NASHVILLE
Dodging body checks and pointy elbows, Kaylyn Holman wondered if she had run into the wrong sporting event, especially after a competitor gave her a shoulder slam on the trail.
“They were playing dirty today,” said the Crothersville junior of the horde of runners unleashed at semi-state cross-country championships at Eagle Park last Saturday. “It’s a non-contact sport.”
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Holman was the only area runner — boy or girl — to emerge from the mob scene to qualify for state Saturday in Terre Haute,, though not the only one who said the densely populated semi-state races were rougher than usually faced in a 5-kilometer event.
“I really didn’t think I was going to make it,” said Holman, who placed 24th overall in 19 minutes, 26 seconds.
Among the 178 finishers, six teams and 10 individuals not aligned with those teams, moved on. Holman qualified in that manner on a day that dawned cold and gray, but progressed to mild and mostly sunny.
Seymour’s boys and girls teams advanced out of regionals, but did not make it this time, although the boys barely missed. The Owls boys placed seventh. The girls were 14th.
“Seventh, that’s always the tough spot to get,” said boys coach Randy Fife as his team came to close to qualifying for state for the first time since 2011. “It hurts a little bit. I know we gave everything we had today.”
Some slick footing from the week’s rains, coupled with jostling for position at the start and on corners, made for some unexpected pushing. The fields were bunched and every second counted in the standings.
“That’s what the chips were for,” said Seymour senior Connor Harris of the crowds at the finish-line in groups being sorted electronically.
Columbus North handily won the boys race, which with 179 finishers, had almost an identical number of bodies as the girls race. Floyd Central was second with 109, then came Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Jasper and Northview. Seymour was 29 points behind Northview.
Not even Ethan Dippold, who with a 16:20 was barely off his personal best, qualified individually. The other Seymour runners were Michael Proffer in 16:52, Brandon Kleber in 16:54, Jude Bane in 16:55, Harriss in 17:10, Clay Greenawalt in 17:27 and Sam Rockey in 17:40.
Marshall Camden of Corydon Central won in 15:30.
“I wanted to be a little faster,” said Bane, a sophomore. “It was such a big race.”
Bane said at times he placed a step and sunk into mulch instead of springing forward.
“It’s definitely been a good season, but we hoped to move forward another week,” he said.
Proffer, a junior, had his blond hair braided by girls team members Samantha Jacobi and Lillian Sunbury. It was a Samson-like thing, for strength, or to make him more aerodynamic like a swimmer.
“They made me do it,” Proffer said. Afterwards, he said, “It didn’t help me as much as I hoped it would.”
Kleber and Dippold, both seniors, have not made selection destinations, but plan to continue running in college. Their strategy Saturday was to run more to the outside of packs to avoid shoving.
“It’s always packed at semi-state,” Kleber said. “Being seventh, and six go on, I’ll remember that.”
The Seymour girls did not expect to be in the mix for advancing.
“They ran hard,” said coach Spencer Sunbury. “They’re a little bit disappointed in how they ran. It’s sad that we’re done for the season.”
Sunbury felt this team with no seniors improved steadily all season.
“They’re all back,” he said.
Saturday, Kinsley Folsom ran 19:43, the Owls’ top finisher in 34th. Vivienne Siefker ran 20:22, Hayley Harpe 20:40, Jacobi 22:34, Grace Lewis 23:11, Eliana Baker 24:33, and Emilee East 26:32.
Harpe, who never competed at a running event longer than 400 meters before this season, was content with her season.
“It was kind of an off day,” she said. “It was just hard.”
Siefker, a freshman, said she was intimidated by the sheer size of the field, got off slowly and never felt right.
“It started weird,” she said. “I wasn’t ready for the gun. I never do really that good in bigger races.”
Folsom continued her recent habit of wearing knee-high pink socks, saying she stuck with the wardrobe affectation so her mother could pick her out of packs of runners.
“It was like sprinting to get to the front,” Folsom said of the mass start across an open field and said she got mulch stuck inside her shoes. “I used the outside to my advantage.”
Nathan Koch of Brownstown Central, was the only runner from his school at semi-state. He was a slower-than-usual 17:41 and did not advance. Neither did Crothersville senior David Rose, who ran 16:57, and Tiger freshman Elijah Plasse, whose time was 17:22.
Rose had hoped for better. Plasse was pleased getting this far.
“It’s the biggest one (race) I’ve been in,” Plasse said. “I got kind of stuck behind people. It was insane. It was a good experience.”
The last one standing, or still running, is Holman, who reached state as a freshman, too, and has a personal best of 19:05 this season. Holman said she was worried “big-time” about not qualifying for state, but doesn’t think the Terre Haute course, with a gigantic hill, will be personal-record friendly.
“No, no, no,” she said. “That is a really tough course. I will definitely try.”