:52.6; 77. Luke Reinhart, 17:20.2; 112. Sam Lutz, 17:46.8; 117. Marshall Caldwell, 17:50.5. Other Edgewood: 32. Jackson Klinger, 16:19.8; 74. Josh Kohne, 17:17.1; 78. Carson Sigman, 17:20.5; 123. Landon Beauchamp, 17:54.1; 144. Tucker McCarty, 18:18.8; 148. Davin Norris, 18:22.8. Eastern Greene: 50. Jade Dawes, 16:48.4; 172. Dillan Williams, 18:49.9; 190. Coby Sykes, 19:11.3; 201. Jacob Crites, 19:25.4; 225. Kasch Cullison, 19:52.8; 230. Roman Valentine, 19:58.2.

GIRLS' RESULTS

Team scores (Top 5 advance to state): 1. Bloomington South 70; 2. Columbus North 94; 3. Jasper 148; 4. Corydon Central 160; 5. Edgewood 164; Floyd Central 167; Bloomington North 216; Castle 263; Tell City 282; Evansville Memorial 333; Princeton 345; Southridge 355; South Knox 379; Barr-Reeve 395; Greensburg 414; 16. Eastern Greene 434; New Albany 477; Bedford North Lawrence 478; Borden 486; Evansville Mater Dei 497; North Posey 517; Seymour 518; Brownstown Central 534; Silver Creek 565; Jennings County 568.

Individual leaders: 1. Kaitlyn Stewart, FC,18:28.5 ; 2. Jasmine Martoglio, BS, 18:49.3; 3. Peyton Smith, Linton, 19:00.7; 4. Lexi Kollbaum, BS, 19:01.0; 5. Carys Glyn Jones, CN, 19:01.9; 6. Maddie Graber, Srdge, 19:03.8; 7. Aurelia Martoglio, BS, 19:10.4; 8. Nola Somers Glenn, BN, 19:16.7; 9. Kyleigh Wolf, CN, 19:18.5; 10. Cordelia Hoover, ERz, 19:23.9. Area individual qualifiers: 15. Lilyanna Blais, EG, 19:40.3; 23. Esther Crane, EG, 20:00.6.

Other Bloomington South: 34. Clara Graham, 20:32.0; 39. Kate Barada, 20:39.7; 42. Tamara Kun, 20:46.9; 55. Mary Asplund, 21:09.9. Edgewood: 11. Hannah Crain, 19:25.8; 35. Ally Bland, 20:35.3; 37. Riley Haskett, 20:37.2; 45. Ellie Vagedas, 20:49.1; 72. Nayeli Young, 21:32.2; 161. Nerissa Zelhoff-Arriaga, 23:28.3; 210. Avery Rayl, 25:03.1. Other Bloomington North: 52. Lila Childers, 21:08.3; 59. Lilah Reed, 21:18.9; 69. Ellie Patrick, 21:29.4; 74. Katie Kent, 21:32.6; 75. Hayden McGuire, 21:34.5; 89. Tori Bilohlavek, 22:05.9. Other Eastern Greene: 127. Zoe Crites, 22:53.5; 220. Madyson Shimkus, 25:40.5; 229. Caroline Roberts, 26:50.5; 238. Kena Maddox, 28:42.6; 240. Andrea Williams, 29:30.6.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington sweeps team titles at Evansville cross country regional