For boys and girls from the Seymour cross-country team, running doesn’t stop after the season.
Seven boys and two girls from the Owls’ squad recently ran at the Nike Cross Regional Midwest meet Nov. 16 at Indiana State University’s LaVern Gibson cross-country course in Terre Haute.
The competition showcased some of the most talented high school runners in the Midwest.
“It’s pretty much a race for anybody that wants to go,” Owl junior Cameron Deppen said. “All the states surrounding Indiana can run. Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and Michigan runners were all there.”
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To compete as a team, seven runners must take part in the race.
On the boys side, 640 runners compromised the field. The clubs were unaffiliated with their respective high schools.
The NXR started with girls open and boys open races, which were followed by the girls championship and boys championship face-offs.
The top-two clubs in each championship race and top-five individuals not on a qualifying club advance to Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon.
For middle school-aged and younger runners, the NXR held a 400-meter race.
The Seymour boys squad named themselves “The Flock” for the NXR. Team members were Keegan Bowman, Daniel Hauersperger, Deppen, Tim Molinari, Alex Lovins, Trent Hohenstreiter and Jacob Voss.
As a team, The Flock placed 31st with 897 points.
On top of that, Hauersperger (15th, 16:30) and Deppen (531st, 19:34) ran season-best times.
“We had one guy who mentioned it to our coach (Randy Fife), and coach said it would be fun,” Deppen said. “The first mile people were having fun and just talking. After that people got more serious.”
Seymour senior Madison Hayes and junior Megan Winter represented the Owls in the girls event.
Coming off their trip to the state meet, Winter wanted to help Hayes wrap up her career, so they ran together in the field in a relaxed atmosphere.
“We didn’t really train as hard the week before because we were tired from the long season,” Winter said. “We just wanted to run it for fun as our last race together, since she’s graduating.”
Winter said the NXR felt different from the state meet.
“It seemed like a bigger environment compared to state,” she said. “There were teams from out of state, so you’re not really familiar with the runners.”
During the offseason, Seymour cross-country assistant coach Mark Hays runs workouts under a club called Higher, Further, Faster.
“There is no set number of people, he just encourages a lot of us to come to the winter training,” Winter said. “He helps us with speed and things like that.”
This is the first year Seymour has been represented as a team at NXR. A few years back, a single girls runner made the trip to Terre Haute.
“I talked to our coach (Spencer Sunbury) and told him I think it’s something we need to adopt as a team at the end of our season,” Winter said. “It’s something fun to end our season. It’s kind of relaxed, and we can go into it not stressed out.”
All of the runners traveled together and stayed at a Holiday Inn the Saturday before the race.
“We went up the night before because they have an ice cream social and they gave out packets,” Winter said. “We got to go to the Holiday Inn and meet some people.”
One of the people at the social was U.S. Olympian {span id=”intelliTXT”}Chris {span id=”intelliTXT”}Derrick, who holds the fastest 5K time in high school history (13:55).{/span}{/span}
“(Derrick) asked Madison and I what the plan was for tomorrow, and we both kinda just said ‘running,’” Winter joked.
Hays finished in 99th place with a time of 20:54, and Winter ran a time of 21:14 for 129th place. There were 353 girls in the open race.
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Boys open
Daniel Hauersperger (15th place, 16:30), Tim Molinari (230th place, 17:46), Jacob Voss (282nd place, 17:56), Trent Hohenstreiter (427th, 18:39), Alex Lovins (452nd, 18:49), Keegan Bowman (457th place, 18:51), Cameron Deppen (531st place, 19:34)
Girls open
Madison Hays (99th place, 20:54), Megan Winter (129th place, 21:14)
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