By Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Seymour’s Vivienne Siefker is used to going out slow and working her way to a faster pace during cross-country races.
But on Saturday during the Brown County Eagle Classic with Siefker and the Owls competing in the girls elite race, she knew she had to go out fast to get off to a good start.
“We had a lot of competition,” Siefker said. “It was really good to see everybody. It helps with time and placing.”
Siefker finished 29th overall and ran a PR for her career with a 19:22.6.
“For these bigger races I wanted to get out faster,” she said. “I felt good.”
Behind Siefker was Hayley Harpe with a time of 20:13.1, and she was followed by Samantha Jacobi (20:33.9) and Kinsley Folsom (20:36.4).
Head coach Spencer Sunbury said there were a lot of PR’s across his team on Saturday.
“We were hoping to run fast today, we should’ve ran fast today,” Sunbury said. “They’re always excited to come here because everyone seems to PR here and it’s a great course to run on.”
Saturday was also an opportunity for Seymour to see where it matches up with the teams they will need to beat in the semistate meet in order to get to state.
“It gives us a good look at how we matchup,” Sunbury said. “We can really check our progress as we go along, plus it’ll give them a little fire moving forward.”
For the Seymour boys, they didn’t compete in the elite race as a team, but the Owls sent two boys to compete in it since they met a time requirement, and that was Jude Bane and Michael Proffer.
Bane ran a 16:29 and Proffer ran a 16:50.1
“They benefited from a crowded field up front,” head coach Randy Fife said. “They’re always people to go catch. I think this is a good warmup for the semistate, which is here in October.”
Fife had the rest of his team run in the boys freshman/sophomore race and the boys varsity race.
The Owls are currently looking for some consistency behind Bane and Proffer for the remainder of the season.
“We have to develop some depth,” Fife said. “Our Achilles heel is our depth. We’re pretty young right now. We’re really missing that three, four, five runner right now, but they’re young, so they’re gonna improve.”
The Brownstown Central boys and girls team were also competing in Saturday’s festivities.
Traven Wellman was the lead Brave during the boys varsity race, finishing 34th overall with a time of 18:29.9.
Dylan Wischmeier (19:07.5), Cameron Day (19:19.3) and Bradley Edwards (19:50.6) were the three behind Wellman.
“They were excited,” Braves coach Maria Conklin said. “I know some of the courses we run on are pretty tough, but I told them this was a fast course. We trained pretty hard this week.”
On the girls side, Paige McKain ran a PR and placed 12th overall with a time of 21:26.2.
“She’s excited,” Conklin said. “She’s gonna keep dropping time. Her ultimate goal is semistate, so we gotta keep pushing and keep training for that.”
The Braves are going to continue to practice hard in the coming weeks before tapering off toward postseason time.
“I’m excited,” Conklin said. “We’re dropping times.”
Seymour and Brownstown will both be competing again on Saturday in the Jennings County Invite at 9:30 a.m.