PEKIN
Nathan Koch reached a goal and helped his Brownstown Central boys’ cross-country team finish fourth in the Mid-Southern Conference race Saturday.
By finishing fifth, he earned all-conference recognition.
Corydon Central edged favored Austin 51-57 for the title with Eastern third at 71 points and the Braves fourth with 101. Corydon swept team honors by winning the girls race with 18 points. Charlestown was second with 52, and Brownstown was sixth at 153.
Koch ran a 17:09 to place fifth, and just missed a personal best by one second for 5 kilometers.
“My goal was to be in the top five,” he said. “We did our research and I knew who I had to stick with. I beat that Austin boy in the last 200 meters. I’m happy about that.’
Koch said he likes to run up front.
“I like to run with the leaders,” he said. “It gives you confidence for the rest of the race. You’ve just got to stick with them when you’re with the front pack. Some people like it a little bit colder, but I think this is perfect weather.
“We had a great effort, a great team race. We had a couple people PR on this course, which is really hopeful for sectional next week.’
He said the work he did in the off-season paid off.
“I tried to put in a lot more miles this summer,” Koch said. “My dad (Coach Derrick Koch) and I didn’t agree with my times at the beginning of the season. They’re starting to drop so we’re starting to be a little bit happier.”
Coach Koch said he was pleased with the team’s results.
“Overall, we had some good times,” the older Koch said. “We had two (personal records) so I’m really happy to have a couple guys PR on this course. Almost every guy stepped up and was close to their PR time so we had a really good effort today.”
Brownstown’s second runner was Cameron Day, 19 at 18:49, and he was followed by Andrew Wheeles, 23 at 19:05, Bradley Edwards, 28 at 19:26, Waylon Lutes, 30 at 19:49, Treven Wellman, 35 at 20:17. And Aaron Fernandez, 43at 20:54.
Lutes and Day had PR’s, and Wheeles was two seconds off his PR.
“We got out well,” coach Koch said. “I told them to throw out the times. It doesn’t matter anymore about the times, it’s about racing now and where they are with everybody else. They did a good job of staying in the pack like they needed to today and raced well.”
The Brownstown teams will compete Saturday in the Brown County Sectional.
“I’m excited about the sectional because if we run as well as we did here today — at Eastern on a hard course- I’m pretty excited about the times we’re going to have,” the coach said.
Day and Wheeles earned all-MSC honorable mention.
Leading the Brownstown girls was Jazzlyn Yeadon, 22{sup}nd{/sup} at 24:12. She earned all-conference honorable mention.
“This course is pretty tough,” said coach Maria Conklin. “All the girls improved their times from the last time we ran this course. That is always a good thing.”
Karcn Trueblood, 39{sup}th{/sup} at 29:14, Camryn Thompson 43{sup}rd{/sup} at 31:10, Rehgan Stuckwisch 44{sup}th{/sup} at 35:04, and Brooklyn Isaacs 45{sup}th{/sup} at 36:59.
“The first mile was good for everybody,” Conklin said. “They looked pretty good through the second mile. The third mile we started to fade a little bit with the hill coming up on the back side. Overall they did pretty well.”
Tori Lokey, who had been the Braves. No. 2 runner, injured her foot a week ago and did not get to run.
Conklin said she is looking for more time drops at the sectional.
“Our goal is to have everybody run a PR there,” she said, “and hopefully we can advance an individual or two to the regional.”
Addison Applegate of Corydon was the individual winner in 20:26.