Tuesday evening Greensburg hosted the county meet running against North and South Decatur. In the girls’ race, the Lady Pirates had six of the top seven finishers and won the meet with 15 pts. Greensburg’s Aly Powers and Tori Gauck pushed each other of the first 3 miles over the course. Aly edged her teammate by 1 second for her first career win in cross-country. Powers finished in a personal best time 23:02 while Gauck crossed the line in 23:03. That performance earned Tori all-county honors for the second year in a row. Junior Ally Foster ran another strong race as she broke the 24:00 barrier for the first time in 2022. Foster was third overall in the race lowering her personal record time of 23:35. Foster also was all-county for the third consecutive season.
Greensburg’s Hannah Crowell was fourth in the race and the fourth finisher for the Pirates. Crowell finished with a time of 23:48 as she earned all-county for the second time. Emma McQueen took 5th place overall. She lowered her best time ever to 24:04 and was all-county. Tiffani Gramman was 7th in the race running 24:50 to be all-county for the second year in a row. Sophomore Brooke Welsh continued her steady improvement throughout the 2022 season. She turned in her second consecutive personal best. Welsh broke 28 minutes for the first time and took 14th place in 27:33. Teammate Allison Kunze placed 16th in 27:59, her best time of the season.
The Pirates boys also ran well at home taking the top eight spots in the meet finishing with 15 pts. Junior Jake Hawkins led Greensburg to the victory. Hawkins lowered his personal best to 17:17 in winning his second straight county title. Joe Hawkins also ran his fastest time ever for 5000m. He took the runner up spot in 17:33. Zack Blodgett and TJ Gorman ran under 18:00 for the first time in their careers. Blodgett earned third place in 17:49 while Gorman took 4th in 17:54. Gorman’s performance earned all-county recognition for the second time. Junior Cameron Schwartz lowered his personal record to 18:07 and was 5th overall. Schwartz was all-county for the third year in a row.
Xavier Cassis led a pack of three Pirates to the finish line. Cassis placed 6th in 19:32 to garner all-county honors while teammates Chase Tekulve and Malakai Nicolaides broke 20:00 for the first time. Tekulve was all-county in 7th with a time of 19:34, and Nicolaides ran 19:40 for 8th place. Other finishers for the boys included Carson McCord 11th in 20:21, Tyler Dwenger 15th in 20:49, Vaughn Verzo 17th in 21:10, and Zach Niese 23rd in 22:47. The boys improved their record to 26-18 on the season. Both teams race again next week at the EIAC Cross-Country Championships at Batesville. The first race begins at 9:30 am on September 24th.
Troy Davis