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September 18, 2012

Vikings win South Knox XC Invite

By Gregg A. Sims Washington Times-Herald

VINCENNES — The Barr-Reeve boys cross country team has been following a pattern of training with less concern for  positions and more on preparation.

That all changed Saturday at South Knox.

Connor Sorrells (15:35) eclipsed the South Knox course record, set by Anthony Witt of Shakamak five season ago, by finishing first and Damon Pruett (15:54) was one-second off the mark to lead the Vikings to a team win in the 25-team field.

He took the leashes off his team in the annual event that previews the South Knox Sectional with plenty of additional talent.

“Connor and Damon really let it loose,” Barr-Reeve coach JayR Perkins said. “Especially Connor. We’ve been holding him back, and it’s now time to race. We’re five weeks out from the semistate, and he busted the course record by 18 seconds.”

The Vikings are expecting to qualify through sectional and regional. They have hopes of making state as a team. Saturday’s performance was the first preview for that goal.

“We’re going to go at our place Tuesday (today), and we’ll train through that,” Perkins said. “We are going to have tired legs next week, but that’s OK. We’re going to train through the next few weeks, and then see what we can do.”

Washington also showed well, as the Hatchets came home sixth behind a 10th place finish from KC Heller.

While the Hatchets were sixth, they finished third in the field that will run in the South Knox Sectional behind Barr-Reeve and South Knox.

The Hatchets raced to the sixth-place despite missing Drew Brothers who missed the meet recovering from an injury

“I couldn’t be any happier with our top three (Logan Sipes placed 13th and Austin Gray was 24th),” Harman said. “If Drew had been there, he would have been right there with them. We still need to get a bit focused and look at conference and sectional. We’re wanting to get ready for both of those. I’m pretty excited about those races.”

Madison Decker missed the girls race with a nagging hip injury that Harman hopes heals in the weeks ahead.

“We need to rest her and go from there,” Harman said. “She has some scar tissue in her hip that doesn’t seem to be getting better. We don’t know how long she may miss. We’re going to have to see how the pain goes. I prefer her not to run through the pain.”

But Brandy White made a statement of her own for Washington, finishing fifth in the girls race.

“She has run really well this week,” Harman said. White is a first-year sophomore runner who came to the sport through track. “I think near the end she realized that she may have been able to do a bit better. She’s still learning in her first year. She’s doing very well.”

Perkins said before the season started that preparing for the upcoming state tournament was more important that weekly finishes.

“We’ve had a nice strong week, a tiring week for the kids,” Perkins said. “Their legs were a little tired, but that was OK. It’s part of our training cycle, and we’re very happy with our individuals and team.”

While Sorrells and Pruett are favored to finish in those same places at sectional, Perkins was also happy to see the finishes of Jarit Perkins in fifth, Martin Winkler in 26th, Stephen Lang in 65th and Jeremy Graber in 67th.

“Jarit grew up today and ran like an experienced runner.” Perkins said. “Martin ran well in number four, Stephen looked better — everyone ran well. As far as their confidence, it will be built off this race.”

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