Seymour’s Vivienne Siefker and Brownstown Central’s Shane Ratliff took the lead early in their respective races from the start to place first in the Seymour cross country invitational at Freeman Field on Thursday afternoon.

Siefker won the girls race for the second straight year with a time of 20:44.59. Three of her teammates finished in the top six to help the Owls win the meet with 31 points. Jennings County was second with 44, Bedford North Lawrence had 60 points, Brownstown Central 89 and Clarksville 144.

This was the opening meet of the season for Seymour, while Brownstown ran at Borden last Saturday.

“I did win it last year but on two different courses, though,” Siefker said. “School officials changed the course from last year.”

She said both Seymour layouts are easier than some of the other courses she runs on.

“This one is different. I still hadn’t run all the way through, so I was trying to figure out my footing at the start, so it was a little rough, but once I started settling in, it was good,” she said.

She said her start could have been better.

“I feel like I ran a little too comfortably than what I wanted to run, but it was good for my first race,” Siefker said.

Coach Spencer Sunbury said the girls gave a good team effort.

“I think Vivienne is ready this year, and we’ve just got to get her faster and faster as the season moves on,” he said. “I’m happy for the girls. We spent a lot of time this summer. They racked up a lot of miles. The thing I’m proudest of is they came out relaxed and confident and just ran the way they can run. They didn’t worry about silly things and had a fun day.

“We haven’t gotten into anything big. We’ve been kind of patient,” he said. “We’re getting close to where we’re really going to start working at it. The biggest thing is we’re going to be working on them pushing through a race believing in themselves. I tell them every day before we start to race that it’s going to hurt, and they’ve got to accept that and know it’s coming and be ready to push through it.”

Second for the Owls was Kelly Beavers, third at 22:16.20, followed by Gracie Adams fifth at 22.33.42, AnnMarie Shuler sixth at 22:37.11, Lauren Dowell 17th at 23:49.86, Alexis Stuckwisch 23rd at 25:48.96 and Lucy Williams 26th at 27:38.24.

Cambell Shasteen led the Brownstown girls by placing seventh at 22:43.02, Kelsey Schneider was 10th at 22:47.43, Tori Lokey was 15th at 26:36.06, Maddie Singleton was 29th at 28:24.12, Chelsie Combs 30th at 28:41.01, Claire Schepman 31st at 28:41.19 and Roz Abell 36th at 30:04.97.

Coach Derrick Koch said, “We had a really good workout this week where we were trying to improve on our leg speed. I was really pleased with how the girls came out and the effort they put in. I told them I expected a little bit more out of them today, and they showed it.

“Most of them had big time drops. We had two that went out hard tonight, Cambell and Kelsey, and I was really happy to see that,” he said. “They were working together up front. I did not expect that. It was a great thing to see.”

Boys

The Seymour boys ran in a pack, finishing 7-8-9 to score 41 points to 47 for Brownstown Central. BNL was third with 55, Jeffersonville had 112, Bloomington Lighthouse 125 and Clarksville 144.

In the Borden race, Chance Ratliff was first and Shane was second.

Shane said he and Chance would probably be going back-and-forth all season.

Shane ran 17:02.71.

“I was about 20 seconds slower than last week,” he said. “I had a really good race at Borden. The goal was for me and my brother to get out really hard and run a good, hard first mile and kind of settle in a little bit after the first mile, which I think we did. The last mile was a little tough with the sharp 180-degree turn, and running on the gravel felt different than the grass. I was slipping a little bit on the gravel going around the turns. It was hard for me to get my speed going again.

“As soon as I got off the gravel, I started to run harder,” he said. “Due to the changing of the course, the athletes were able to run down a little hill instead of running up. That was nice. I picked up some slack going down the hill.”

Braves coach Bailey McIntire said it was good to have the twins placing first and second.

“It’s always great to see them go back-and-forth. It’s always fun to egg them on a little bit to give them that twin rivalry. We’ve just got to close that gap,” he said.

“Seymour and BNL, you watch their guys and they’re tight. We’ve got a good 1-2. We just need that 3-4-5 punch,” he said. “I think it’s there. They’re a young group of guys, and trying to get them up there is going to be a challenge, but I know they’re ready for it. Some of those guys had a minute to a minute and a half PR.”

Placing third for the Brownstown boys was Eli Crockett 12th at 19.23.63, followed by Traven Wellman 14th at 19:35.92, Damien Owens 18th at 20:03.30, Garrett Driver 24th at 20:41.79 and Brady Blann 45th at 24:30.44.

The Jablonski brothers filled the top two places for the Seymour boys with Micah placing fourth overall at 18:13.86 and Caleb was seventh at 18:50.78. He was followed by teammates Wes Proffer, eighth at 18:58:78, and Ty Tormoehlen, ninth at 18:59:39.

Kylan Ellerbe was 13th at 19:31.7, Will Proffer was 15th at 19:42.82 and JJ Myers was 19th at 20:04.45.

Owls coach Randy Fife said, “What I did like, especially early on, was our pack running. We had guys packed up, working with each other, getting energy from each other, not getting separated, and I think that helped us get off to a strong start. We gave away a few positions in the last half of the race, but we started strong enough that we were able to hang on and we put six guys in under 20 minutes.”

Finishing first as a team was the goal, and the Owls did that, he said.

“I think we’ll have some shuffling around, and I think competition is good,” Fife said. “I think as we face Brownstown and Bedford again, I always see having some close scores.”