By TIM CREASON
TERRE HAUTE – The emotion showed on Mia Beckham’s face, and for good reason.

The Warsaw sophomore had just run the race of her life, finishing 20th at Saturday’s state cross country finals in Terre Haute.

That would be good enough to earn a coveted IHSAA award medal. It also made her the third-highest placing female finisher in Warsaw’s cross country history.

Only former state champion Ashley Erba, and Erica Ridderman – who placed 18th in 2008 – ever finished higher at the state finals.

But at this moment, just a couple minutes after she crossed the finish line, it was still sinking in. The All-State recognition. The medal. Her personal best time of 18:32.3 on a windswept 5,000-meter course at Wabash Valley Sports Center.

How did this happen?

“I have no clue,” said Beckham, starting to shed tears as she realized what she had accomplished.

“I just wanted to finish the season well after everything that’s happened.  I just really decided to push it.”

How fast did she run? Over a minute faster than her teammates. Allison Miller was the next Tiger to reach the finish line, placing 100th in 19:36.4.

And to think that a week earlier, Beckham finished 40th at the New Prairie semistate.

“(Mia) had an excellent race plan and she executed it,” said Warsaw coach Scott Erba. “She pushed herself and gained ground at the end.

“We were talking ahead of time, and we felt if Mia could get to 18:40, that would be a great time,” he said. “18:32, that’s a fabulous time.”

As a team, Warsaw placed 12th out of 24 teams. Not what they were hoping for, but still the second-best state meet finish in Tiger girls cross country history.

The 2011 squad finished 11th.

First place, as expected, went to Carmel. In fact, the Greyhounds pulled off an historic double, claiming both the boys and girls team titles and the boys and girls individual champs.

Carmel placed four runners among the top 20 finishers at the girls meet and scored 70 points. Carroll (Fort Wayne) was second at 158.

Penn was eighth and Northridge 19th. Warsaw scored 328.

In the boys meet, Carmel scored 115, topping the 158 of Fishers. Westview took 17th and Northridge was 22nd.

“It was a whole lot better than last week,” said Erba, who saw his team inexplicably melt down at semistate. “It was refreshing to see that. We were still off a bit in some cases, but we had some girls run PR’s.

“Our big goal was to be in the top 10,” said Erba. “There will still be (some second guessing) but I feel good seeing the girls race the way they did. We bounced back from last week.”

All five of Warsaw’s scoring runners broke the 20-minute barrier, always a good sign.

Behind Miller, by just a step, came Emma Hayward, clocking 19:37.6 for 103rd place. Anna Craig was 113th in 19:46.1.

Hannah Dawson was 131st in 19:57.9 to wrap up the Tiger scoring.

“We had four seniors,” said Erba. “For them to wrap up their careers this way, it will be a good bus ride home.”

BOYS MOVE UP

Warsaw didn’t have a team in the boys meet, but Owen Glogovsky and Zeb Hernandez did what they were supposed to do.

Each finished among the top half of the field, running as individuals.

Glogovsky finished 37th in 16:05.3, while Hernandez was 52nd in 16:11.3.  As usual, they were in sight of each other throughout the race.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be in the Top 20, like I usually am, but I tried really hard,” said Hernandez, a freshman phenom. “I’m satisfied.”

IHSAA STATE CROSS COUNTRY FINALS
At Terre Haute

BOYS
TEAM SCORES: Carmel 115, Fishers 158, Westfield 210, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 212, West Lafayette 221, Hamilton Southeastern 226, Lake Central 233, Columbus North 241, Valparaiso 252, Lowell 258, Crown Point 283, LaPorte 294, Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran 303, Avon 356, Bloomington North 376, Pendleton Heights 387, Westview 403, Mt. Vernon (Fortville) 440, Indianapolis Brebeuf 446, Terre Haute South 450, Bloomington South 483, Northridge 458, Tell City 595, Silver Creek 615.

TOP 25 FINISHERS: 1, Ben Veatch (Carmel) 14:59.8. 2, Brayden Law (Homestead) 15:06.8. 3, Curt Eckstein (Oldenburg Academy) 15:07.5. 4, Christian Noble (Mt. Vernon-Fortville)  15:24.9. 5, Hariharan Sathyamurthy (Brownsburg) 15:28.2. 6, Cameron Clements (Carroll-FW) 15:29.4. 7, Tyler Keslin (Munster) 15:30.9. 8, Julien Magallanes (Borden) 15:31.9. 9, Gabe Fendel (Hamilton SE) 15:33.0. 10, Cooper Williams (W Lafayette) 15:33.3. 11, Bailey McIntire (South Adams) 15:34.6. 12, Cam Trout (Northview) 15:35.3. 13, David Ehlers (FW Concordia) 15:38.1. 14, Alec Hartman (Westfield) 15:40.1. 15, Evan Franklin (Bloomington South) 15:40.1. 16, Daniel Dalton (Valparaiso) 15:46.3. 17, Kameron Konopasek (Lake Central) 15:47.3. 18, Parker Jones (Pendleton Heights) 15:47.4. 19, Aaron Rush (Mt. Vernon-Fortville) 15:47.7. 20, Evan Johnson (W Lafayette) 15:49.5. 21, Noah Steffen (FW Concordia) 15:50.3. 22, Ryan Kepshire (Crown Pt.) 15:50.8. 23, Hunter Boyer (Lowell) 15:54.9. 24, Aaron Bennett (Westfield) 15:56.8. 25, Ben Miller (Carmel) 15:57.0.

