Neal White
FRANKLIN — Columbus North’s boys and girls cross-country teams swept the Franklin Invitational on Saturday.
The Bull Dog boys claimed the top four spots and six of the top seven in scoring 16 points to 75 for Indian Creek and 92 for Center Grove. North’s girls scored 33 points to 72 for East Central and 88 for Center Grove.
Neal White won the 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) boys race in 15 minutes, 50.0 seconds. Jace Works finished second in 16:07.6, while Draven Martinez was third (16:23.3), Jonny Klaus fourth (16:25.4), Justin Reckers sixth (16:40.6), Sam Steinmetz seventh (16:42.8), Logan Vanzant ninth (16:45.8) and Joseph Day 10th (16:52.5).
Jennings County finished seventh with 229 points. Brock Maschino took 43rd in 18:00.9, while Dawson Leak was 55th (18:19.2), Max Rodriguez 62nd (18:26.0), Zachary Wahlman 91st (19:25.5) and Eli Lucas 98th (19:34.0).
Brown County finished 14th with 357 points. Aden Skaggs took 72nd in 18:38.3, while Kai Koester was 90th (19:24.1), Nathan Cumberledge 97th (19:30.2), Alex Schwenk 109th (19:46.1) and Jacob Schwein 150th (21:22.5).
In the girls meet, Carys Glyn-Jones led North with a third-place finish in 18:56.7. Kyleigh Wolf took sixth in 20:08.6, while Macy Eaton was seventh (20:13.5), Ainsley Sherlock eighth (20:15.5), Tristan Works ninth (20:20.8), Emma Lowther 12th (20:32.8), Rendy Zhong 13th (20:33.6) and Kodi Smith 14th (20:42.3).
Jennings County finished eighth with 219 points. Alana Watts took 30th in 22:05.4, while Haley Vogel was 38th (22:29.2), Shelby Allen 60th (23:30.9), Isla Stevens 82nd (24:41.5) and Bella Miller 88th (25:11.3).
Brown County finished 13th with 315 points. Sadie Hiatt took 55th in 23:20.1, while Izzy Miller was 71st (24:03.0), Della Hitchcock 104th (26:19.2), Michaela Smith 117th (27:37.6) and Megan Cumberledge 122nd (28:31.2).
The meet was delayed about an hour-and-a-half because of lightning just as the girls were getting ready to take the starting line.
“The girls faced some big adversity today as they had just got to the starting line when the meet was delayed,” North coach Rick Sluder said. “They had to head to the buses and start the process all over. The boys faced a long delay and time just sitting on the bus — not ideal. They ran equally or even better than the outstanding performance of the girls.
“Both teams won the team titles and we extremely well all throughout the lineup,” he added. “Our JV runners and freshmen ran outstanding. This is a great performance heading into the big portion of our season. We are excited to host the Rick Weinheimer next week and see how much we’ve improved.”
