For The Tribune

NASHVILLE

Ashton Chase knew from the beginning of the season that she had a pretty good chance of making it to the Girls Cross Country State Finals.

Kaylyn Holman wasn’t so sure.

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Saturday morning, the Jackson County duo punched their tickets to Saturday’s state meet in Terre Haute. They qualified as individuals from the Brown County Semistate.

Holman, a freshman, finished 15th in a personal-best 19 minutes, 14.9 seconds for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) to become Crothersville’s first state qualifier.

“I’m really amazed,” Holman said. “It’s outstanding to be able to go to state as a freshman. As the beginning of the season, I probably wouldn’t have thought that I’d have made it to state. (Today), I had great confidence, and I was pretty sure that I would make it out.”

Chase was hoping to make it with her Seymour team for the third consecutive year, but she had to settle for qualifying as an individual. The senior finished fifth in 18:55.5.

“I felt pretty good,” Chase said. “I stuck with some of the girls that I knew I could stay with and paced with them and finished strong. My goal was to get in the 18s again, so it felt good to get that time again.”

Chase had won the Brown County Regional a week earlier. Her time Saturday was just 8 seconds slower than she ran in more ideal weather and less crowded conditions at regional.

“Ashton came out, and it was just another day of just proving herself and showing that she does have it and that she’s ready to go race,” Seymour girls coach Spencer Sunbury said. “It was exciting to watch her race today.”

The Owls finished 14th as a team with 378 points. The top six, led by champion Bloomington North, qualified for state.

Seymour’s Grace Rennekamp finished 89th in 21:02.7. Brett Kleber and Samantha Jacobi took 137th and 138th in 22:13.6 and 22:13.9, while Elizabeth Hougland was 145th (22:27.6), Lara Skaggs 157th (22:59.4) and Emilee East 167th (24:05.6).

“Time-wise and place-wise wasn’t as good as last week, but the effort and the way they ran today was just as impressive,” Sunbury said. “I think we peaked last weekend, and that’s what we were shooting for. To ride out this run as long as we have for some of these girls is impressive. They came in with a great attitude, and they were ready to put it all out there and they raced hard. They’re happy with what they did, and I’m happy with them, so it was a good day.”

Crothersville’s other competing individual, Grace Wilson, finished 80th in 20:57.2. Brownstown Central’s Kaelyn Johnson was 104th in 21:26.9.

Meanwhile, Seymour finished 20th as a team, and Trinity Lutheran’s A.J. Goecker took 61st individually in the boys race. Goecker ran 19:09.7.

Brandon Kleber led the Owls with a 103rd-place finish in 17:42.6. Michael Proffer took 141st in 18:13.4, while Luke Bane was 151st (18:22.2), Luke Hauersperger 158th (18:33.2), Connor Harriss 166th (18:49.0), Ethan Dippold 172nd (19:33.7) and Michael Hodge 178th (20:11.8).

“We were hoping to do a little bit better,” Seymour boys coach Randy Fife said. “The kids ran hard today, but weren’t ready to compete in that kind of competition. Everybody was probably 10 to 12 seconds off of last week. It’s awfully crowded, so it’s tough to run as fast as we did last week.”