Columbus North’s Akot Tong makes his way through Saturday’s Evansville Mater Dei Semistate at Angel Mounds.
Corey Stolzenbach | For The Republic
Unlike the past few years, Columbus North won’t be among the favorites to win state titles at the Boys and Girls Cross Country State Finals.
But what the Bull Dogs hope to do is come away with their best performances of the season and improve on their state rankings of eighth on the boys side and 19th on the girls side when they line up Saturday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
“There’s a lot of people out there who now think we could be on the podium, and I kind of believe it,” North coach Rick Sluder said of his boys squad. “I think our guys team can give a run at being a top-five team. That would be outstanding. There’s a lot of coaches bouncing stuff around this week that thinks Bloomington North ran the second-best race of the weekend and that we ran the fifth-best race overall. So I’m encouraged by that.”
No. 3 Bloomington North won Saturday’s Evansville Mater Dei Regional, but No. 7 Floyd Central and the Bull Dogs weren’t far behind.
“We probably didn’t race what they thought was their best, but some of our guys ran really well,” Sluder said. “Neal (White) and Akot (Tong) were still both top-15 guys, and Jace Works ran really well and Adam Reckers ran his second-best race of the year probably and Draven Martinez came through and ran really well. So we may not have ran our best, but we still were within 20-some points. So we’re excited heading into the state meet. If we can have a slightly ‘off’ day and still be that close, then we’re excited if we go to the state meet and fire on all cylinders.”
The other two spots on Saturday likely will be filled from among the trio of Logan Vanzant, Jonny Klaus and Denton Sluder.
White and Martinez, both juniors, are the lone returners that ran at state last season. White is hoping for a top-25 individual finish that would earn him All-State honors, as well as a top-five team finish, which would put them on the awards podium.
“I think that’s a good goal for the team this year,” White said. “I think we’re at a good spot overall with how the team is working together and training.”
“I think we can definitely do it if we race well,” Tong added. “I feel we are in a really good spot. We just need that one race to pop off and go at it.”
Meanwhile, the Columbus North girls finished second in the regional behind No. 14 Bloomington South. The Bull Dogs beat No. 17 Bloomington North, which did not make the state finals.
“We knew Bloomington South was getting healthier and were getting a couple of their top girls back,” Rick Sluder said. “We really stayed close to them, even with their top girls back. There’s a lot of people who believe Bloomington South is the seventh-, eighth-, ninth-best team in the state, so we were excited to stay within a few points of them.
“Out of last year’s semistate, we graduated all seven girls, and we came back this year and were within 24 points of winning, so I was really excited about that,” he added. “Not to take pleasure in somebody else’s misery, but Floyd Central and Bloomington North girls did not qualify, and those are two traditionally strong teams. So for our girls to avoid that kind of letdown, I’m just really excited for them.”
Columbus North is shooting for a top-10 finish.
“I think that’s pushing us,” Rick Sluder said. “We want to be between ninth and 15th. That would be awesome for us to get in the top 10, and I think we can do that. That’s our goal on the girls side.”
A young Bull Dog girls team has been led this season by juniors Kyleigh Wolf and Carys Glyn-Jones and sophomore Ainsley Sherlock, who is the only returner that ran at state last season. Junior Macy Eaton and freshmen Emma Lowther and Tristan Works likely will be joined by either junior Katie Frazier or sophomore Lana Wisler.
“I think we’ve all been working really hard, and the past few weeks, it’s just been paying off,” Glyn-Jones said.
“I think that we’ve put in a lot of work this season, and I feel like we are at our peak training level right now,” Wolf added. “We’re getting PRs, we’re getting faster times, and I think as a team collectively, we are progressing as a whole, and I think we have a good chance of placing top 10 at the state meet. I have belief in our skills and what we’ve been doing and the effort and training that we’ve put in, so I believe that top 10 is a good goal for our team to have.”
