COLUMBUS
When Connor Harriss finished his morning run with a glance at the clock Saturday at Ceraland in the Columbus North Regional, he fell to the ground in exhaustion and with pleasure.
The grass probably felt soothing, but his time of 16 minutes, 58 seconds for 5 kilometers felt better. Not only was the Seymour senior’s run a personal best, breaking the 17-minute threshold, but that gave the Owls a historic first.
For the first time, coach Randy Fife said , Seymour had five runners on the same team in a season (and in the same race, too) record times in the 16:00s. And that represented all five scorers who sent the team forward to semistate next Saturday at Brown County.
“It’s a great race for me,” Harriss said, “and that was the goal. All the training and it’s finally worth it. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.”
The sky was blue, the air was crisp, though the temperature was rapidly warming as the Owls toed the starting line in a race that pitted 86 finishers against one another who had survived sectional events to run again.
“The goal is to move on,” Fife said of the week-by-week winnowing process leading to the state championship race in Terre Haute on Oct. 31.
Seymour won the Brown County Sectional a week ago.
Although not everyone ran their fastest of the year, the Owls’ (71 points) top five ran swiftly enough to take third in the team competition, just behind Jennings County (67), though farther behind juggernaut host Columbus North (20), which placed its five scorers in the top seven.
Some 16 regional narrow to four semistates, and five teams and the next 10 individuals not on those teams will go on. A key to team success in cross-country is clustering five scorers close together with good times.
Columbus North clogged the standings with six runners in the top eight, including winner Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff in 15:21. But Seymour bunched five runners between 12th and 19th.
“Our pack gap was great,” Fife said.
The time spread between Ethan Dippold (16:44), Jude Bane (16:50) Michael Proffer (16:53), Brandon Kleber (16:55) and Harriss (16:58) was just 14 seconds.
Bane ran with some knee pain and was an iffy starter until he warmed up and Clay Greenawalt sat out with a minor injury but hopes to crack 17 minutes next week. The other Seymour runners were Sam Rockey (18:20) and Brycen Baugh (18:50).
“It was a good day,” Fife said. “Now, we need the pack to move up.”
Pleased to qualify to run again in the next round, the Owls benefited from the group finishing in close proximity but realize they must do the same thing next week, only faster.
“We did all finish as a team,” said Proffer, who liked hearing about the unprecedented quintet under 17 minutes. “It’s a new thing for Seymour. That means our case for going to state is so much greater.”
The Ceraland course on the outskirts of Columbus is mostly flat with some minor hills and is marked by a long, wide, fence-lined straightway that funnels the runners to the finish line.
Kleber said he does not like that feature of this route.
“The straightaway is just so long,” he said.
Still, it was lined with spectators cheering as the runners chugged to the finish line, a stretch Harriss did not mind at all as he steamed toward the end.
“I love his race,” Harriss said. “The straightaway, that motives me.”
That will not be an issue at semistate. The course shifts back to Brown County, where the sectional took place and earlier in the season, the Eagle Classic.
Kleber gave his approval to the next venue for fast times.
“I love Brown County,” he said.