Portage High School cross country is moving on to Semi-State. The boys and girls teams both placed in the top five schools at the Regionals meet on October 15, 2011, giving them the opportunity to advance in the state tournament.
The boys cross country team placed 5th with 114 points, allowing them to move on to Semi-State along with (1)Valparaiso 42, (2) LaPorte 81, (3) Chesterton 92, and (4) New Prairie 105.
Boys Varsity Times:
12 Best 16:43.4
20 Blackwell 17:03.9
24 Zmija 17:07.7
28 Balboa 17:16.4
39 Clegg 18:14.5
43 Hudson 18:19.5
46 Lamping 18:30.4
Anthony Best placed 12th in the top 15 making him All-Regional.
Coach Erickson said, "I'm glad we're moving on, but we still need to get some things right. We have some illnesses on the team and the key is to get healthy. Our goal is State. We want to get there and we want to compete there. We have a good team here and we want to compete there but we still have some work ahead of us."
The Portage High School girls cross country team took 2nd at Regionals ensuring them a spot on the roster at Semi-State. Three of the girls made All-Regional placing in the top 15. They are (6) Page Pizer, (7) Megan Cassidy and (11) Terra Norman.
Portage's team placed 2nd with 60 points. Moving on to Semi-State with Portage will be (1) Valparaiso 33, (3) Chesterton 72, (4) New Prairie and (5) Kankakee Valley 161.
Coach White was very pleased with the girls team saying, "I am pretty happy. It was a good team effort and one more step in the process toward our goal, State."
Girls Varsity Times:
6 Pizer 19:42.7
7 Cassidy 19:43.1
11 Norman 19:57.8
17 King 20:30.4
23 Crum 20:48.1
29 Trader 21:02.3
41 Escobedo 21:31.8
The Semi-State meet will once again be held at New Prairie. The meet will be held on October 22 with the boys race to start at 10:30 a.m. and the girls race to follow.