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September 26, 2012

Harman will know how he feels

By Gregg A. Sims Washington Times-Herald

WASHINGTON — Washington cross country coach Dave Harman admits he will not know how he feels until he knows how he feels.

That will likely come Saturday morning when the Hatchets begin preperations for the Big 8 Conference meet held at the University of Evansville course held near Warrenton and the Log Inn.

The Hatchets have not won the boys Big 8 Conference title in 20 years. That team was in the process of making a third trip to the semistate in the sport.

The Hatchets have a chance to celebrate that anniversary this Saturday. Whether they can, and will, may not be fully known until the morning of the race itself.

Washington has certainly turned in some good runs in the past few weeks. Washington has placed itself in a position where they could advance from the South Knox Sectional Oct. 9.

The Hatchets placed third among teams from the sectional field at South Knox in the Spartan Invitational two Saturdays ago, and repeated that performance at the Pike Central Invitational, the regional course, last Saturday

KC Heller has been running at the front of the Hatchet pack, but Logan Sipes and Austin Gray have been close behind.

Sipes has been an especially nice addition to the team after running track in past years.

The Hatchets have been able to beat their Big 8 competition this year in past meets. Certainly that is a positive.

But that’s where things get a bit complicated.

Drew Brothers is still recovering from summer knee surgery, and his presence is certainly preferred. He has run in recent meets, and finished in the top four for the Hatchets in the process.

But, he missed the Pike meet last Saturday, and is making a trip to his doctor this week to have the knee checked. Having Drew would make a conference championship easier, but it won’t be known if he can run until later.

Heller, who placed second last year at the Big 8, is also a bit sore after a post-race injury at Pride’s. He too is doing a bit of recovering as the week progresses.

Perhaps just as important is finding a good race from a fifth runner. Five runners score in cross country, and there has been a season-long competition between several athletes to fill that bill.

Harman hosts weekly competitions for the seven to run at the varsity level. That fifth spot has been filled by Dalton Short, Timber Shelton, Koty Hatton and Noah Frances as the season has progressed.

At the same time, the team knows that if Drew is healthy, Drew is in.

Steve Brothers, the father of Drew, coached the only boys team from Washington to win a conference. Greg Owens, Josh Thurston, Brian Holland, Shane Matthews, Tony Baumert, Ryan Miller and Nelson Griffin were contributors to that team.

Brothers would obviously like to see his son have a shot at repeating some school, and family, history.

“ I think if the guys are healthy, they have a good chance to pull it off,” Brothers said. “It would be really neat if they can. If they can go in healthy, they have a real good shot.”

“I would be ecstatic,” Harman said “I started thinking about this last year, and I’ve really tried to stress to the kids they have a good chance. Cross country is kind of funny. Sometimes the scores aren’t the same with seven teams as opposed to 20 or more. It will probably be Saturday morning when I first see the kids before I know how I’m feeling.”

 

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