Hauser’s Nolan Dailey takes off for his final mile after being tagged by Adrean Tungate on Tuesday. The pair won the Hauser Kokum-Karem.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
HOPE — Three years ago, Hauser cross-country coach Ben Finke had an idea to host a Hokum-Karem meet to kick off the season.
A Hokum-Karem differs from the traditional 5K race in that it consists of two-person teams running a mile three times each. Normally, the place-finishes of a school’s top three two-person teams are added, with the low score winning, but there were no team scores kept at Tuesday’s Hauser Hokum-Karem, which also included South Decatur, Greensburg and Rushville.
“We started a couple years ago coming off of COVID,” Finke said. “We wanted to do something different. We had a course layout that would make a good Hokum-Karem and opened it up to teams to see it it what they wanted to do to start out the season in a fun sort of way.”
Nolan Dailey
The Hauser duo of Adrean Tungate and Nolan Dailey were the individual winners. They covered the six total miles in 32 minutes, 6 seconds.
Adrean Tungate
“They worked well together,” Finke said. “Nolan hit the splits he wanted to and went out and raced. I think it bodes well for both of them we get up to 5K.”
Tungate gave the Jets the lead at the end of the first leg, and Dailey pulled away on his first leg. They were never challenged after that.
“We wanted to go out hard,” Dailey said. “He was the first leg, so we wanted to make sure that we got a good lead, and then we just extended it from there. It was a good race overall.”
“I came to have fun,” Tungate said. “He came to win. I was just trying to make him happy and get him the win.”
Hauser’s Mason Moore and Max Moore finished fifth in 34:49. Eugene Phillipe and Koleson Gernentz took 10th in 36:45, while Grady Niccum and Kase Meister were 11th (37:22), and Mason Johnson and Lukas Christian 16th (42:29). Hauser’s Braydon McFarland teamed with Rushville’s Tanner Ash to finish eighth in 36:21.
“They did impress me,” Finke said. “It was a good chance to see the work we did over the summer, and for a lot of them, it really did pay off. I told the kids this week is seeing where we’re at and learning what to do and how to do it, and I think they’ve done all that really well for us tonight.”
South Decatur’s Josh Chastain and Nick Hunter finished 15th in 40:33.
For the girls, the Cougars’ Andrea Brogan and Bri Benefiel took sixth in 55:45. Joe Morrow and Kenzie Stone teamed as a mixed duo and were clocked in 50:09.
South Decatur, which had opened its season Saturday at South Decatur’s Moores Hill Invitational, has enough runners for full boys and girls teams, but were missing a few on Tuesday because of other commitments.
“We just love being out and having fun with the relay,” South Decatur coach Bethany Fromer said. “That really jump-starts the season. Definitely, today was more of a fun meet.”
Hauser does not have any girls runners this year.
