Every team from the Hoosier Hills Conference gathered at Freeman Field on Saturday morning for the boys and girls cross-country races.

The girls went to the start line first, and it was quite a performance from Floyd Central when they reached the finish line.

The Highlanders claimed the first four spots as they won the meet as a team with 17 points. Kaitlyn Stewart was the individual champion in 19:25.87.

Seymour’s Vivienne Siefker broke up Floyd’s chances of sweeping the top five spots as she came in fifth place in 20:02.31, earning all-conference for the Owls.

Places 8-14 were honorable mention, and Gracie Adams just missed that for Seymour, placing 16th in 21:29.93. Siefker and Adams helped lead the Owls to a second-place team finish with 72 points.

“I think I did really well,” Adams said. “I’m really proud of myself today. We’ve been working hard, doing speed workouts here.”

Columbus East was third, New Albany fourth, Jennings County fifth and Bedford North Lawrence sixth.

Although Adams wished she got HHC honorable mention, she was still happy with her performance. Especially with the Owls’ usual No. 2 runner, Kinsley Folsom, out due to illness, Adams wanted to step up.

“I felt really strong,” she said. “My goal for the day was to just keep up with Viv. Even though I didn’t finish right with her, I was still close enough.”

Adams is fresh off of recovering from some nagging shin splints earlier this season. She said she took some time off, which was hard on her not to train with the team, but it was helpful in getting healthy.

Now that she’s healthy, she’s excited for what the Owls can do with the postseason coming up.

Lyndsey Greenawalt was 18th for Seymour in 21:55.16, Kelly Beavers 20th in 22:00.50, AnnMarie Shuler 21st in 22:05.28, Grace Lewis 26th in 22:27.77 and Lauren Dowell 41st in 23:40.14.

“I feel like our freshmen are kicking it really hard and pushing it to the max,” Adams said. “They’ve been working so hard, and we have these older girls that they look up to. We are such a good group. We can pace with each other in practice and races. It helps us push each other.”

In the boys race, there was a new course record thanks to New Albany’s Aidan Lord, who won the race in 15:36.61. The previous course record at Freeman was 16:17.

Lord’s brother, Aaron, was second place in 15:48.39. Despite claiming the top two spots, the Bulldogs didn’t win as a team.

That also went to Floyd Central, which won with 31 points. New Albany was second, Jennings County third, Seymour fourth, BNL fifth and East sixth.

Jude Bane was HHC all-conference for the Owls with a seventh-place finish in 16:38.17. Bane wasn’t feeling the best before the race, and he felt like he could’ve had a better day on Saturday.

“He was a little disappointed in his finish today,” head coach Randy Fife said. “He probably feels like he should’ve gotten third today.”

But still, this is the third-straight year that Bane has been all-conference.

“All-conference is a pretty darn good accolade,” Fife said. “It’s his third year, so that’s very impressive.”

After Bane was Carter Murphy, who almost earned honorable mention with a 15th-place finish in 17:42.24. Sam Rockey was 16th in 17:49.69, Wes Proffer 21st in 18:13.70, Kylan Ellerbe 24th 18:16.16, Ty Tormoehlen 34th 18:51.55 and Micah Jablonski 36th 18:56.24.

“We had three PRs today and four season bests, so we’re making some progress,” Fife said. “What we didn’t get today was everybody making that jump. We had a couple guys that were a little bit off, but overall, we are making progress, and we are a much better team than we were earlier in the year.”

Behind Bane, there was a pack with Murphy, Proffer and Rockey that were with each other for most of the race.

Fife liked to see that, and he hopes with the postseason on the horizon, the Owls can add another runner to that group.

“Carter was going to lead the train,” Fife said. “He did a good job of leading them. Sam hung close, and Wes wasn’t that far off. We just need a fourth guy in that pack, and we’ll be good.”

Both the Seymour boys and girls teams will be competing in the Brown County Sectional this Saturday.