WARSAW FINISHERS: 37, Owen Glogovsky 16:05.3 … 52, Zeb Hernandez 16:11.3.

NORTHRIDGE FINISHERS: 101, Conner Sandt 16:35.9 … 135, Hunter Moore 16:52.2 … 139, Mitchell Schrock 16:56.7 … 171, Logan Riffell 17:19.2 … 179, Blake Mawhorter 17:26.2 … 180, Austin Clark 17:27.2 … 182, Jaimeson King 17:31.2.

MISHAWAKA FINISHER: 119, Colin Richardson 16:44.2.

WESTVIEW FINISHERS: 38, Richmond Stoltzfus 16:06.0 … 48, Matthew Yoder 16:10.3 … 131, Derek Miller 16:50.3 … 143, Kent Yoder 16:58.9 … 184, Spencer Shank 17:34.1 … 189, Abe Jones 17:39.7 … 200, Carson Eash 18:03.5.

ROCHESTER FINISHER: 28, Wesley Meyer 15:59.0.

GIRLS
TEAM SCORES: Carmel 70, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 158, Columbus North 170, Indianapolis Cathedral 203, Zionsville 205, Lake Central 227, LaPorte 227 (6th runner-tiebreaker), Penn 237, Homestead 256, Hamilton Southeastern 300, Pendleton Heights 307, Warsaw 328, Seymour 342, Valparaiso 355, Noblesville 373, West Lafayette 377, Bloomington North 411, Bloomington South 419, Northridge 423, Fishers 426, Terre Haute North 469, Floyd Central 484, Huntington North 498, Portage 507.

TOP 25 FINISHERS: 1, Sarah Leinheiser (Carmel) 17:30.8. 2, Katherine Free (Indianapolis Cathedral) 17:52.5. 3, Lauren Johnson (W Lafayette) 18:05.0. 4, Madison Fruchey (Carroll-FW) 18:05.7. 5, Stacy Morozov (Carmel) 18:11.0. 6, Sophia Rigg (Zionsville) 18:11.7. 7, Logan Ferngren (Valparaiso) 18:15.6. 8, Emma Wilson (Greencastle) 18:16.1. 9, Taylor Nicholson (Avon) 18:18.9. 10, Hannah Wylie (Crown Pt.) 18:19.8. 11, Rachel Brougher (Columbus North) 18:20.8. 12, Josey Korte (Angola) 18:21.1. 13, Bailey Beery (Bellmont) 18:22.2. 14, Tyler Schwartz (DeKalb) 18:22.5. 15, Christina Geisler (Carmel) 18:26.5. 16, Grace Williams (Bloomington North) 18:27.3. 17, Maddie Dalton (Carmel) 18:28.3. 18, Abigail Green (Carroll-FW) 18:28.5. 19, Abigail Little (Noblesville) 18:29.7. 20, Mia Beckham (Warsaw) 18:32.3. 21, Alexandra Dalton (Greenwood Christian Academy) 18:35.6. 22, Alli Workman (Bloomfield) 18:36.6. 23, Kassidy Manning (Floyd Central) 18:38.1. 24, Kristen Johnson (West Lafayette) 18:38.9. 25, Shayla Traas (Franklin Central) 18:45.8.

WARSAW FINISHERS: 20, Mia Beckham 18:32.3 … 100, Allison Miller 19:36.4 … 103, Emma Hayward 19:37.6 … 113, Anna Craig 19:46.1 … 131, Hannah Dawson 19:57.9 … 168, Brooke Rhodes 20:25.7 … 194, Claire Kehler 20:54.4.

MISHAWAKA FINISHER: 44, Jessica Duvall 19:07.5.

NORTHRIDGE FINISHERS: 62, Morgan Blyly 19:15.2 … 110, Mariah King 19:40.8 … 118, Mackenzie Adams 19:51.3 … 129, Jenna Miller 19:56.9 … 172, McKenzie Love 20:30.6 … 177, Molly Campbell (Soph.) 20:36.1 … 183, Molly Campbell (Sr.) 20:42.3.

BETHANY CHRISTIAN FINISHER: 120, Hannah Yeakey 19:51.7.

PENN FINISHERS: 29, Emma Jankowski 18:50.6 … 41, Lauren Frank 19:04.2 … 75, Ellie Jankowski 19:22.1 … 95, Lorena Daugherty 19:32.4 … 112, Sybil Kurian 19:44.2 … 196, Hannah Selis 21:01.2 … 203, Danielle Frank 21:19.8.