Rachel Luce and Tippecanoe Valley raced among the Three Rivers Conference Cross Country Championships Saturday morning in North Manchester. (File photo by James Costello)

Tippecanoe Valley and Triton hit the trails Saturday in their respective cross country championships. Valley competed in the Three Rivers Conference Championships in North Manchester while Triton laced up at the Hoosier North Athletic Conference meet in Winamac.

VIKINGS FIND MIDDLE GROUND AT TRCs

Valley had a pair of top 25 runs, but fell to sixth place in the team standings without another runner in the top 50. Matthew Howes came in sixth (17:19) and Mitchell Smith was 23rd (18:28), but a drop down to 52nd was Chase Miller (19:28), Jace Holloway in 87th (19:56) and Evan Myers in 131st (21:16) gave Valley 131 points. Braden Sweet of Southwood won the boys race with a sizzling time of 16:11, way ahead of Wabash’s Dereck Vogel’s 16:42. Wabash had all five of its scorers land in the top 12 to score 38 points to steer well clear of Rochester’s 73 points and Manchester’s 74 points.

Valley struggled to keep pace with the leaders in the girls race despite a fourth place team finish. Valeria Jimenez took 18th at 23:01, but the times staggered from there with Maria Henderson 39th (25:13), Ava Craig 61st (25:25), Marissa McLean 86th (28:27) and Hannah Lowman 112th (30:07). Rochester won the girls team title, scoring 29 team points led by Mallory Hiatt’s championship run of 19:33 and Madilyn Calloway’s runner-up 19:34.

In junior high action, Ayla Cashdollar of Manchester squeaked out a title in the girls race with a time of 11:21, pulling away from Valley’s Chesnee Miller and her 11:26. Eli Sterk had the top time for Valley’s boys with a 12:37, taking 38th overall. Valley’s girls were third and boys eighth in the team standings.

TROJANS FALL BACK AT HNACs

Triton wasn’t able to make many moves at the Hoosier North Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships. The Trojan boys were fourth out of seven teams while the girls were fifth of five in their grid in races run Saturday morning at Winamac’s Town Park.

Triton would land three of its runners among the top 10, Annie Hill taking sixth in the girls race with a time of 22:34 and Rusty Reichard with the same place in the boys race, clocking 17:50. Brandon Kitch added a ninth-place run for the Triton boys at 18:13. Rounding out Triton’s boys, which scored 79 points to finish behind Knox’s 67 points in the standings, were Tyler Gladieux in 18th (18:56), Ty Ferry in 19th (19:07) and Cory Hill in 27th (20:27).

Winamac, with champion Ryan Huggler (16:30) and both Carson Bennett and Kolbey Wegner in the top five, cruised to the title with 30 points. Caston was runner-up with 63 points to edge Knox.

For the Lady Trojans, Makenna May was 18th (23:47), Valerie Eib was 22nd (24:06) and Tiffaney Hughes was 32nd (26:19). Triton scored 100 points for the meet.

Caston scored 45 points to edge out North Judson’s 50 points and Winamac’s 52 points. Knox was fourth at 93 points. Kate Collins of Winamac was the overall girls champion with a time of 20:09, well ahead of runner-up Aubrey Dague of Caston’s 21:36.

In junior high action, Jayden Heckaman led Triton with a fifth-place run of 11:21 and Rilee Bemish paced the Lady Trojans with a time of 13:22 to take ninth. Triton’s boys were fourth and girls second in the team standings.

GRACE COMPETES AT MASSIVE LOUISVILLE INVITE

Grace’s cross country team ran at the massive Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday.

Both of the men’s and women’s races had more than 50 teams competing. The women placed 37th out of 62 teams, and the men were 34th out of 57.

Heather Plastow ran a strong race to lead the Lady Lancers. She posted a time of 19:14 to place 58th out of 533 runners.

Jessica Zvers was second for Grace with a time of 20:09, and Elizabeth Moore crossed the finish line in 20:51. Suzanne Sickafoose was right behind Moore at 20:56, and Weslea Arthur ended seven seconds later at 21:03. Rebekah Rexroth was Grace’s sixth finisher at 21:48.

In the men’s race, two Lancers finished in the top 100. Bryan Hernandez-Rios produced a time of 26:08 (84th place), and Ben Rankin placed 100th out of 515 runners at 26:19.

Isaac Beatty (26:56) and Dimitri Margaritidis (27:02) kept a tight pairing, as did Logan Rufenacht (27:40) and Alex Brummett (27:41). John Marhefka’s 27:51 and Jonathan Balda’s 28:03 were next in line, and Dakota Thompson (29:00) rounded out the team’s finishers.

“We had a lot of fun against great competition on an extremely fast course. This is the largest meet that both teams will compete in this season, so it’s a unique challenge to work on how to race in a competitive field like this,” said Grace head coach Jake Poyner. “Lots of personal bests, new confidence and some great performances across the board. We’re looking forward to seeing the conference course this Friday, and I know they are hungry for more.”

To see complete race results, click here.

The Lancers continue the season on Friday with the Bethel Invitational.

LAKEVIEW AMONG STATE MEET

Lakeview was among the competition at the middle school state meet. Running for Lakeview were Joey Rastrelli, Tyler Mimnaugh and Gavin Hayes. Rastrelli placed eighth in the big school race with a time of 11:21, a personal best. Overall, Rastrelli was 16th overall on a list of over 1,000 runners. Mimnaugh was 99th at 11:12 and Hayes ran a 13:01.