Receiving individual awards at the Seymour girls cross-country banquet was, front from left, Grace Lewis, Hayley Harpe, Lillian Sunbury, Eliana Baker, Kinsley Folsom and Vivienne Siefker; back row is Emma Braman, Samantha Jacobi, Emilee East and Audrey Newkirk.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
The Seymour girls cross-country team gathered in the school cafeteria on Thursday night to celebrate its fall season.
The Owls advanced to the semistate meet as a team and were two spots short of qualifying for the state meet.
Head coach Spencer Sunbury opened by thanking the athletes, coaches and families for everything they gave to the program this past season. He reiterated a couple points he read from an article making the case for why cross-country is the best sport, much of it dealing with the pride and buy-in the runners build up during the course of a season.
“When coach (Randy) Fife and I took over in the same year, that was one thing we both talked about was changing the culture and getting kids to buy in,” Sunbury said. “Both of us feel that our programs have grown immensely over the years number wise and how we finish year in and year out. I think it’s because you guys buy into it.”
Sunbury then turned his attention to recognizing the girls.
He gave the newcomer award to Audrey Newkirk, who finished with the seventh-fastest time on the team this season. Emma Braman earned a spirit of the Owl award for the grit and dedication she put on display this season.
Grace Lewis earned the most improved award, and a lot of that came in the final two races of the season. Lewis ran a minute PR at regionals, and then followed that up with running 30 seconds faster at the semistate in a time of 21:56.
The most valuable runner award went to Vivienne Siefker, who was the number one runner for the Owls all season long except for one race. Siefker’s PR was 19:22, and she was just a couple spots shy of qualifying for the state meet as an individual at the semisate.
“She kept kept dropping time, getting faster and faster and running smarter races,” Sunbury said of Siefker. “She had a great season.”
Siefker also earned all-conference for the Owls, and Kinsley Folsom and Samantha Jacobi earned all-conference honorable mention.
Jacobi and Eliana Baker both earned academic all-state, an impressive award commemorating not only their work out on the course but also in the classroom.
Sunbury then gave all his seniors — Baker, Jacobi, Hayley Harpe, Emilee East and Lillian Sunbury — awards as well. The Owls didn’t have any seniors last season, so this was a nice change of pace.
East and Baker received the coaches award, and Jacobi, Harpe and Sunbury all got spirit of the Owl awards.
The five seniors played a vital role in getting Seymour to the level they were able to reach this season.
“They decided this season was going to be different,” Sunbury said. “They were gonna get these girls together and have the season they wanted to have.”
The Owls hope to have all these athletes help out in track this spring and for the non-seniors to return next fall and have another solid season.