Warriors cross country runners extend season to Effingham Sectional
By Lenny Sementi
It was a dismal day to say the least, but first year cross country coach Mike Rosenbaum crew advanced seven runners in all out of their own regional on a muddy three mile course at Wimple Park last Saturday, October 26. The new leader of the tribes girls team moved on intact while Mason Day secured an individual invite to the Effingham Sectional this Saturday as the boys ended their season as a team falling a mere six points and one spot short of advancement.
Brynn Tabeling led the seventh place Lady Warriors against some of the top teams in the state taking thirty-eighth place overall out of nearly one hundred runners entering the chute in twenty-one minutes and forty-two seconds. Senior Faithlyn Daugherty was next up in the two-hole for the black and gold taking forty-second crossing in twenty-three minutes and forty-six seconds. Freshman Makenzie Herschberger was in line two spots back, in forty-fourth place with a time of twenty-three minutes and forty-six seconds, while Hannah Hornaday and Hannah Lemay rounded out the scoring both finishing in the top fifty. Hornaday turned in a rain soaked at twenty-four minutes and thirty-one seconds and Lemay ended her day in twenty-five minutes and twelve seconds. Kenzi Heckler served as the alternate.
Day tangled with some of the top runners in the state in a race that was ran in a steady rain the entire time. He sloshed his way thru the mud in seventeen minutes and fifty-one seconds, capturing the top spot of individuals advancing to the Sectional. His teammates grinded their way to an eighth place finish behind big effort form Nick Woods and Riley Nolan. Woods was the Warriors number two posting a time of nineteen minutes and seventeen seconds to take forty-eighth, edging Nolan at the line by by one spot and two ticks of the clock.
Senior River Kanitz wasn’t far off their pace turning in nineteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds capturing fifty-third place. The Warriors number two most of the year, Logan Wallace in his first race back from injury gutted out at nineteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds and taking fifty-fourth place to end the scoring. Wallace was not at full strength impressing all the Warrior faithful running with an injury on the slippery track. Zach Mattingly and Tanner Campbell ran their final race of the season as alternates.
