The Brownstown Central and Crothersville cross country teams will get a jump on the other county schools when they open their seasons on Saturday.

The Brownstown runners will compete in the Warpath Invitational at Borden, and Crothersville will run in the South Dearborn Invitational (held at Moores Hill). The first race at Borden is at 9:30 a.m. and the first race at Dearborn will start at 10 a.m.

Bailey McIntire returns for his second season coaching the Brownstown boys, while Kylee Wischmeier is beginning her first season coaching the Lady Braves. Bryant Layman returns for his second season coaching the Crothersville boys. Crothersville will not have any girls this fall.

Senior twins Chance and Shane Ratliff head up the Brownstown boys, while Trinity Cody returns as the No. 1 runner for the Lady Braves.

The Ratliff twins advanced to the state finals at Terre Haute last fall. They ran track in the spring and ran throughout the summer.

Shane said he has a high goal for Borden on Saturday.

“I feel like I’m in really good shape. I haven’t got to test how good a shape I’m in. We’ve had a few really good workouts. I feel really strong so I’m excited for this weekend. Corydon will be at Borden. They are in our conference, and they are the team to beat for sure.

“My goal is to win as many meets as I can. I want to get the school record at Borden this weekend. The record is 15:52. I haven’t broken 16 minutes yet, but I believe I’m in shape to do it. We haven’t done a whole lot of speed yet, but I do think my speed is there.

“I need to work on more endurance, more speed, just really being consistent. Borden is a really good course. It was really wet there last year. We got hit by a rainstorm right before the race and there was a little bit of a delay. We warmed up, and then we had to sit on the bus and wait for the rain to pass.”

Shane said he began training with a running club in Seymour in third grade and ran in sixth grade at Brownstown Central Middle School.

McIntire said the Ratliff twins “are firing on all cylinders and they’re real excited. It’s great to have those two here because they have really motivated the rest of the group. They all want to ride that train with them. It’s really good for a coach to have guys like that around.”

Other returning lettermen are junior Damien Owens and sophomore Eli Crockett and rounding out the team are three freshmen.

“I think our top five is pretty solid,” McIntire said. “The big thing is that our 3-4-5 all train together and run together so our hope is that they all kind of work off each-other, and our 6 and 7 are freshmen as well so they’re all learning.

“The big thing is to get that 1-to-5 gap down. The smaller that gap can be, the better we’re going to perform as a team. Having a good 1-2 helps, but if your No. 5 isn’t good then you’re going to struggle as a team no matter how good of a first runner you have.

“I would say this was the most consistent summer we’ve had. Everybody was there (training) as much as they could. The freshmen learned as they went. By the end of July, they were showing up every day.”

McIntire is looking for improvement throughout the season.

“We always say here ‘we’re looking to get one percent better every day.’ We’re not going to every meet trying to hit home runs. We’re just trying to get hits and move from there, and we’re learning every meet, every day.

“We worked a lot on that last year, and I feel have a good base there. During track season we were building, and one season builds on the next. We got 17th at the regionals last year with the new set up. We want to keep moving up.”

Seniors on the girls’ roster are Chelsie Combs, Paisleigh Peters and Clair Combs.

“I’m looking for senior leadership out of them” Wischmeier said.

This will be Schepman’s fourth year running at BCHS. She said she ran track in middle school but has concentrated on cross country in high school.

“I love my teammates,” she said. “We have a really great, supportive group of girls, and we all work really hard. I’ve been impressed that we got to go to regionals for a few years.”

Schepman said she split her time between running sixth or seventh for the Braves last fall and she wants to move up this season.

“I think it’s going to take some personal records on my part, and a lot of hard work at practice. More than anything I’m happy to enjoy my senior year with the team. I really do like distance running.

“At Borden we want to get the first race jitters out of the way. Hydration is really important. It’s definitely hot out here, but as the season progresses into September its nice weather.”

Cody ranks sixth on the Lady Braves career top 20 with a time of 20:59.

“I’m excited,” Wischmeier said. “I think all of our girls have been working hard. There is going to be a lot of competition within the team as well. It’s great that they are able to push each other.

“We have some good sophomore and freshmen runners as well. We’re well-rounded so I’m excited to see what the future holds for us. Obviously, I would like to see some of the girls hit PRs, push themselves, and as a team I would like to see us advance to regionals. That is my goal for my first year of coaching.”

Layman is working with one of the biggest squads that Crothersville has had in recent years with 11 runners.

He said two of his senior lettered athletes, Dirk Crater, and Corey Reynolds, are injured and will not run Saturday. The other senior is varsity athlete Beau Napier.

Layman said junior Kaleb Moeller and sophomores Koby Davis and Braydon Heath are returning veterans.

“Koby will be our front-runner right now until Crater comes back,” Layman said. “Koby and Beau, both made it to regionals last year. We got a great edition with Cole Blevins, an incoming freshman. He was our No. 1 kid (in middle school). He’s a tough freshman. “We’ve got another pretty tough freshman, Braxton Riley. Pack-wise, we’re tough from 3-to-7. We’ve got other guys working hard and trying to get in that mix.”

Layman looks for steady improvement.

“Those guys will move up; they will get stronger and more in shape. We’re dealing with some injuries. We’ve done some other stuff this summer to get their bodies ready. We put a bunch of miles on, so we’ve got to be a little bit cleverer.

“Last year we started out at a 23-minute average and got down to the high 17s low 18s by the end of the year. I think we can mimic the same this year just with a tighter pack for one. Last year our fifth guy was in the 21.s. This year our fifth guy should be in that low 18s high 17s.”

“This is a fun team. We just have fun. They enjoy being around one another and just getting better. Our schedule is tough. The Trinity Invite in Louisville is huge. The Columbus North Invite is huge. The small school invite (at Southwestern Shelby Aug. 24) is huge. We do want to get ready for the post-season instead of feeling we’re on the back of our heels.”

Crothersville will host the Carl Bowman Memorial Invitational on Sept. 3. Bowman is a former CHS cross country and track coach.