Eight teams showed up for the Lake Porter Middle School Cross Country Meet held at Woodland Park tonight. Competing were host teams Portage Willowcreek and Fegley, along with Crown Point’s duo of Colonel Wheeler and Taft; from Valpo, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, and rounding out the roster were the Hobart Brickies and Chesterton Trojans.
The sixth grade race started off the event with the girls going first. Coming in first in that race was Ali Ball from Willowcreek with a time of 7.32.81, followed closely by Taft’s Zoie Retting in at 7.33.03 and rounding out the top three was Kristyn Hoffman from Ben Franklin at 7.49.20 Top three teams were Ben Franklin followed by Willowcreek and Crown Point.
The sixth grade boys were next to come up to the starting line. Noah Beller of Thomas Jefferson was first to cross the finish line with a time of 7.13.63. Noah said, “I felt good running today.” Mikey Pinchak from Colonel Wheeler was second and third in for the boys was Kyle Devries from Colonel Wheeler as well. 1st place honors in the team scoring went to Colonel Wheeler followed by Thomas Jefferson and Crown Point Taft.
The seventh grade races were next on the agenda starting off with the girls. Taking first place honors was Kylie Ireland from Thomas Jefferson with a time of 7.41.91 followed by Christina Shaginaw from the Hobart Brickies in at 7.42.36 and Emma Fitzgerald of Ben Franklin rounding out the top three. Top three in the team scoring went to Thomas Jefferson followed by Crown Point Taft and Hobart rounded out the top three.
The boys seventh graders were a tough crew with Matthew Hanlon finishing in first for Crown Point Taft with a time of 6.40.00. Second was Logan Slaven from Colonel Wheeler and third place honors went to Evan Cavanaugh. Colonel Wheeler took first place team honors with Thomas Jefferson in second and Willowcreek taking third.
Finally, the eighth grade racers showed up to the start, with the girls going first. The finish line was crossed by Elena Kipp from Ben Franklin, in at 11.24.83. Second place went to Hannah Wylie of Taft and third place went to Logan Ferngren of Ben Franklin.
The meet came to a close with the eighth grade boys running strong. Carlos Martinez came across the finish line first with a time of 10.05.18 followed by Chesterton runners Jakob Kinzel in second and Andrew Smenyak in third. Ben Franklin took first place honors with Chesterton coming in second and Taft taking third.
The meet concluded just as the sun started heading down and some happy runners were chattering about their final meet on the way to their buses.
Click here to view more photos from the meet.