SHELBYVILLE — In a precursor to the postseason, Pendleton Heights cross country teams combined for four all-conference runners at the Hoosier Heritage Conference meet Saturday at Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville.
As a team, the boys placed third of eight teams, and the girls finished fifth.
It was the final meet before the Indiana High School Athletic Association sectional, which will take place at Pendleton Heights beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday.
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“We did all right,” Pendleton Heights girls coach Melissa Hagerman said. “It wasn’t our best. We had one girl out that’s in our top five; that hurt. We were hoping for third or fourth. That definitely hurt not having her.”
Katie Jones was Pendleton Heights’ lone All-HHC runner in the girls race. She was an all-conference runner last season, too. She placed 11th with a time of 20:24.
The girls were just four points out of fourth place. The Arabians scored 121 points. Yorktown was fourth with 117. New Palestine won the event for the third straight year, scoring 43 points. Mt. Vernon was second with 74, and Delta had 87.
“We ran tired today, and we need to work on that,” Hagerman said. “We need to spend some time this week taking care of ourselves. We ran about the times that we’ve ran all season. I’d like to see us a little faster at this point.”
Hagerman said Katherine Dudley, who missed Saturday’s conference race and is among the team’s top five runners, is expected to return for this week’s sectional.
For the boys, Andrew Blake, Kyle Drinkut and Will Coggins all earned all-conference honors.
Blake, a sophomore, placed fifth overall with a time of 17:00 for the 5K run. Senior Drinkut was 12th with a time of 17:19. Coggins, a freshman, took the final all-conference spot, placing 15th in 17:22.
The boys scored 84 points, following first-place Mt. Vernon with 27 and runner-up Greenfield-Central with 46.
Other finishers for the boys team included Sean Roan (21, 17:42), Taylor Skalon (31, 18:21), Gabriel Holland (35, 18:28) and Andrew Alderman (36, 18:31).
Following Jones in the girls race for the Arabians were, Berkeley Lord (22, 21:02), Laney Ricker (24, 21:06), Olivia Welpott (29, 22:17), Hailee Brunnemer (35, 22:44), Ella Dixon (38, 23:04) and Abby Davidson (47, 24:18).
At Saturday’s sectional, the top five teams and top 10 individuals from non-advancing teams qualify for the regional.
Other teams at the Pendleton Heights sectional include, Alexandria, Anderson, Anderson Preparatory Academy, Blue River Valley, Elwood, Fishers, Frankton, Hamilton Southeastern, Lapel, Liberty Christian and Shenandoah.
The regional is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Oct. 17 at Delta High School in Muncie.