Seymour cross-country runner Kinsley Folsom made a declaration for Saturday’s Sectional championships at Brown County.
“I will get faster,” she said.
It is that championship season for fall sports and the runners can be one and done or go on for weeks with additional 5-kilometer races through Regional, Semi-State and State competitions.
The goal is to run until all of the leaves fall off the trees, although it is a gradual winnowing process. The top five teams in each class will advance Saturday, plus the top 10 individual runners not aligned with one of those teams.
Seymour’s boys should not have to run their best to move on, thinks coach Randy Fife. Seymour’s girls might have to do so, thinks coach Spencer Sunbury.
Brownstown Central boys and girls and Trinity Lutheran boys and girls are in the same Sectional. Crothersville boys and girls are at Austin.
“We’re continuing to head in the right direction,” Fife said of Owl runners who are regularly lowering their personal best times. “We’re looking to advance. We don’t need to extend our energy.”
Some boys among the core front-runners of Ethan Dippold, Jude Bane, Brandon Kleber, Michael Proffer, Connor Harriss and Clay Greenawalt could establish new fastest times, but Fife is not looking for that. If the Owls are going to be in high-caliber races week after week he hopes some caution is taken.
Dippold has run 16:17, but last week at the Hoosier Hills Conference meet was clocked in 16:55. He said he went out too fast the first mile and learned a lesson.
“Saturday was not very good,” he said. “I just fell apart. It was a different race than I usually do.”
Dippold still hopes to dip under 16 minutes this season and wants the team to keep advancing.
“The goal is to make state as a team,” he said. “We have a good chance.”
Bane, who received all-conference honors, Kleber and Proffer, have all been well under 17 minutes and Harriss and Greenawalt aspire to break that barrier.
“We’re pretty deep,” Dippold said.
Sunbury hopes the girls are deep enough. Folsom, the No. 1 runner, is irritated she has only once broken 20 minutes at 19:57.
“I want to get a 19:30 now,” Folsom said. “One of my goals is for the team to place in the top five.”
Hayley Harpe, Vivienne Stiefker, Grace Lewis, and Eliana Baker are in the mix, but is unlikely both Samantha Jacobi and Lillian Sunbury, who have been out with injuries, can go. One might provide reinforcements, Sunbury said, who felt some disappointment over conference times.
“We want to be top five,” he said, with some Owls improving times. “It will come down (to several schools) and be tight. We’re just looking to have a solid time on a fast course. I want everybody to be calm with no pressure on them.
“This is the second part of the season.”
Brownstown Central’s Nathan Koch, all-league in the Mid-Southern Conference last week, believes a breakthrough time in the 16:30s may await him Saturday.
“I”m in pretty good shape,” Koch said. “I do think I’m ready for that.”
Koch hopes the Braves boys can advance for the first time as a team since 2013 and that the Brown County course produces fast times.
“I like it,” he said. “It’s nice and flat.”