SHELBYVILLE – Franklin County senior Lauren Kelley finished off a terrific cross country career Saturday morning at the Shelbyville semistate, run in chilly conditions at Blue River Memorial Park.

The Wildcat upperclassman was making her fourth consecutive trip around the park's semistate 5K course. It wasn't her highest finish or best time among the four appearances but nor was it the lowest.

As a freshman in the fall of 2017, Kelley turned in a 19:11.9 (42nd place overall) as the Lady Wildcats competed in the semistate round as a full team.

Her top finish individually came one year later, as she placed 39th in the girls race in a time of 19:30.4. As a junior in 2019, Kelley ran 79th with a 20:44 clocking.

This past weekend, the senior completed the course in 20:16.1 for an overall top-half finish of 73rd among 175 female finishers.

“Lauren has had a very successful high school career, winning many invitational and dual meets,” said her coach Stacey Nobbe.

The top 10 individuals who were not members of the six advancing teams were able to extend their season another week to race at the state finals in Terre Haute. This year's cutoff fell at the 21st position, where Pike's Jessica Velez ran 19:06.6. Annie Christie of winning Carmel took first place with a time of 17:59.8.

“With such a large field, Lauren was boxed in from the start, making it difficult for her to gain a competitive placement,” Nobbe explained. “Despite this, she ran a great race.”

Brenner Hanna of Greensburg will make a return trip to state after placing 14th (18:50). The other teams moving on are Franklin Central, Zionsville, North Central, Noblesville and Franklin Community. The Batesville girls were 12th.

Brebeuf Jesuit won the boys title, followed by Carmel, Noblesville, Center Grove, Guerin Catholic and Zionsville. Batesville's boys team ranked 13th. Senior Tyler Kuntz of Oldenburg Academy placed 76th (17:01.9). Carmel also had the individual winner in Kole Mathison (15:18.7).