Columbus North’s Neal White sprints to the finish to win Saturday’s Brown County Sectional at Eagle Park in Nashville.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
It will be a new postseason venue for Columbus North and other area runners on Saturday when they compete in the Evansville Mater Dei Regional.
The regional will be held at Angel Mounds State Historical Site along the Ohio River. The Bull Dogs had a chance to run on that course early this season in the Dennis Bays Invitational.
In that Aug. 27 meet, Columbus North’s boys edged Bloomington North 52-54 for the title, and the Bull Dog girls were edged by Bloomington South 72-73 for first place.
The outcomes were reversed in the Conference Indiana meet at Ceraland, where Bloomington North’s boys beat Columbus North, and the Bull Dog girls slipped past Bloomington South for the titles.
“Us and Bloomington North (boys) have been back and forth this year,” Columbus North coach Rick Sluder said. “They got us a couple times. We got them a couple times early. So we know that we can compete with them, and it’s definitely our goal to go down there and try to win that.
“It’s the same story on the girls side with Bloomington South,” he added. “They’re getting healthier, and so are we. So definitely the goal is to make it to state and try to win both of those races.”
While the No. 15 Bull Dogs and No. 17 Bloomington South are the only ranked girls teams in the regional field, the boys race features four of the top 10 and five of the top 15 teams in this week’s coaches poll. No. 5 Bloomington North and No. 7 Columbus North will be joined by No. 9 Floyd Central, No. 10 Evansville Reitz and No. 15 Bloomington South.
The top five teams and top 15 individuals on non-advancing teams qualify for the Oct. 28 state finals.
“We’ve beaten everybody in there, so our goal is definitely to try to go down and win the regional on the boys side and the girls side,” Sluder said.
Junior Neal White has been the Bull Dog boys’ frontrunner all-season and is coming off a win in Saturday’s Brown County Sectional. He is joined by seniors Akot Tong and Adam Reckers, sophomores Jace Works and Logan Vanzant and juniors Draven Martinez and Jonny Klaus.
Columbus North’s Kyleigh Wolf and Carys Glyn-Jones make their way through Saturday’s Brown County Sectional at Eagle Park in Nashville.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Junior Kyleigh Wolf has led the Columbus North girls most of the season, followed closely by junior Carys Glyn-Jones and sophomore Ainsley Sherlock. The other four spots could come from a combination of juniors Macy Eaton and Katie Frazier, freshmen Emma Lowther and Tristan Works and sophomore Lana Wisler.
“We’re about nine or so deep on each gender, and that helps us and keeps us kind of competitive, and it gives us kind of the feel of who’s running the best at any given moment,” Sluder said. “It’s kind of fun to coach a team with that much depth year-in-and-year-out right now.”
Unlike the last couple of postseasons, both the Bull Dog boys and girls teams are about as healthy as they’ve been all season.
“We had a little touch of sickness at the sectional for the girls,” Sluder said. “We were a little sick up and down the whole lineup, and that kind of stuff is going around the hallways right now. But all the girls seem to be getting healthier, and we actually ran maybe our best race of the year, so I was pretty excited with that.”
Meanwhile, Jennings County’s boys and girls teams will be competing on Saturday, along with individuals from Columbus East, Hauser, Brown County and South Decatur.
Brown County’s entire top five boys — senior Charlie Webb, sophomore Eli Wrightsman, junior Kai Koester, senior Corbin Brahaum and freshman Aden Skaggs — qualified as individuals. They will be joined by East juniors Jackson Brookes and Austin Menefee, Hauser sophomore Nolan Dailey and senior Colin Kistler and South Decatur senior Donovan Hale.
Six East girls qualified as individuals — seniors Carly Otte and Victoria Cuhadar; juniors Amelia Fay, Madison Swartzentruber and Hayden Carothers and freshman Abigail Collins. They will be joined by Brown County sophomore Sadie Hiatt and freshman Izzy Miller.
The boys race is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CST (11:30 a.m. EST), with the girls race to follow at 11:15 a.m. CST (12:15 p.m. EST).
