Staff Reports
It was a grand slam for the Seymour boys and girls cross-country teams Tuesday afternoon with the Owls capturing both team titles and individual crowns at the 5-kilometer Dragon Invitational hosted by Silver Creek.
Senior Ethan Dippold won the boys race but came within a step of falling to second place, and Kinsley Folsom took the girls title while breaking a time barrier for the season.
Folsom, a sophomore, won a race for the first time in her high school career.
She only took the lead in the last quarter-mile or so after back-and-forth, front-runner leading. Folsom finished in 19 minutes, 57 seconds, which was 23 seconds ahead of Borden’s Kalie Magallanes.
“I was being very patient,” Folsom said. “We had a back-and-forth going on. When I passed her the last time, I heard her sigh, and I just kind of knew she was done. I gained a big gap on her. A lot of strategy went on the whole race.”
That is Folsom’s fastest time of the season, but her personal best of 19:40 came last year.
The boys race ended in a dramatic manner.
“We ran our top eight as a pack to the first mile, then let everyone race from there,” boys coach Randy Fife said.
Dippold built a good lead but was nearly nabbed from behind as he crossed the finish line in 16 minutes, 34 seconds, one of his top times of the season. Gavin Just of Borden was given the same finishing time for second.
“Ethan caught everyone and had a lead, but someone snuck up on him at the end,” Fife said.
Seymour’s team total of 30 points relegated Borden to second with 55.
The Owls took places 1-4-7-8-10 for their scoring. Brandon Kleber followed Dippold in 16:56 with Jude Bane (17:18), Michael Proffer (17:25) and Connor Harriss (17:33) rounding out the top five.
Clay Greenawalt took 14th in 17:53, and Brycen Baugh was 32nd in 19:18.
The girls team score of 48 was good enough to hold off Borden, as well, second with 60 points.
Folsom has been flirting with the 20-minute mark for weeks, finishing at 20:01 in at the Ray Gerkin Invitational at Jennings County last weekend.
“That made me so mad,” she said.
Hayley Harpe was fourth overall in 21:29, inches ahead of fifth-place teammate Vivienne Siefker in the same time. Lillian Sunbury was the fourth scorer for the team in 13th at 22:26, and the fifth scorer was Grace Lewis in 25th at 23:35.