The Columbus North boys and girls cross-country teams had the same plan for Tuesday night’s heat-delayed dual meet against Columbus East at Ceraland.
The top several runners from both the second-ranked boys and second-ranked girls teams ran together as a pack for the entire 5,000 meters (3.1 miles), albeit at a much slower-than-normal pace because of the heat. Although the Bull Dogs won both meets by 15-50 scores, the focus was on getting in a good workout.
“Our goal was to group of and kind of tempo it, just like a comfortably hard effort,” North boys coach Danny Fisher said. “Just with the weather, we tried to get through today and learn a little bit and get a good quality workout in.”
The meet originally was to begin with the boys race at 5:30 p.m. and the girls race at 6 p.m. But 90-plus-degree temperatures and a 100-plus heat index led East, the host school, to push the races back to 7 and 7:30 p.m.
In the boys race, the Bull Dogs had the top 19 finishers. The top seven finished within 2 1/2 seconds of each other, with senior Will Kiel declared the official winner in 18 minutes, 52.20 seconds.
“I think we made the right decision running together because we had each other to depend on and make sure we weren’t pushing ourselves too hard in this heat out here,” Kiel said. “We all came together at the end to make sure we all finished together as a team.”
Matt Newell finished second in 18:52.65. He was followed by Mateo Mendez in 18:52.72, Will Russell in 18:52.82, Clayton Guthrie in 18:52.93, Evan Carr in 18:53.14 and Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff in 18:53.34.
“We like to embrace the conditions because at the end of the day, that’s sometimes what will help us stand about the rest, and we made the most out of today,” Newell said. “The objective was to work hard together and build a team relationship and focus working out how we can effectively work together in a race situation.”
Jackson Brookes led the Olympians with a 20th-place finish in 20:36.94. Ervin Briseno took 27th in 21:50.31, while Derek Patchett was 29th (22:18.30), Cayden Lynott 31st (23:00.30) and Parker Hammack 38th (24:24.57).
“Running against North is always a challenge, and they when you add the heat in, it adds to that,” East boys coach Ryan Burke said. “Our challenge is to improve, and I think we checked a lot of boxes in that category today.”
The girls race went similar to the boys, with the top nine North girls finishing together. Junior Lily Baker was declared the official winner in 21:22.25.
“I think it was fun,” Baker said. “We were talking the whole time and just making the most of it and enjoying our actual first meet as a group.”
Katherine Rumsey finished second in 21:22.51 followed by Brianna Newell in 21:22.76, Julia Kiesler in 21:23.08, Alyssa Green in 21:23.43, Ellen White in 21:23.78, Sydney Morlok in 21:24.15, Jessica Meza in 21:24.52 and Abby Jacobi in 21:24.93.
“It was really fun, especially with it being my senior season, to finish the race with all of my other teammates who I’ve been training so well with all summer,” Rumsey said. “I’m excited for what the rest of the season has in store.”
The Bull Dogs had 15 of the top 16 finishers in the girls race.
“It would have been really tough to run at 5:30, so East made the right call, and that was a smart decision,” North girls coach Rick Sluder said. “We got a good workout in. We on purpose grouped it up and wanted to run hard. The girls did that well enough to win and help our chunk in rivalry week.”
Chloe Krueger finished 10th in 21:47.93 to lead East. Jordan Spurgeon took 17th in 22:52.12, while Laurel Knight was 19th (23:05.28), Carly Otte 20th (23:21.87) and Olivia Shoaf 21st (23:23.63).
“Both teams were just kind of going out and having their girls find their rhythm,” East girls coach Jesse Shoaf said. “I was pleased with my girls, the top five how they placed and grouped coming in. That was our goal today with the weather and heat.”
