Receiving special honors at the Seymour boys’ cross country awards program were, from left, Caleb Jablonski, Ty Tormoehlen, Lucas Jablonski, Sam Baker and Micah Jablonski.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Seymour junior Ty Tormoehlen missed part of the recently completed cross country season due to an injury but returned from being injured to finish the season strong.
For his efforts, Tormoehlen was named Mr. Cross Country during the team’s awards program held Monday night at the high school.
There were 17 boys on the team this fall, and coach Randy Fife said there were four new runners on the team who weren’t freshmen. Tormoehlen was Seymour’s No. 1 runner in the regional with a time of 17:53.
“He had a really good freshman season. Then his sophomore season was not so good,” Fife said. “He had surgery last May. He missed all season and wasn’t able to run. He came out, we had to start him slow with hardly any training.”
Fife said Tormoehlen’s determination to continue working exemplifies what the award is about.
“It would have been easy for him to say he didn’t want to do it,” he said. “Instead, he worked his way up to the last meet of the season being our No. 1 runner. To me, that is Mr. Cross Country.”
Caleb Jablonski received the newcomer award.
“Caleb made a pretty big impact as a freshman,” Fife said. “He got into our top group and was very competitive for us, always very good in the workouts for us. He was one of our most consistent runners.”
Sophomore Micah Jablonski was named the most outstanding runner.
“He went five straight meets under 18 (minutes), and he was our No. 1 runner in six of our eight meets,” Fife said.
The leadership award went to senior Lucas Jablonski.
“I don’t name captains,” Fife said. “We just kind of see what bubbles up, and it has worked out well that way. We sit back and see who develops that leadership, and this year, it was no surprise. Lucas stepped up and took control of things in practice and in meets for us.”
Sam Baker, a senior who ran cross country for the first time, received the coaches award.
“He kind of embraced the whole cross country thing even though he hadn’t done it before,” Fife said. “He helped Lucas with leadership.”
Baker and Lucas Jablonski were named academic all-state.
Fife said he was pleased with the progress the Owls made this fall.
“We had a pretty good year,” he said. “It just didn’t feel like it in the middle of it sometimes. We compared how we did with our schedule, and it really was a pretty good year. It took me awhile to connect with this group for whatever reason.
“Some groups, I get to know quickly. I feel by the end, I had a better connection. This season, we had at least one runner each meet all year run a personal best. As coaches, that is what we’re always looking for.”
The Owls began their season by winning the Seymour Invitational. Fife said the Owls followed that meet up with a couple of big meets and were 11th at Franklin and 13th at Brown County.
Seymour was then second at Jennings County, seventh at Bedford North Lawrence, third in the Hoosier Hills Conference and fifth in the sectional that qualified them for the Evansville Regional.
“We got to where we wanted to be, to the regional meet at Evansville,” Fife said, and mentioned at the conference and Jennings County meet, Seymour didn’t have any runners that finished high enough to receive a ribbon, so it took strong team efforts to place as high as they did.
“We had six or seven runners that could run hard and place. It felt good to get second (at Jennings) and nobody got an individual ribbon,” he said.